jkirkebo said:
johntaves said:
1) save money by eliminating the display that you see through the steering wheel.
Disagree. I like having much of that info. Like the cruise control display.
Um, what information? I don't mean what display things, I mean what real useful information is on that display that cannot be easily fit into the one that has the speedometer (after removing the pointless round thing with trees), or put onto the nav screen?
jkirkebo said:
johntaves said:
3) Option to have a smaller battery pack. This would be a large savings.
As long as I get an option for a larger pack. About 40kWh would be nice.
Sorry, but a larger pack would require more space. In theory Nissan thought about what range and cost would satisfy the most. I am saying that for a small bit of engineering money, they can create a lower price point, and there are many of us that never come close to draining the battery on our outings. 100 miles is huge for a huge chunk of the two car families that this should be sold to. It should not be marketed as a gas replacement. It is an awesome always full, quiet, 39 miles per buck car that can do 95% of your driving.
jkirkebo said:
johntaves said:
4) Position switches for the on/off control and D/N/R/P button instead of the idiot momentary switches.
Disagree. I'd have to manually put the car in "P" then, instead of just shutting it off.
It would be a single switch with Off/P/R/N/D in that order. Hop in, throw it in R, put on seat belt, as soon as computers are ready it moves backwards. Stop, throw it in off, and leave car. This is fewer buttons to push, and if I push them too fast, I don't have to re-push.
jkirkebo said:
johntaves said:
5) button to tell climate control to stay on until I get back to the car. It should auto shut off if distance to home is threatened.
Just leave the car "on" and locked. It won't auto shut off though.
Yes, but this is a thread on what they can change to improve the car. Nissan should comprehend that this is car is great because it is always full of "gas" and there's so little cost to leaving the A/C/Heat on that we want a convenient way to do that. Instead of making the car as similar to a gas car as possible, they should recognize and sell the fact that this thing has a humongous pile of electricity ready to do my bidding. How about a drink cooler? Instead of whining about how that would drain the range, they should recognize that for 99% of our trips we have sufficient range and are willing to spend that extra electricity on a drink cooler and a car that is always the right temp.
jkirkebo said:
johntaves said:
6) The range/charge indicator should be much more focused on getting me home. It should know where I live and therefore have no trouble determining what kw will be needed to get home. It could show estimated "detour" range. In other words, it will tell you how far you can go before you need to go straight home. Furthermore, the pointless ECO mode (WTF is the purpose of me deadening my pedal for me? Is this the same nonsense where someone sets their own clock ahead by 10 minutes to help them be on time?) should be automatic and tied to distance to home. If the car is determining it will be difficult to get home, it should deaden the pedal and shut down the climate control.
Disagree. I often go somewhere else to charge than home. It should't assume I want to go home.
Yes, it should
assume that going home is the vital range information. That is the vast majority of the driving scenarios: leave, return, charge. It is optimized for a driving scenario that matches a gas car, which is not how these are operated. Keep in mind that I did not say it should not also provide total range as it does now.
jkirkebo said:
And I much prefer the pedal response in ECO-mode, I never use D. Too sensitive IMHO.
I agree. With a fly-by-wire system there's no reason not to give you a gain control on the pedal. Calling it ECO mode is silly. I find too many gas cars have an overly sensitive pedal. Too many people are fooled into thinking the car is faster with a more sensitive pedal (e.g. all the people on this forum that call ECO mode sluggish), so the engineers are forced to make the pedal step-in too sensitive.
jkirkebo said:
Hmm, I neither want leather nor power seats. This is actually my main gripe about the Tesla Model S, it seems it won't be available with manual cloth seats. The solar cells are already optional.
Yes, I meant optional leather and pwr seats. True, the solar thing is optional.
jkirkebo said:
I would like a telescoping steering wheel though and so would my wife.
I agree but I think that is a pricey/heavy option, but that is exactly the error Nissan has made numerous times. They are thinking that this is some sort of cheap econo box and buyers will be frugal. I will bet that if they offered these options, and priced them as if they were going on a typical $30k car, they would have sold most Leafs with leather, and tilt/telescope wheel, because we aren't being frugal when we buy this car.