I would be happy if nissan wasn't keeping us in the dark

That's great Charlie. I am sure the LEAFs are being delayed to customers in Japan as well!? I would love to hear from Nissan personally. I received a call from Nissan corporate end of November and he said that I would have an update on my LEAF by now, of course I have had no responses or updates since then.

I am not sure why my Leaf order has been delayed, and I am really not sure where in the "production process" my Leaf order , placed on 31 August and confirmed on that day, is, but here is how the feedback looks for my order of the new Volt"

08/05/2010 - (1100) Order Placed at Dealership Order passed GM edit tables but dealers has not received allocation to place order
08/05/2010 - (1102) Order Entered via Web
08/23/2010 - (2030) Order edited or modified
09/20/2010 - (2030) Order edited or modified
09/24/2010 - (2030) Order edited or modified
10/19/2010 - (2030) Order edited or modified
11/11/2010 - (2000) Order Accepted by GM Dealer used allocation to place order into production
11/16/2010 - (2500) Order Preferenced Order pulled to the production system
11/16/2010 - (3000) Order accepted by production control. Parts being ordered and production process is underway.
11/30/2010 - (3100) Order available to sequence.
11/30/2010 - (3300) Order Scheduled for Production Order is scheduled into the plant build cycle
11/30/2010 - (1102) Order Entered via Web
11/30/2010 - (3400) Order Broadcast (Internal Plant Paperwork Order Produced) Order is sent to various build & supplier areas to bring order together
12/21/2010 - (3800) Order produced and vehicle is being prepared for shipping. (Cadillac, GMC and Buick customers please contact your dealer or customer service for further updates. No further updates available at this time.)

GM has a portal where orders can be tracked as they move through the production AND delivery process. Apparently Volt buyers can even track the delivery shipping of their cars via either truck or rail carrier from the plant to the dealer...

How does THIS compare to how Nissan is handling our orders once they get them? Clearly I must acknowledge ordering the Leaf was a MUCH, MUCH easier and more civilized process than trying to find a Chevy dealer who would even take an order...and then take one even at MSRP. But once I did find a working relationship with a nongouging dealer...the Volt delivery process has been massively more transparent than what I am experiencing with the Leaf.

GeorgeParrott said:

...the Volt delivery process has been massively more transparent than what I am experiencing with the Leaf.

Click to expand...

The basic difference is - Volt dashboard is directly connected (getting feeds from?) their manufacturing system. With Leaf they are two entirely different systems.

evnow said:

GeorgeParrott said:

...the Volt delivery process has been massively more transparent than what I am experiencing with the Leaf.

Click to expand...

The basic difference is - Volt dashboard is directly connected (getting feeds from?) their manufacturing system. With Leaf they are two entirely different systems.

Click to expand...

Why?

The Leaf will not arrive a day early or a day late for not broadcasting every nit picky step of production, processing and delivery.
Keep the faith, no worries.

palmermd said:

Why?

Click to expand...

Probably because Leaf is not manufactured here.

BTW, OP after making this thread hasn't posted a single word. In other forums this would be taken as a flame bait.

Likely New-GM is using the same ordering system that GM used before they "cut loose" many of their dealers and their stockholders.

Nissan is scrambling to invent a new system, and it appears to me that they happened to get in bed with incompetents.

So, give them a year or so to fix it, and improve on it.

I believe that Nissan is most likely MORE frustrated over the situation than we are.

Likely New-GM is using the same ordering system that GM used before they "cut loose" many of their dealers and their stockholders.

Nissan is scrambling to invent a new system, and it appears to me that they happened to get in bed with incompetents.

So, give them a year or so to fix it, and improve on it.

I believe that Nissan is most likely MORE frustrated over the situation than we are.

I'm not cutting Nissan that much slack. I believe they have the information, and they know exactly what orders are accepted, where they are in scheduling/production/transportation. They couldn't run a car manufacturing business otherwise.

It's clearly in their interest to keep this information private, while GM sees it as advantageous to make the information available to customers.

I don't believe Nissan (as a company) is so incompetent in the IT area that they can't possibly know where everyone's car is. They can, and they do, they just aren't giving that info to customers (or dealers). I won't speculate as to why, because I don't know at all.

