What DIDN'T you know when you took your Leaf home?

[KayserNissan]

To the OP's questions:

I don't believe it matters if every detail is covered in the whirlwind and excitement of purchasing. It's simply too much information to absorb in a single sitting. I think you are doing the right thing by scheduling a follow-up to handle the stuff that's actually troubling, and let people figure out other nuances on their own.

Yeah, it is an ungodly amount of information to absorb, but the I was hoping this thread would shed some light on what little things you guys missed or didn't get told, then look for recurring themes, and try to mention it IE Carwings, timers, remote climate all sort of fit under the same heading to me, so making sure I spend ample time helping make sure that is setup would be good. More or less looking for key bullet points for the delivery.

Changing the auto-lock, and auto-unlock is quite trivial:

That is to disable auto unlock when you turn off the car, we were talking about the drive away and at 15mph doors autolocking. When you stop the car, push the button to turn it off it auto unlocks your doors for you, the method you mentioned makes it so when you turn off the car the doors stay locked and have to be unlocked manually. I guess I didn't try it on the autolock driveaway feature, so I am just speculating as to what the book says that does lol.

 

[videographer]

I do hope you also believe in the tooth fairy... :lol:

I can't wait for the happy announcement (I give it 18 months) that there will be a pack upgrade to take us to 200 miles range. And the announcement that the quick charger will be retro-fittable.

Geez, Tom, can you be a little more cynical? Think of the technological advancements it took to get us to where we are today. Is that advancement going to end right now? I feel certain that at least one of the recent battery-chemistry advancements announced by GM, A123 and others will pan out, and licensing will bring them to the Leaf. If the Leaf (or a car like it) can get to 200 miles with quick-charging available, that's game over. People will *flock* to electrics. Here's hoping.

BAJ

 

[keydiver]

That is to disable auto unlock when you turn off the car, we were talking about the drive away and at 15mph doors autolocking. When you stop the car, push the button to turn it off it auto unlocks your doors for you, the method you mentioned makes it so when you turn off the car the doors stay locked and have to be unlocked manually. I guess I didn't try it on the autolock driveaway feature, so I am just speculating as to what the book says that does lol.

No, he explained BOTH the LOCK and UNLOCK procedures in his post. Please reread this part again, as it is correct. Turning off the auto-lock was one of the very first things I did:

Disable/enable auto-lock:
Turn the car on and then hold down the lock/unlock button in the lock direction for about 5 seconds until it beeps and the parking lights flash.

 

[KayserNissan]

I was 100% wrong Sorry for that, the owners manual has an explanation using that procedure to turn off the auto unlock, doesn't mention turning off the auto lock so I assumed that it was more complicated and/or not available....then instead of trying it for myself I just assumed that the owner's manual was misread.

I was mistaken, and my bad. Just went out and tested it and yeah, works. Learning new stuff! Thanks!

 

[mrradon]

That it could haul (10) 80 pound bags of concrete mix (8) in the rear, (2) if the front and (4) 4' X 8' 3/4" plywood sheets cut in 2' wide sections across the folded down rear seats and still not bottom out the suspension. I managed to get over 100miles on the first charge even hauling hardware supplies.

The second trip I took off the head rests and folded the seats down, managed to haul 14' and 16' long 2X4's.

 

[RegGuheert]

That it could haul (10) 80 pound bags of concrete mix (8) in the rear, (2) if the front and (4) 4' X 8' 3/4" plywood sheets cut in 2' wide sections across the folded down rear seats and still not bottom out the suspension. I managed to get over 100miles on the first charge even hauling hardware supplies.

The second trip I took off the head rests and folded the seats down, managed to haul 14' and 16' long 2X4's.

It's good to see you are babying your new LEAF!!

 

[aleph5]

I didn't know you could remove the cargo shelf without lowering the rear seat backs. Only recently discovered how to slip it behind the seats while in their normal position and lower it to be removed or reinstalled.

