drive electric tour 10/22-10/24 @Westfield Century City (LA)

[BruinLEAFer]

The Nissan LEAF drive electric tour event on 10.22.2010-10.24.2010 will be located on the Westfield Century City Plaza (next to 1801 building). Parking is available in the Westfield Century City Parking Structure. The first three hours of parking are free.

Although I attended the Anaheim event, I may go to this event as well since I still have questions. My questions revolve around the entire vehicle warranty (not just the battery) and the extent of the included roadside assistance program.

If I don't go, hopefully someone will ask and share this information.

Please post any info and reports from this event if you attend here.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

Just don't be surprised if none of your questions are answered.

The Nissan event hosts don't have any information aside from what is already published.
They won't answer questions about the warranty, except for the known basics. (Many tried.)

 

[malloryk]

I will be there on Sun at noon! Can't wait for my second drive on the Leaf.

 

[cdub]

I'm not going to be able to make it to this event until Sunday morning. (reserved under another e-mail address at 8am)

Anyone head out there yet today?

I had asked Nissan support to see if they could turn on the pedestrian noise.... wonder if they did it. Doubt it.

Post your experiences here.

 

[evnow]

If anyone is headed out there and have a Zune or other non-iPod/uPhone music devices, can you check whether Leaf recognizes it as music device when connected through USB and lets you control the device using the dash ?

 

[BruinLEAFer]

Just don't be surprised if none of your questions are answered.

The Nissan event hosts don't have any information aside from what is already published.
They won't answer questions about the warranty, except for the known basics. (Many tried.)

If we keep asking at each event, sooner or later, the answers will come.

 

[prberg]

I made a quick stop there today for a quick test drive. There weren't a lot of people there so it was easy to look at the car and I only had to wait a few minutes to do the test drive.

The drive was fun. But like everybody has been saying... it pretty much feels like any other compact car out there. I wasn't overwhelmed with the car, but I do like it and can't wait to pick mine up in December!

There wasn't any new information that we didn't know about already. My Nissan test drive chaperone didn't know much about the car. He had info that would be helpful to the general public, but nothing new for me. But driving the car and getting to look inside was what I was looking to learn about. Car felt roomy and nice. I actually liked the back seat. The theater seating feels kina neat. Seats were comfortable and I had decent leg room (I'm 6'1"). The trunk had more space than I though it would.

I plugged in my USB drive and was able to play the MP3's on it right away. That was pretty cool. I was not that impressed with the quality of the sound from the sound system. I was playing MP3's.. so a CD might sound better, but the speakers didn't sound that great to me. Not alot of clarity or seperation. Kina muddy. I might look to replace them once I get my car.

I did take a quick look at the AV EVSE. I was impressed with the build quality. It feels very durable and if that is the same unit that we would receive, I think it would last a long time.

The driving course was pretty short so I didn't get to do too much with the car. But overall it's a really nice car and I know we are going to love it.

-Peter

 

[Kataphn]

I went today to drive again and do more checking on the static car. I had a list of things I wanted to do and wanted more information on. I drove it in eco mode to get the feel of it. I messed with the parking brake to get a better sense of how that worked. There is a short delay when you pull up or push down on it before it activates or deactivates, sort of like the hesitation in a digital camera. No ped noise. Nissan guy said it was not on the car that I drove. I did not remember seeing cup holders in the rear on my first drive so I looked for those. They are molded into the catchall pouches on the rear doors. I used the back up camera.
In the static car, I checked out the tire repair kit which was a Japanese version so not what we will be getting. I think I am going to buy a wheel, put a tire on it and and least have it available in our garage as a spare. I looked all around the front and back underside of the car, looking for lashing points where I can secure my kayak with line when it is in the roof rack. None! It is all prefectly smooth under there. So not possible to put in rear hitch for any kind of rack. There is a point in the front bumper area with a little door on it where you can screw in the tow eye, so I can lash in the front there. In the back, I will just have to figure out something to lash with that I can put inside the hatchback and then close the hatchback on it to secure it, then tie it to the kayak. Looks like I can use a trunk mounted bike rack but the top attachment points will have to pass over the solar panel. I will have to experiment to see if the load of a bike will put too much stress over the solar panel. With the antenna in the middle of the back of the roof making roof rack placement difficult, they sure did not build this car with the sports person in mind. Sigh....I will figure something out! I also took a closer look at the places in the motor compartment where fluids would be added. There are several coolant points, one windshield washer fluid point, and the brake fluid point..that's is for the fluids. Compared notes with another guy who had ordered already. He lurks in this forum but has never posted. He ordered from Fontana.
Drive was great though tons of peds and crazy drivers up there in Century City. I feel like I am ready for my Leaf!

