The official "I got my Leaf" thread

[thepoloman33]

My SL-e Leaf arrived July 2nd! I picked it up yesterday at Premier Nissan in San Jose. I had a great experience there. My sales rep, Wilson, was very helpful. He went above and beyond to make sure I was comfortable with the car. I was told that use of their charger was available to all Leafers any time.

Next up:
-Blink install (home assessment Tues)
-CA HOV stickers application
-CA rebate application

Cheers,

-Matt

 

[jwatte]

My brilliant silver SL showed up on June 23 at Boardwalk Nissan (Redwood City). I was about to get on the train with my bike in the morning when they called, so I aborted and went straight there -- which confused them, as I was quicker than they had expected By lunch, it was mine, all mine! $10k cash, $27k at 1.99% through San Mateo Credit Union. I think that's the lowest interest rate I've paid for anything, anytime! I missed the $5k rebate by a week; am filing paperwork for the $2.5k for the fall.

Driving for a week, it's been very nice; I love the quiet ride, and the Bluetooth integration with the phone and the podcast player in my Android phone works very well. A few things I wish were different:
- The opener for the lid covering the charging port is a bit annoying, but I've gotten into the habit of pulling it each time I exit.
- It needs daytime running lights. Really. They save lives! What is this -- 1970?
- If I turn the lights on as a work-around, then turn off the car, it alarms, rather than just turning off the lights.
- "Stopping" a navigation route really just "pauses" it, and sometimes, it seems to get randomly un-paused, talking about some place in another city.
- I wish I could get notifications about charging stopped to my phone only daytime -- not at 4am...

I use a L2 at home, and on days that I have to go further, I can plug into a trickle outlet at work. So far, this works fine. Don't know what my license plate is yet, so can't apply for the stickers.

Also, good news: The vehicle retirement program that buys back any vehicle for $1k is back in California as of July 1! For a while they only bought cars that failed smog (my 1995 VW has always passed!) but now I can retire it, dents and all, with no muss or fuss.

 

[Amary]

Picked up our Leaf from Rairdon's in Auburn on Tuesday.
Excellent car, I will NEVER be going back to that dealership again.

What happened? Who is the LEAF sales person now? I heard Todd Fee was fired. I wonder what he did.

Todd Fee was not fired. He's still at Rairdon's. I confirmed this with him personally. I think the poster who wrote that had him confused with Greg Leach.

I concur with TurboFroggy.

 

[solardude]

Picked up my LEAF today!! I drove 65.5 miles from the dealer (Tonkin, Wilsonville OR), almost entirely freeway, to home and had reportedly 31 miles range remaining. I followed some slower moving trucks on I-5 South, most of the way, averaging about 60 mph. put AC about 1/2 the trip, as it had reached the low 80's outside. i am absolutely impressed with the car. Carwings says i averaged 5.2 miles per kwh, which doesn't jive with the mileage numbers.

i had planned on buying the car outright, but the plans changed. i don't have a large enough tax liability to claim the $7500 fed credit. i was informed that it's either the $7500 or nothing. i had erroneously thought you could claim any liability up to the $7500. I was able to set up a lease, which enabled me to apply the $7500 as a down payment. i actually drove away without paying a dime! i will pay the next three months payments (Aug, Sept, Oct) then pay off the entire balance in November. While i won't realize the entire $7500, due to interest and fees, I will realize more than i expected and i don't have to worry about any federal tax forms. nice!

in summary; Yahoo!!

 

[MsLusty]

After months of wailing and gnashing of teeth I picked up my Ocean Blue SL with QC at Boardwalk Nissan today. The car actually arrived last thursday but we were headed out of town for the holiday weekend, and delivery had to wait until today.

There was a momentary snafu with the Carwings login when the car claimed it couldn't communicate with the server to log me in. After a call to Nissan we thought I was going to have to return to the dealership tomorrow for attention from a technician flying in from Japan. The problem magically resolved itself when we attempted to update the charging stations list (thinking it wouldn't work). But it worked so we tried the carwings login again and it worked!

 

[LEAFer]

... i have a large enough tax liability to claim the $7500 fed credit. i was informed that it's either the $7500 or nothing. i had erroneously thought you could claim any liability up to the $7500.

You were (are) right; they are "wrong" :roll: and just out for some profit from the lease deal. :idea:

Anyway ... it depends on the exact numbers, but if you aren't close to $7,500 tax liability then what you did is the way to go !

 

[rdhauser]

Another LEAF in Olympia, Wa! We picked up our car on Tuesday (7/5) from Olympia Nissan. Sales staff (Mike Abbott) couldn’t have been more helpful. We arrived at 10 and left about noon. We had to turn down the extended warranty and the lease options a couple of times, once with Mike and again with the “Finance” officer, but all in all I thought it was a painless transaction.

The first big hurdle was to see if we had a little more room to get into our garage since it’s a really old one (read small). The wife thinks the LEAF is just about the same width (with mirrors) as the Honda Civic Hybrid that we traded in on it. Just for giggles, here is a link to a 30 sec You Tube of her backing out of the Garage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYmEpkE1jHg


We decided to buy some floor mats which we’ll pick up in a week or so.

 

[GoSolar]

Picked up my Blue Ocean SL-e at Campbell Nelson Nissan (Edmonds, WA) on Tuesday, July 5th. Range listed as 106 miles. On Wednesday I drove it 44 miles around Seattle (total of 50 miles on car since charging) with 52 miles remaining. Charged it to 100% at a cost of $0.64. Made me a super happy camper! Our Outback gets about 22 mpg so at $3.50/gal that same trip would have cost $7.00 in her car.

