Why Did You Choose the Nissan Leaf over the Chevy Volt?

[surfingslovak]

Interesting discussion. I don't mean to hijack it, but I saw this for-sale sign on one of the Leafs last Sunday. It was attention-grabbing, to say the least.


Click to enlarge

 

[hill]

Here's a good article regarding the Volt, versus Leaf (or Prius):

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1073612_why-i-bought-a-prius-plug-in-not-a-volt-or-leaf-a-readers-choice" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

YMMV

.

 

[Roadburner440]

Interesting discussion. I don't mean to hijack it, but I saw this for-sale sign on one of the Leafs last Sunday. It was attention-grabbing, to say the least.


Click to enlarge

Why do I see so many Leaf's come up for sale with between 1500-10000 miles on them? It seems like to good of a car for people to put that many miles on, and then all of a sudden decide to sell. Funny sign though.

 

[davewill]

... Why do I see so many Leaf's come up for sale with between 1500-10000 miles on them? ...

Because there are hardly any LEAFs with more miles than that on them, and the people who put more miles on are probably happy with their cars.

 

[TNleaf]

... Why do I see so many Leaf's come up for sale with between 1500-10000 miles on them? ...

Because there are hardly any LEAFs with more miles than that on them, and the people who put more miles on are probably happy with their cars.

I've seen several that were dealer DEMOs being sold.

 

[smkettner]

... Why do I see so many Leaf's come up for sale with between 1500-10000 miles on them? ...

Because there are hardly any LEAFs with more miles than that on them, and the people who put more miles on are probably happy with their cars.

How does the first year turn over compare to other vehicles?

 

[EvansvilleLeaf]

Well we don't just have to look at same year but same sales level. Leaf and Volt are very close in both, but they both have the same issues with new technology, so it would be easy to say that turnover rates are "EV" related not model related.

Best comparison I could think of is the Honda CR-Z, another lowish mass market seller new model launched in late 2010 but with established hybrid technology.

Autotrader searches for all used offerings of each model nationwide are:

Leaf 30
Volt 62
CR-Z 385

 

[Roadburner440]

swapalease.com and ebay are ones I watch as well.. It just seems strange to me that many of these cars (CR-Z, Volt, Leaf) come up for sale when you would think the people that buy them know what they are getting into. For me the CR-Z is one of those fringe cars kind of like the Kia/Hyundai hybrids that is just a waste of money. I saw one at Costco the other day for $22,000 and it got 34mpg city. My father in laws Cruze gets 31-33mpg for less money. In my mind the Volt and Leaf are cars that actually work, and do what they are supposed to. So is just why I wonder sometimes what is motivating people to sell like that.

 

[davewill]

... It just seems strange to me that many of these cars (CR-Z, Volt, Leaf) come up for sale ...

Seems obvious to me that the Volt and LEAF DON'T come up for sale "often". You're just noticing the few that are because you're interested in them.

 

[lampcord]

I was a big Volt guy till the price and performance numbers came out.

Price too high.
Only 35 miles on a charge.
Only 35 mpg on range extender.
The whole Government Motors thing.
The Gov coverup about the battery fires (what else are they hiding).
And the Leaf's range seems good enough for me with a second family car for longer trips.

I did notice however that the price seems to have dropped. Chevy.com shows the MSRP at $39999 which puts it only about $5k more than the cheaper Leaf (which is a fair comparison as they both don't have rear camera).

 

[Roadburner440]

The Gov coverup about the battery fires (what else are they hiding).

I will address this issue seeing as I just finished reading the full 135 page report with photos the other day. You can see and read said report for yourself here:
http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nvs/pdf/Final_Reports.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; .

I will summarize it for you, but you can come to your own conclusion from reading the report. If you get in to a side impact collision (driver or passenger side) with a pole and you happen to hit it on the stiffener under the floor, and then you subsequently roll the car over then yes you will damage the battery and possibly have a fire. You will have anywhere from 6 days to 4 weeks after hitting said pole and rolling the vehicle to get out of the car. Considering they took the batteries out of the Volt, and purposefully rammed them/punched holes in them I feel pretty safe in the Volt. The problem in the Volt fires always involves rolling the car, and exposing the electronics on top of the battery to engine coolant. With the center tunnel reinforcement the stiffeners punching holes in the battery will no longer be an issue. Considering all the information in the report I think the Volt did pretty well. For anyone involved in the RC world and lithium batteries knows how dangerous they are. I lost a Traxxas Slash 4X4 after ramming a pole with a soft pack Lithium Polymer battery and that sucker went up in flames within minutes (and it was quite a spectacular show I might add).

So GM and LG did their homework designing these batteries. I will get off my soap box, but there was no cover up. All the photos are there, and all the tests are there. I think anyone that reads the report will come to at least the similar conclusion I did. There have been no fires in total loss accidents of Volt's in real life. The fire at the NHTSA directly involved the side impact collision, that stiffener piercing the battery, and then them performing the 360 degree roll over test on the car. The rest of your points however I will concede. I have personally seen mileage as low as 20mpg BUT that was with the engine coming on to bridge 1 or 2 miles to get home (not allowing it to warm up). Normally in regular driving with the engine though it easily gets 40-42mpg.