 

[evnow]

I will have to experiment to see if the load of a bike will put too much stress over the solar panel. With the antenna in the middle of the back of the roof making roof rack placement difficult, they sure did not build this car with the sports person in mind. Sigh....I will figure something out!

Talk to Nissan. Post it on their facebook page.

Nissan can work with one of the 3rd party vendors and get something designed. Easier for them, than for us.

 

[Kataphn]

I will have to experiment to see if the load of a bike will put too much stress over the solar panel. With the antenna in the middle of the back of the roof making roof rack placement difficult, they sure did not build this car with the sports person in mind. Sigh....I will figure something out!

Talk to Nissan. Post it on their facebook page.

Nissan can work with one of the 3rd party vendors and get something designed. Easier for them, than for us.

OK, I did post there.

 

[garygid]

Nobody has reported glancing at the Energy Usage (Power is rate of use of Energy) screen while slowly increasing pressure on the brake pedal to see how much Regeneration power is shown.

The "Regen" scale is marked as 0, 10, 20, 30 kW, as I recall.

 

[BruinLEAFer]

I made it late Sunday afternoon. It was not busy. The test drive was street only and did not last that long. I usually drive either a 4-cylinder compact or a minivan with a V6, so acceleration to me seemed pretty good, especially for merging. However, I could not get the front wheels to spin or burn rubber. (I only tried once and I may have been slightly rolling already.) Rear visibility didn't seem to be a problem, but as a minivan driver I'm used to making that kind of adjustment. I tried ECO mode and it sorta feels "heavy." You could still floor the accelerator and it would still move briskly.

There was only one stationary demo, but auxiliary battery was dead. When I tried to start it, the display showed a little red car with a wrench in it. They tried to plug it in with the trickle charge cord but nothing happened although the "ready" light on the cord was on (indicating a full charge of the main battery?). Someone came and attached one of those portable jump starter/chargers to the auxiliary battery and the vehicle was able to turn on. As soon as the portable charger was disconnected, the vehicle went dead. This was an SL (with the solar panel). I hope they fix this bug prior to production. This bummed me out as I had bought a small cache of audio products to test and could not.

No specific details on the roadside assistance yet. The basic vehicle warranty as well as the powertrain warranty are the same as other Nissan vehicles.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

Interesting story BruinLEAFer. Sounds like some kind of bug, or maybe a really dead-dead-not-coming-back battery?

Most cars don't draw from the 12v battery once they're started.

 

[cdub]

Hmmm... maybe the 12v battery was just bad.

One of the tour guides made it sound like if you were just idling and running the radio and stuff it would only be drawing power from the 12v. I don't think he's right though.

Perhaps it was just on too long without the actual car being on.

The solar panel wasn't doing anything.

Also, someone told me all of the cars at these events are preproduction hand made cars... maybe it's a bug from that.

 

[LEAFfan]

However, I could not get the front wheels to spin or burn rubber. (I only tried once and I may have been slightly rolling already.)

Maybe the reason you couldn't spin the tires was because the traction control was on? If it is on, you won't be able to spin them.

 

[LEAFfan]

There are several coolant points, one windshield washer fluid point, and the brake fluid point..that's is for the fluids.

I'm curious as to why there is more than one coolant cap or point. Is it just the Inverter that is cooled or does the motor receive some also? What kind of coolant does it use, regular anti-freeze?

 

[garygid]

It looked like 3 coolant filler caps.
Yes, the motor is also cooled.
Coolant type still unknown, I think.

 

[hobbyguy]

The silver display car was almost out of power as it had sat all of Saturday and all of Sunday without a charge (and that was at 9:00 AM on Sunday!. It also did help that a small child was turning the ignition button on and off like a video game controller while I was in the back seat inspecting. He must have turned it on 70 to 80 times, quickly,within a minute, and the car was making the chimes as it caught up with how many times he was pressing.On-Off, On-Off, On-Off Quite obnoxious!!
I had the Nissan rep change the opening chimes to what he called the "hello kitty" soundtrack. Hum!
By the way I loved the test drive, can't wait for December! I hope!

 

[cdub]

The silver display car was almost out of power as it had sat all of Saturday and all of Sunday without a charge (and that was at 9:00 AM on Sunday!. It also did help that a small child was turning the ignition button on and off like a video game controller while I was in the back seat inspecting. He must have turned it on 70 to 80 times, quickly,within a minute, and the car was making the chimes as it caught up with how many times he was pressing.On-Off, On-Off, On-Off Quite obnoxious!!
I had the Nissan rep change the opening chimes to what he called the "hello kitty" soundtrack. Hum!
By the way I loved the test drive, can't wait for December! I hope!

haha - that might have been my kid... though he was more interested in the cd door opening and shutting than the ignition.