Had a tourist stop in the middle of the crosswalk and just stare at the car even after the light changed. I rolled down the window and said "Yes, it IS electric." He smiled and gave a thumbs up and then trotted out of the way. Loved the expression on his face.

 

[ColumbiaRiverGorge]

Maiden voyage, 80 miles. I picked up my LEAF from Gladstone Nissan last night, set cc @ 55 mph, about 75 degrees out, no climate control, very little eco, went through the Columbia Gorge, up 800 feet @ the end of my trip to make it home, near the North side of Mt. Hood. I did about 6 miles @ 40 mph. Arrived home with 4 miles range left. This car is going to be the best

 

[eHelmholtz]

Did you get the same terms as your original order? If so, then you have a very cool dealer.

I did, and I do. Ray's active on these forums, and the fact that no one on here or on the local LEAF Facebook group who had done business with him had anything but praise figured strongly into my dealer choice.

Wow - that's awesome! If only my dealer here in San Diego would do that for me.

 

[Packet]

At dinner tonight, I pulled in right next to a Volt that was about to leave. They pulled back into their space and asked about the car (and I asked about theirs in return).

 

[takoyaki]

Finally, finally got my leaf yesterday! It was actually there by end of June right after I went out of town on vacation, but of course I was going to wait for the lower CA sales tax anyways so it was cool.

Drove 70 miles from North Bay Nissan to Fremont with plenty of miles left (13).

Looks like Blink unit charging is working ok too.

Fell asleep on the couch going through the manuals...

 

[stanley]

Takoyaki, congrats!!! You had to wait a long time for your delivery but you probably realize by now that it was worth the wait.

 

[takoyaki]

Takoyaki, congrats!!! You had to wait a long time for your delivery but you probably realize by now that it was worth the wait.

Yup! I still only drove back from the dealer yesterday and only made local errands this afternoon, so for me it's slowly sinking in perhaps because I had read too much about in on this forum. I guess my expectation was set high already so didn't have too much of a 'surprise'. However getting to and from work with the car tomorrow should make me appreciate the car even more.

 

[gkalexdc]

Well, I got my Leaf here in Houston Memorial Day wkend. What a learning curve !! I have a 24 mile one way trip to my office. At the office, I have installed a 240 V 20 Amp service that I can plug my trickle charger modified by Ingineer. That ESVE upgrade works wonderfully. I use AC all the time since it is about a thousand degrees here in Houston, and I have to drive part way on the 610 Loop and Interstate 45. I charge at 80 %. Since the second I owned the car, I use ECO.... so I am way used to that. When I get to work, I have about 66 miles left, and depending on the day, use 3 or sometimes 4 "Bars". If I want to play it safe, I have two options. One, Charge at work, and take the interstates back, or TWO, Watch my speed, and take the interstate back, ( not going over 3 balls on acceleration etc.) So, The LEaf works. And I have become a veteran LEaf Driver as of 7/16/2011. The most drained was a trip to the airport, then to pick up the dog I left with friends, ( near the office) and back home. WHEW !! I had one bar and 10 miles left. So... THAT experience was a good one too. Hope all love their LEAFs and enjoy !!

 

[Dave777]

Got my Leaf 3 weeks ago. I am getting used to the projected verses actual range. My commute is 70 miles round trip over a mountain so I get home with about 12-15% left on the battery pack. I am getting about an 85 mile real world range. The coolest thing about the car - REGEN. I am amazed home much energy can be made by drifting or coming down the mountain. I drive in ECO mode because of my commute however it is fun to know I can put it in full power and leave the gas cars in the dust. I passed an old gas station yesterday and noted the price, than I realized I didn't use gas anymore! I was in a store and saw motor oil on the shelf and thought yuck, how dirty. My only complaint is the rear view mirror auto tilt and poor car stereo speakers. Other that that, what can I say. I LOVE IT! I have 60 solar panels for a total of 8.3Kw which is calculated to cover my house and car commute. So far, the numbers look as projected. How cool is that! Next is to buy a used Prius to replace our aging Corolla and maybe add a latger battery pack for an all electric 40 mile range for the wife. Oh, and than 15 more solar panels. Is this crazy? It feels good to be driving what will become the future. I expect in 6 years (when my battery pack wears out) I will have a choice of a larger capacity unit so I won't be so close on my daily usage.

 

[solanaleaf]

I got my LEAF! ...today. Love it!

 

[TNleaf]

Got my Silver SL-e LEAF a week ago today. Have only put almost 350 miles on it and I love it all the way!

I posted my day of pick-up and first day experience here if anyone is interested.

So far, it has met my expectations and exceeded them. The LEAF has generated tons of questions from co-workers and I've given about 20 test drives in the past week. Every person was impressed and having my LEAF may have been the final push needed to urge a friend into reserving/purchasing one.

I've averaged 4.5 miles/kWh so far (from the car... 5.6 in carwings) using the AC 100% of the time in this 95-100 degree humid heat. I've been able to use 3 public charging stations. The only problem I've had ended up being a user error (ID 10 T :lol: ) which I thought at first was a bad charging station.

So to sum it up: I love this car! :mrgreen:

 

[kevintari]

Count me in as the 1,000th new owner in this thread!

It's been just 48 hours and already i LOOOOOOVE this car. I gave up a BMW 550 for this and i'm WAY more excited about driving this car every day than I was the Beemer.

 

[JJnHAWAII]

I picked up my new Blue SL on Friday. - All I can say is it is even better than I imagined. The car is great !!

Only complaint is the cloth interior on the doors. After having my windows tinted this weekend there was already smudges, but was easily taken car of with resolve. What were they thinking when they put cloth on the doors?? I would like a molded plastic piece to cover that section of the doors then problem would be solved. Nissan are you listening ??

JJ in Hawaii....