 

[Volusiano]

That it could haul (10) 80 pound bags of concrete mix (8) in the rear, (2) if the front

The Nissan Leaf load capacity is 860 lbs so you probably exceeded it by a little bit with 10x80 lbs bags plus your own weight. I had to haul some sand bags recently and I had to split it up into 2 trips because 1 trip would have easily put 1100 lbs weight on my Leaf. I was trying to see if it bottomed out my suspension at all, but I didn't even notice anything either. Well, I was well below the max load anyway...

It occurred to me that if I had 5 200lbs passengers in the Leaf, that would exceed the load for sure. Five passengers with an average weight of 172lbs would be where the max load is at, which should be amply adequate.

 

[EVDRIVER]

I do hope you also believe in the tooth fairy... :lol:

I can't wait for the happy announcement (I give it 18 months) that there will be a pack upgrade to take us to 200 miles range. And the announcement that the quick charger will be retro-fittable.

Geez, Tom, can you be a little more cynical? Think of the technological advancements it took to get us to where we are today. Is that advancement going to end right now? I feel certain that at least one of the recent battery-chemistry advancements announced by GM, A123 and others will pan out, and licensing will bring them to the Leaf. If the Leaf (or a car like it) can get to 200 miles with quick-charging available, that's game over. People will *flock* to electrics. Here's hoping.

BAJ

That tooth fair will also be riding on a unicorn in before either of those things happens in even three years.

 

[CWO4Mann]

I discovered the same day I drove home in the Leaf from the dealer that an extremely fine lady wanted to sleep with me, immediately if not sooner.

:lol:

 

[mrradon]

The Nissan Leaf load capacity is 860 lbs so you probably exceeded it by a little bit with 10x80 lbs bags plus your own weight.

It was 800 pounds of cement mix, 240 pounds of plywood, plus my 175 pounds. It didn't bottom out, even when I hit a speed bump.

 

[GerryAZ]

I did not know that the horn sounds just like the ones on the 1972 Japanese motorcycles I had when I was in school. It is useless and is on my list to be replaced.

Gerry

 

[roperld]

The last one. It is really annoying to drive a noisy slow-acceleration gasoline car now!

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

The last one. It is really annoying to drive a noisy slow-acceleration gasoline car now!

ya, what i didnt mention is the extreme letdown of driving my once beloved Prius with leather, sunroof and solar panel...it all seems so...blah now. of course having to put gas in it (the primary driver NEVER does this) just adds to the let down!!

 

[N1ghtrider]

That I would leave the car "running" for 3 hours in the parking lot while I was attending a meeting. I have had the car for 6 months and never did that before, but today I was in a hurry so after parking I got out without pushing the start/stop button. I had 5 or 6 bars of charge left when I parked, and 3 horus later with the a/c running full blast I only had 2, and live 20 miles away. A rare case of range anxiety as I drove home.

 

[mark13]

That I would be losing battery capacity after 16000 miles..I never would of bought the car but I would of leased it..
There are a lot of people down on E-cars,wait until they find out about the battery degradation issue

 

[yoyofella]

I'm a bit let down that I've never exceeded 100miles on a single charge after driving for 15k miles. closest I've came was ~90miles, but I chickened out.

 

[eclecticflower]

Didn't know that the only alerts I'd get from Carwings even after setting it up properly are the Charging Stopped (at home) and Charging Station Nearby. No other alerts received.

 

[JPWhite]

Handset Phone directory is limited to 300 entries.
80% is recommended charge level.
Can't locate or unlock vehicle using mobile app, lame!!

 

[Cheezmo]

There were lots of pleasant surprises since I had ordered sight unseen and only test driven once after ordering. The quality of the interior, quite ride, etc.

The only real negative surprise was how fast you lose range at high speeds. Living less than 1 mile from a freeway with a 70mph speed limit, I had to immediately rethink what my range was. But, thankfully the QC infrastructure in the area is robust enough I can zip around town with out worry.