Last, to those who say "STFU and wait for your car", yeah, nobody is saying information would get it here sooner.
Some people need to plan around a new car delivery. The information has real value, beyond curiosity. To them, the GM approach is superior, and Nissan's is frustrating. You aren't going to convince them that Nissan has a better system, because they don't.

Me, just curious -- I have a car to drive in the meantime and nothing material to plan.

evnow said:

BTW, OP after making this thread hasn't posted a single word. In other forums this would be taken as a flame bait.

Click to expand...

Bait worked, we bit down hard and have not let go.

JPC2822 said:

That's great Charlie. I am sure the LEAFs are being delayed to customers in Japan as well!? I would love to hear from Nissan personally. I received a call from Nissan corporate end of November and he said that I would have an update on my LEAF by now, of course I have had no responses or updates since then.

Click to expand...

My speculation related to the overall production schedule and allocation by market, not individual orders. And yes, Nissan could send more of the small initial product to Japan than to USA - why not? They are a Japanese company, and there seems to be more support for EVs there than here. Compare some of the glowing statements by Japanese local Government officials on the Japanese LEAF deliveries thread with the Fox news "interview" of gudy.

As far as individual orders go, years ago when I ordered cars because the dealer didn't have what I wanted on the lot, I was told "it will be here in 3-4 months, we'll call when it gets delivered." In fact, even now when I have to order any retail product because the local dealer is out of stock, it works the same way. So I don't see any real difference with what is going on with Nissan. It's just that expectations have been raised by information fields on the Leaf web site dashboard that turn out to be meaningless. If you want to criticize Nissan for contracting out the Web site to incompetents, then I'm right there with you. The Web site is a major embarrassment to Nissan, and they don't seem to be able to get it fixed.

And folks have reported that the GM-volt web information is much better, and I say, great job GM! But that wouldn't be a reason why I would buy a volt vs a Leaf. They are two very different cars that address different needs.

But in the end, the volt buyers aren't going to get their cars sooner, nor are the Leaf buyers going to get their cars later, because of the "communication gap".

When I factory ordered my BMW they had a similar system in place with even more details. I could also track my car as it was being built via webcams at the factory. They even gave me a link so I could track the ship it was on. Very cool!
There is no reason why Nissan could not do the same but perhaps so few Nissans are custom ordered that they have never felt the need to put such a system in place.

GeorgeParrott said:

I am not sure why my Leaf order has been delayed, and I am really not sure where in the "production process" my Leaf order , placed on 31 August and confirmed on that day, is, but here is how the feedback looks for my order of the new Volt"

Click to expand...

On December 26th, 2010, I sent an email inquiry to the local Bill Rapp Nissan dealer inquiring as to why they were still not Leaf certified as I'd like to be able to order my Leaf from them. Here, in part was there response: "These vehicles are not expected to start hitting the dealer lots for another 18 months so you will have plenty of time to reserve and order yours."

So, at least according to this dealership, we in the forgotten 36 states won't be able to get our Leafs until summer 2012.

I sincerely hope they're wrong.

Follow up: When ordering opened up for me on September 28th, I wanted to consider Bill Rapp. I had even communicated with them that week about pricing etc. However, they were still not Leaf certified, so I couldn't even order from them if I wanted to. They seem to have little of no interest in selling the Leaf.

relytgerg said:

So, at least according to this dealership, we in the forgotten 36 states won't be able to get our Leafs until summer 2012.

Click to expand...

You should be very careful with what a dealer tells you, they probably are not interested in saving the planet and they may even be republicans!

Well, Nissan certainly doesn't seem to be moving very fast on allowing me to order. I know, it's coming, and I've got the deal worked out with my local Nissan dealer, but who knows when I'll be able to order. A while back Nissan said "before the end of the year". More recently I chatted with CS and they said "this winter". What are they waiting for, Christmas? (Maybe they are, or maybe they're waiting for Easter.) After well more than a year from reservation, I'm ready for it to be over, one way or another.

I've come to the conclusion that Nissan doesn't really care if I buy a LEAF or not.