What was your previous car before Leaf?

[UBUYGAS]

Last weekend I got rid of my Old Gas Car. It sat for 15 months in front of my house and I used it 4 times, two times to pick up furniture from craigslist.

The Battery was completely dead, I tried to have it jumped with no luck and so i had to buy a new Battery. We gave the car to a friend of ours that does not have a car.

After I bought the battery and hooked it up the car started up on the first try.

I also did not need to buy Gas! it still had a 1/4 tank and it got me to Her house which is 29.8 miles away fine. I singed over the title and took the plates.

The whole front end was rebuilt from Hyundai for free, The tires had only 3K miles on them, A tune-up was just done, the rear brakes have only 300 miles on them and the front need to be replaced in 15K miles.

The Car is at 156K miles, Every 60K I installed a new Timing Belt and Water Pump. I told them they need to do it at 180K miles.

Now I will be saving $93 a month on my insurance by taking it off my policy!

 

[elmobob]

1988 Toyota Celica GTS hatchback with 5 manual transmission and 130k miles, car ran great and was in great looking condition but after the first baby in our family my wife had issues with it and nagged till I got rid of it and got something with 4 doors.

 

[RonDawg]

1988 Toyota Celica GTS hatchback with 5 manual transmission and 130k miles, car ran great and was in great looking condition but after the first baby in our family my wife had issues with it and nagged till I got rid of it and got something with 4 doors.

It's too bad you couldn't keep that as a second car.

 

[elmobob]

1988 Toyota Celica GTS hatchback with 5 manual transmission and 130k miles, car ran great and was in great looking condition but after the first baby in our family my wife had issues with it and nagged till I got rid of it and got something with 4 doors.

It's too bad you couldn't keep that as a second car.

Yea I wanted to badly but parking where I live is scarce and just to keep it with the minimum liability car insurance was almost $80 per month.

 

[JohnBike]

2001 PT Cruiser, which I loved at first, but grew to hate more and more as the problems increased. Two big differences that make me love our 2014 Leaf S: the tight turning radius and the economic energy consumption.

The PT turned like a bus. Chrysler couldn't find enough room around that itty-bitty engine to allow the wheels a few extra degrees of swing, so I had to constantly face the humiliation of backing and filling a SMALL car to get into parking spaces.

The aforementioned itty-bitty engine was constantly overloaded, so the PT seldom reached 20 MPG. The car was 3400 lbs, only 400 lbs lighter than its then garage-mate, a '97 Voyager. The heavier Voyager got 22-23 MPG because its V6 wasn't constantly laboring. Gassing up the PT was a $150-180 per month pain. At our local rates, the Leaf is sucking up $10-12 per month in juice.

The PT was basically our grocery-wagon, so electric was a no-brainer. Have yet to turtle and usually go 3-4 days between charges, unless I know the next day will need a full charge. The Voyager was replaced by a 2011 Quest a few years ago, so we have the range for trips to family, hauling our tandem bicycle, etc.

One final note: leaving smart-ass hot-rodders waiting at the light is priceless.

 

[deimos909]

Volkswagen GOLF TDI with 160K miles on it.. I really miss that old girl sniff.. . Also an AUDI TT just for fun, which I still have. Sorry LEAF but once the GOLF goes electric I'm getting one.

 

[kaikara]

My old vehicle was a 2007 Honda Element - great car for hauling mountain bikes and work stuff. Not so good on gas. We still have it as our secondary car which the wife uses (works from home). I use the leaf primarily from work unless I have to haul a bunch of stuff. Gone from 6-7 tanks of gas a month to less then 1 tank.

 

[jsongster]

2008 Prius, 2009 Ford Flex, still have both... expect to give Prius to our son late next year. Probably get another LEAF when new one arrives with increased range. Would love to replace the FLEX with a Model X. We'll see how the finances work in a year or so.

 

[Kipp]

1999 Chevy Silverado SL pickup with 188,000 miles. Still running, still fairly reliable, but getting the point where I wondered if things might intermittently begin to fail. It probably had another 50000 good miles left to go.

Went from >$250.00 gasoline bill per month @ ~$3.30/gal, to $0.00 (besides ~$20.00/month electricity @ $0.099/kWh for the LEAF).

I created a spreadsheet, and added up all the payments, costs, etc. for each vehicle. Somewhere between 12000-15000 miles/yr, I'm breaking even in expenses. Basically, I was able to upgrade to a loaded 2014 SL lease for the same price as just driving my truck (which I owned) to work.

Love the LEAF!

 

[rmay635703]

1981 Comutacar

 

[WisJim]

We bought our used 2013 Leaf after our 2000 Chevy Metro 3 cylinder had a major rust induced structural failure as we attempted to leave a stop light in town. Our spare car, a 1992 Honda Civic VX (45 to 50+mpg) turned out to have a leaky gas tank and a transmission that pops out of 3rd gear occasionally, which irritates my wife immensely. So she started looking at other used cars in ads and decided everything was too expensive and not what we want to drive. Then she found an ad for the Leaf, and after calling about it we decided it was worth driving 85+ miles to take a look at it. We liked it and managed to get the dealer to take our son's 1981 Comuta Car as trade in (we traded our 2001 VW Golf electric conversion to our son for the Comuta Car that we used as a trade in). And I also sold my 1965 VW double cab pick up to pay the cash difference so we could afford the Leaf. We like it a lot, and so far have charged it entirely using surplus electrical production from our solar and wind electric system. Since our electric company only pays us avoided fuel cost for our excess electrical generation, which is perhaps 2 or 3 cents a kw-hr, I figure that the electricity used to charge the Leaf is worth 3 cents a kw-hr, so our operating costs for the Leaf are really low.

 

[Atlantan]

2007 Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT. Since getting the Leaf, the QP has taken on the weekend job.

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[AlanSqB]

2013 Honda Civic Si coupe. Don't miss it a bit.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Do the more recent Civics still have too-tall gearing? I sold a '95 Civic EX to buy my electric scooter, and that car struggled to get up hills because of the tall final gearing. Really spoiled the hoped-for fun of driving a stick.

 

[AlanSqB]

Yes, stick was no fun in that car. Often felt like I was driving a truck. I assume it will probably be my last stick shift vehicle unless I do a conversion.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Shame. I had an '86 Civic Si that I bought new, and it was up for sale while I drove the '95 EX. Even allowing for weight difference, the little 90HP 'Si would easily out-drag the 130(?) HP EX. One of those Gen III Civic hatchbacks would make a good conversion candidate, I think. Space efficient, tough, handled like a BMW...

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

My previous car was a LEAF.

 

[Publius]

My previous car was a '07 Toyota Yaris hatchback. I swore I would never buy another car that didn't have a manual transmission. I guess I just need to modify that a little to I'll never buy another car with an automatic transmission to keep my promise.

 

[briankwest]

2012 Nissan Juke, I work from home and rarely ever have to travel beyond the range of the Leaf.

/b

 

[mgs333]

Modified 2002 BMW M3, still have it.