The official "I got my Leaf" thread

[DougIdaho]

Hello Everyone,

My wife driving home in her new Leaf this afternoon. Her first new car in 18 years. I think it will be a perfect fit for her needs. We are very impressed with every aspect of the car so far. I am a wee bit jealous though We will use my Hyundai Elantra for our long range vehicle.

Congrats! I have the same color but in a 2012. What type of interior did your wife get? Mine is the default recycled soda bottles with the special "dirt attractant" added to it. :lol: I do like the car though! I wish the range were a bit more...but that seems to be a common refrain. It gets me to 80 - 90% of the places I need to go.

Thanks, It has the cloth black interior. Yea, with the black interior I am sure I will be using the vacuum a lot. She has promised to let me drive it if I take care of the cleaning duties...... :lol:

 

[SparkyD]

Re: Bad deal from Capitol City
1. Price quoted was before credit was run.
2. I was carless and in a panic. $20/day collision was on the rental.
3. Credit is 825 Equifax.
4. $200 referral is from AutoNation after I took the car in for service, not Capitol City.
5. I did no research over the Internet first, just sent an email or two.
6. I saw the internet advertised prices two days later after I leased.
7. I know I was stupid. Tell me again.
8. The deal is OK with the Ga Tax Credit, but when I see the same dealer advertise for hundreds less, I feel swindled, which is worse than stupid. How can you advertise one price with "100" cars to choose from and sell at another? This is morally reprehensible.
9. If AutoNation Nissan has 8 on its lot, there appears to be no shortage.

 

[pthack]

I got mine...
2013 Red S with:
Quick Charge package
(6.6kw Onboard Charger
Quick Charge Port
Rearview Monitor)
Protection package
(Clear protector at Charging Port
Rear Bumper Protector)
Splash Guards
Floormats & Cargo Area Mat

Tacoma Nissan (Pierre)
$2900 down (includes 1st month), $305 title/docs/2 yr WA registration) = $3205 Out the door
$99.88/month for 23 months...

Total for 2 years = $5502.24...

Not a bad deal.

Now to get the Bosch Powermax 30A/18' cord for $550 + shipping + tax....and install it.

Till then I use the West Coast Electric Highway DCQC station close to my house to fill me up to 90% for free, then top off at home...

So far, 325 miles, 31KW of charging at home, the rest has been at the QC.....so net, that's 10.5 miles/kw, or a penny per mile or around 350 miles per equivalent gallon (at $3.50/gallon of gas)....Gonna save me $150/month in gas....

LOVE IT!!!

 

[SparkyD]

Leaf S, no charge pkg. Love the car, hate the deal. My 0 down 325/mo included doc fee, acquisition fee, and disposition fee. Actual lease is here: http://lorenzoawallace.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-real-deal-my-actual-lease.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[lchen5]

Got my Leaf yesterday afternoon. I got good deal on 36 months for model S for 36 months lease, but at last step I agreed to buy $800 maintenance program. Is it worth to go with the maintenance for $800 ? After that I felt the electrical car should be much simpler and easier to maintain than regular car. Probably, I should not buy this maintenance package. Anyone has opinion about the maintenance package ?

One question. My model is base S without quick charger. Original I thought the base model supports both level 1 and level2, and the charger/cable also support both 120 and 240 volt. After I got back home, and took look at the deal of the spec on the charger. It only supports 110V, which is really slow to get car fully charged.

Is this true that base model S only comes with 110v charger ? What about S with quick charger ?

 

[RonDawg]

Especially with a lease, the maintenance package is absolutely not necessary, and certainly not worth $800. Pure profit for the dealership.

Read the fine print on it immediately; you may be able to get most if not all your money back by opting out within a certain time frame.

None of the US/Canadian spec Leafs have included EVSE's that are dual-voltage. For about $300 or so you can have yours upgraded to dual voltage by EVSE Upgrade. Until then DO NOT PLUG YOUR LEAF'S OEM EVSE INTO AN OUTLET OF HIGHER VOLTAGE THAN 120 VOLT!!! Even with adapters, or wiring a 120 volt outlet to somehow take 240 volt current. You will destroy the factory EVSE, a new one is about $700-1000, and Nissan will not cover those under warranty if you blow them up due to excessive voltage.

