New Leaf owner with questions

[caSteve]

What is the charge timer difference -- doesn't that not work with the S? I'm on a standard electric rate plan so I don't have any need to charge later but I was just curious.

On the S, you can only set the stop time. Of course, since you can read how long it thinks it'll take to charge, you can do arithmetic to determine the right stop time for your preferred start time. That begs the question though: would it have cost them so much to throw in a line of code that would do that arithmetic for you? Maybe it would have overly complicated the menu system though, which is reminiscent of a 1980's clock radio. I really wonder how they even found anyone to write the software for it. They probably had to pull someone out of retirement.

 

[RonDawg]

The way to set the timer on the Leaf S was done as a workaround since for the 2011/2012 models (where the SV was the base model) it was done through the nav screen.

 

[dgpcolorado]

What is the charge timer difference -- doesn't that not work with the S? I'm on a standard electric rate plan so I don't have any need to charge later but I was just curious.

The SV/SL timers on the console have more versatility and are easier to program than the single dash end-time-only charge timer on the S. There are two timers on the SV/SL and they can be set for different days of the week, start-time/end-time or end-time-only. There are also two Climate Control timers and they can be set for different days of the week for preheating/precooling the car while it is plugged-in.

Edit: Oh, and the other thing that he said wasn't really that great was CarWings -- he said it was basically just a fancy version of PlugShare...

That isn't accurate, Carwings isn't anything like Plugshare. Carwings can be used to remotely monitor the charging of the car using a PC or smart phone. You can remotely start a charge if the car is plugged-in (but can't stop a charge already going). You can also use it to start the CC system or set a time for it to start.

Carwings only works with AT&T 2G cell service, last I heard, so the car needs to have decent reception for that network. And it seems likely that the system will stop working next year if 2G service is discontinued, as has been reported.