New LEAF SV 2013 owner, experience so far

[epirali]

Hi There:

Found this forum when researching for a commuter car, what an EXCELLENT place. Been lurking till now. Currently own a few cars, including a Tesla. Was looking for a daily commuter, started landing on the LEAF, and after reading these forums definitely became a believer. The quality of information and knowledge of participants is great. Looked at Ford Escort EV, was nice enough, but then I remembered I'd have to deal with Ford...

Anyway the dealer has absolutely no knowledge of anything about the car (surprise). I almost got the S, but after reading about the heat pump went with an SV with the headlight package. The car itself is first rate. It really is worth much more than what you pay for it. Pretty much love everything about it so far.

But my delivery/first impression has been somewhat damaged. Went online to register the car and kept getting errors when trying to accept the terms and conditions. Called in once, was told system was having "issues." A few hours later called in again, got a much more knowledgeable person. He had me look at info and figured out the dealer never set up the system with the VIN number. He called the dealer and sent me an e-mail they would be ready at 9:30 am to program.

Showed up at ORIGINAL dealer, they called the tech who ASSURED me it would take most of the day (yeah right, I'm an engineer). Had to argue with service manager, it actually took 5 minutes.

Joke is I still can't register. Have talked to Nissan about 4 times so far.

Sigh....

 

[Boomer23]

Hello and welcome!

I'm sure your early snafu (in the full sense of the acronym) will be resolved and soon forgotten, but sorry that it's marring your first impressions of the car.

Which Tesla do you have? If its a Roadster, I get why you wanted a commuter car. But if it's an S, can you comment on how you're using it, if not for commuting, and reasons?

Also, please add your locale to your signature file. It's always helpful to know where members are located.

Again, welcome and please post often.

 

[epirali]

Hello and welcome!

I'm sure your early snafu (in the full sense of the acronym) will be resolved and soon forgotten, but sorry that it's marring your first impressions of the car.

Which Tesla do you have? If its a Roadster, I get why you wanted a commuter car. But if it's an S, can you comment on how you're using it, if not for commuting, and reasons?

Also, please add your locale to your signature file. It's always helpful to know where members are located.

Again, welcome and please post often.

Thank you, updated location, I am in Maryland. Plan to be a frequent reader and contributor (and to become a supporting member).

It is the Roadster, the range is great (200+) but honestly can't drive it over any bumps. But it is what really got me flipped to EVs.

I seriously looked at the S, but there were a couple of issues:

1) I wanted the performance version, and on the test drive it pulled hard left. Strange considering it is rear drive. I recently found on a long term test blog that the rear tire alignment seems to not be able to handle the torque/hp, which explains it.

2) The S is a nice car, but honestly for the price it does not rank into the luxury category. The ride/engine/battery/range is great, but the interior details are sub-par (honestly Leaf is cheaper materials but much better designed), the central large touch screen is not as useful, and it showed a pixelated google map. And don't get me started on the door handles!

If I could waive a magic wand and double the range of the Leaf I think most ICE cars would fall to the wayside.

 

[epirali]

BTW I've only had the Leaf in the office for 2 days (this is day 2), and three co-workers are seriously considering getting one. I plan to let them borrow mine for a day at a time.

If Nissan ever gets my Carwings working I would ask them for a cut in sales!

 

[Berlino]

Sometimes you can get strange errors when trying to register if you're on Android or some other OS that doesn't support Flash.

For some reason, Carwings doesn't warn that you need Flash when you try to register from an Android device. Perhaps because older versions of Android did support Flash.

 

[epirali]

Sometimes you can get strange errors when trying to register if you're on Android or some other OS that doesn't support Flash.

For some reason, Carwings doesn't warn that you need Flash when you try to register from an Android device. Perhaps because older versions of Android did support Flash.

Thanks, problem is at the stage where I accept the terms. I get an error:

UPDATE VEHICLE
We were unable to complete your request.
Please contact EV Customer Support at (877) NO GAS EV (or 877-664-2738).

 

[goaliepride]

Sometimes you can get strange errors when trying to register if you're on Android or some other OS that doesn't support Flash.

For some reason, Carwings doesn't warn that you need Flash when you try to register from an Android device. Perhaps because older versions of Android did support Flash.

Thanks, problem is at the stage where I accept the terms. I get an error:

UPDATE VEHICLE
We were unable to complete your request.
Please contact EV Customer Support at (877) NO GAS EV (or 877-664-2738).

Essentially I had the same experiences (plural). Dealerships are terrible with EVs. I had one tell me that a car with no quick-charge option CURRENTLY available "definitely has it" (Chevy Spark EV). One told me that the 6.6 port took 120v charging down to 4 hours (hah!).

Anyways I also had your same Carwings issue. The answer is: Call the number, tell them your VIN when they ask. They'll register it for you, and then Carwings will work right away. The issue is that the dealerships have paperwork to fill out and such, and after a few days it would filter through and function. Since dealerships are slow, and this isn't their car, they'll take their sweet time about it. People like you and I therefore will need to inform Nissan/Carwings that the car was purchased and they need to start your free Carwings trial. Clearly because it's a trial, they need to know when to begin the trial, so it wasn't pre-activated. If you check the checklist the dealer handed you of the stuff the salesmen is supposed to show you and do with you, activating carwings was one of them (I'm pretty sure).

Reading about your issue I (A systems admin/programmer) can only assume you called when they were legitimately down, then they ignored your request figuring you'd call back, then they set themselves a note or something to do it when things came back up (or maybe not), but in the end they did nothing/little. My experience was: Call, VIN, "ok sir you can go set it up right now", I indeed went over right then and set it up. If you're still having issues you need to call back while you're physically in your car laptop in hand, and walk through the steps with them.