If you want your OEM EVSE to be dual voltage, this is the service you need: http://evseupgrade.com/?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; You send your unit to Phil and he upgrades it for you and sends it back. You should purchase his 120 volt adapter so you can still use it with 120 volt outlets. Phil also offers "rush" service but that is an extra $75 plus he puts an $800 or so hold on your credit card until he gets yours, and yours has to be in new condition.

 

[dgpcolorado]

Got my Leaf yesterday afternoon. I got good deal on 36 months for model S for 36 months lease, but at last step I agreed to buy $800 maintenance program. Is it worth to go with the maintenance for $800 ? After that I felt the electrical car should be much simpler and easier to maintain than regular car. Probably, I should not buy this maintenance package. Anyone has opinion about the maintenance package ?

Like RonDawg said, this is completely unnecessary for a leased car and not recommended for a purchased car.

One question. My model is base S without quick charger. Original I thought the base model supports both level 1 and level2, and the charger/cable also support both 120 and 240 volt. After I got back home, and took look at the deal of the spec on the charger. It only supports 110V, which is really slow to get car fully charged.

Is this true that base model S only comes with 110v charger ? What about S with quick charger ?

The S model comes with a 3.3 kW charger. If you got the charge package option you get a 6.0 kW charger and a DC Fast Charge (DCFC) "quick charge" port. Those are all located in the car and have nothing to do with the portable charge cable that came with the car

The "trickle charge" cable that came with the LEAF is called an EVSE ("Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment") and works only on 120 Volts (called "Level 1", L1) unless you have it upgraded to 240 Volts (called "Level 2", L2 charging) by EVSEupgrade.com. However, you can charge much faster than the slow 120 V method by installing a 240 Volt Level 2 EVSE in your garage. They can be purchased for $500 or so but it will cost extra to put in the proper 240 Volt circuit unless you already have one available. The cost for an electrician to install such a circuit depends a lot on where your main electrical panel is located and how full it is.

The least expensive Level 2 charging is to get your Nissan/Panasonic EVSE upgraded to 240 Volts by EVSEupgrade.com for about $350 including shipping, and then install a 240 Volt outlet in your garage. This would charge much more quickly than 120 Volt Level 1 charging.

If you only drive short distances you may be able to get by with just 120 Volt Level 1 charging. But it is very slow, as you have seen. And it depends somewhat on where you live. If you are in the snowbelt you will find that preheating the LEAF works better with a Level 2 EVSE in very cold weather.

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
The above confusion is exactly why people need to understand and use the correct terminology (e.g. EVSE, on-board charger, DC quick/fast charger, etc.) and understand where the bottlenecks/limiting factors can be when L1 and L2 AC charging (e.g. line voltage, max amperage/output of EVSE, max input/output of on-board charger, etc.)

Not understand and using the wrong terminology can lead to confusion, wasting $ on the wrong/unnecessary equipment or worse, buying the wrong car.

The diagram at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=262630#p262630" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; may help.

For me, I only charge at home on the weekends, at 120 volts w/the supplied L1 EVSE, and it's fine.

On weekdays, I charge @ work for free on the L2 EVSEs there. I can't measure the line voltage, but I suspect it's ~208 volts. The units are from Chargepoint and their displays indicate a draw of ~5.8 or ~5.9 kW when I'm charging, as I have the 6 kW OBC. There are 2 Chargepoint EVSEs outside the buildings at work but they seem to only output ~5.7 kW, at max.

 

[ttime4four]

I got mine today

2013 Silver S with
Quick Charge package (6.6kw Onboard Charger Quick Charge Port Rearview Monitor)
Splash Guards
Floormats & Cargo Area Mat

Beaverton Nissan (Portland OR suburb)
$1,550 down (includes 1st month), $157 title/docs) = $1,550 Out the door
Cap cost $511 under invoice
Rebate is now $8,150 (up from $7,500) on the S
$196.87/month for 23 months...

Residuals have gone down in October, but the money factor is pretty good. For me, the total for 2 years = $6,078.01...

Still learning, but so far the car is very good and I can see the savings racking up.

 

[bpnugent]

I just got my new Leaf on Saturday, prompted by my son turning 16 (not for him - he'll inherit the minivan for getting to school!)

Blue 2013 SV with the QuickCharge/LED headlight package
Grey interior (going to upgrade to grey leather)
Holographic kickplates and cargo mat
For some reason, they couldn't add the bumper protector, nose mask, all-weather mats, or console applique as advertised on the website, but the dealer is going to take care of it this week.

We typically keep our cars for a while, so decided to buy. We will be babying the battery here in Northern Colorado. I turned off tax collection through my W-4 form in July in anticipation of $7,500 federal, $6,000 state, and ~$400 charging property rebates. Charged the car onto rewards credit cards and will move to a traditional car loan by next month. Turned down the $2,500 warranty extension on electrical to 8 years/125,000 miles. Good move? I can change my mind if I want to.

The car came in a week early, so we don't have the Bosch Powermax 18' 6.6kW L2 charger installed yet, so did trickle for the first time last night. I used the garage extension cord to get to the dedicated outlet. A couple of hours in, I started to smell something. I touched the cord and it was a little warm. The problem was that a good 30 feet of the cord was still coiled around the cord holder and not able to cool enough. No harm, but I unwound the cord before continuing the charge.

So far, averaging around 4.7miles/kWh when very little CC is needed up here. It responds to Carwings status request in 1 or 2 minutes, and CC turnon was timed once at 30 seconds. Very fun to drive!

 

[mepeh]

I got one on Saturday
SV with QC Package Slate on Black
I'm leasing it.
Drove it for 2 days and loved it so much that went and bought the second one today. An S model with QC Silver on Black

Love the car so far. Put 300 miles in 3 days. Orange County is just full with charging stations.
Picking up the silver tomorrow and will give it to my wife. I'm keeping the charcoal SV

Leasing both EVs will cost me less than what i pay for gas on my ICE cars .. well done Nissan
Got the electronics coverage for free on the S model.
Leasing both for 36 months with payments at 450$ for both cars

Insurance is only 49$ per month for each car.

Very impressed so far. Don't feel like I sacrificed anything yet

 

[goaliepride]

Insurance is only 49$ per month for each car.

Might I ask what your insurance coverage is like?

 

[mepeh]

Insurance is only 49$ per month for each car.

Might I ask what your insurance coverage is like?

I still have to get the papers in the mail from the insurance company.
It's Mercury Insurance and i have 4 cars and the house insured with them.
Good driving record and the deductible is 500$
I'm pretty sure i got the minimum package from mercury required to lease a car.
Nobody has ever beaten the Mercury Quotes i get. I used to be with Farmers and Progressive and nobody can match their quotes; cars or house

 

[frmercado]

Got on an S last Saturday, took it for an overnight test drive and signed the lease on that same car the next day.

First impressions of the car: Loving it so far, I live in Oregon; Oregon has a really good infrastructure when it comes to EV charging, I was able to take it to Hood River OR, about sixty miles away from my house without any issues, it was very important for me to be able to make this trip since I like to Kiteboard and I go there a lot during the summer time, there is a DC charger in a parking lot down town Hood River set up by the Oregon green highway iniciative so its pretty easy to make the round trip. I also went to Mount Hood where I snowboard during the winter time, the distance is abot 50 miles from downtown but a lot steeper than the road to Hood River, there is another green highway iniciative DC charging station on the town right before the mountain pass and I was told that there is yet another DC station that is supposed to go live in a few weeks at one of the ski resorts at the top of the pass. I tried to make the trip to to the very top of the pass after charging to 90% on the DC charger at hte bottom of the pass with the intention of going around the mountain, which therotically should be possible, but had to come back since I lost more than 60% of range getting there, though I think once the new charger is set up on the top it shouldn't be hard to get to the ski resorts during the winter time and even around the montain, since most of the trip around should be down hill. Haven't made the trip to the Oregon coast, but it also looks like its covered and it shouldn't be an issue getting there. So far most of the stations I charge at are free (most require some type of membership, though these are usually free too) as long as none of the companies that run this chagers start chargin fees, I'm looking to save at least a couple of hundred bucks a month over the next year. :lol:

 

[paulk]

got my wife a leaf SV white/light gray couple of days ago.
it was sooo hard to find this color which my wife wanted.

loving this ev, so quiet and smooth off the onramp of uphill highway ramp, I was quite surprised of it's power to reach high speed so quickly. no shifting of gear and high torque reallly makes it seem quicker/smoother.
got 76 miles mostly on highway the first day.
downhill regen really is a added mileage to your drive.

my wife drives average of 40 miles a day, charge it overnight for 12+ hours and she's good to go again the nextday.
charging on 110v regular household outlet in my garage.

cabin is bigger than I first thought... overall big / tall standing car.
trunk space is really spacious and if you're really considering leaf, you should consider SV model with led+quick charge package at the least.
SV comes wtih navigation with carwings which give you remote access to your car info, remote charge, climate control when you need to cool down your car before you jump in to drive out.

30 min DC quick charge stations are increasing daily which can be really useful when you're in desparate mode.

B-mode drive really is beneficial on downhill driving and car really puts extra juice back in your battery pack giving you extra driving range.

all these are in SV led+quick charge package... one thing you'll miss on this is your 'back up camera'.

2013 leaf SV, led+quick package, 15k annual mile lease $ 5k down $ 229 out the door over the weekend.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Has anyone extended their lease on their leaf yet (say beyond the 2 year term). What sort of monthly payment are they offering you? Same as your first 2 years?

 

[bronsonb]

Has anyone extended their lease on their leaf yet (say beyond the 2 year term). What sort of monthly payment are they offering you? Same as your first 2 years?

I was wondering if next year when all of these 2 year leases on the 2012s start to finish up if Nissan with either offer deals to extend, deals to buy, or perhaps offer the lessors a lease on a new 2014 Leaf a few months before the completion of the 2012 Leaf lease.

With the right terms, I'd continue. Currently, in GA, we can take the $5K tax rebate repeatedly, so I would certainly consider it (or consider buying if things are right).

 

[TonyAndTina]

Got our SL w/ premium 2 nights ago. We were originally looking at a SV w/ QC. But after looking at the difference between SL, we thought what the hell and went all out.

We are in Seattle and feel pretty comfortable with how the battery would last up there. So we went with a purchase. We negotiated for a very good price and got the dealer to throw in a free protection package. In addition to the Fed tax rebate, we also pay no sales tax in WA state. All in all, we were very happy with the final OTD price.

The Wife has been commuting in it for the past 2 days. We are more than happy with it. 50 miles a day on 80% charge. The L1 seem to be working just fine so far. (Knock on wood).

 

[bronsonb]

Got our SL w/ premium 2 nights ago. We were originally looking at a SV w/ QC. But after looking at the difference between SL, we thought what the hell and went all out.

We are in Seattle and feel pretty comfortable with how the battery would last up there. So we went with a purchase. We negotiated for a very good price and got the dealer to throw in a free protection package. In addition to the Fed tax rebate, we also pay no sales tax in WA state. All in all, we were very happy with the final OTD price.

The Wife has been commuting in it for the past 2 days. We are more than happy with it. 50 miles a day on 80% charge. The L1 seem to be working just fine so far. (Knock on wood).

Congrats. Your wife sounds like the perfect candidate for a Leaf. For L1 charging just make sure it's a dedicated circuit. Thr Leaf should be the only thing plugged in to that circuit.

Keep enjoying. I just drove our ICE Expedition last night for a family trip and for the first time in a month I was checking out gas prices. You get used to never stopping for gas.


Enjoy!!

 

[RonDawg]

For L1 charging just make sure it's a dedicated circuit. Thr Leaf should be the only thing plugged in to that circuit.

Also make sure the outlet itself is of high quality, or you may end up with a potential fire hazard:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=14889" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;