What's the thing you hate most about your Leaf?

[nosuchthing]

Range - and the fact Nissan conveniently lied about it.

Mushy steering and the shape of the steering wheel. Mushiness could be easily remedied by tapering off PS at highway speeds. Lazy Nissan. It's "just" software. Fix it!

Phone - connection fail when different phone is present. Why it cannot recognize the phone that is already activated but not punched in at the time is beyond me. That may be the very dumbest thing in this car. Lazy Nissan. It's "just" software. Fix it!

I replaced the "meep-meep" horn - it's been all written up here on MNL. Now I get the attention when I need it.

I replaced the "joke" speakers - ditto. The originals were seriously killing my ears. All written up here 2 years ago. It's now a quite decent sound.

Overall. 45,000 trouble-free miles. Dwindling miles, to be sure. Costco, Safeway, San Rafael and back. 60-mile range sucks. Lost over 10,000 bucks on what I thought was the deal of a century on a brand new car. Leased Spark for SF and back. No more buying EVs. Learned my lesson well.

Nissan, you have 2 years to get on the ball. Or all goes to Tesla and you're left in the dust. Shoot high. No kidding.

 

[WetEV]

Oh my.

More range would be good, but not a big thing.

Battery life isn't that bad, in the PNW. Could be better, of course. Nissan needs to provide a price for a battery of course.

Horn is wimpy, to be kind, but this is the PNW where most people don't know how to sound their horns, or why someone might sound their horn. Again, not a big thing here, but I can see how it might be in Boston.

Carpet isn't exactly plush. But still looks about as good as it did when I bought the car.

One seat has a stain from a box. Some kind of glue, and I can't get it out... Light cloth, so it shows.

No paint dings... yet.

2012, so heater isn't very efficient, and not SOC display on the dash.

Hard to decide what is the worst. Basically I love the car.

 

[smkettner]

I need more range. I want longer battery life.

 

[shikataganai]

Things I dislike about our 2013 SL + Premium:

- headrest angle keeps on bumping the back of my head over highway expansion joints
- navigation and iPod track selection system interface are both the pits
- oddly undersized hatchback door makes removing cargo cover a pain
- only barely enough rear legroom for my infant's rear facing car seat
- inconsistent steering wheel heater, as mentioned in earlier posts in this thread
- impact harshness from 17" wheels with short sidewalls

Things I like:

- heat pump heater
- steering wheel heat when it's just right, ahhhhh
- 84 miles of range is about accurate from my experience in temperate Seattle
- using CHAdeMO chargers, even though I've only had to do so three times thus far
- climate control timer via iPhone app
- quiet around town

The horn issue doesn't apply to me in polite Seattle... :shock:

 

[JimSouCal]

Handling: needs more precision.

No remote control of charging functions (% and on/off)

Weak display and annunciation (somewhat remedied by leaf spy).

Fixed the interior light cloth by aftermarket leather.

No backlight on unlock unlock button

Never bothered to use the navigation.

Have yet to use the QC port in almost 3 years.

Generally, very happy. Expectations Exceeded.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Mushy steering and the shape of the steering wheel. Mushiness could be easily remedied by tapering off PS at highway speeds. Lazy Nissan. It's "just" software. Fix it!

It's the tires, not the steering. I put snow tires on mine and the handling instantly turned crisp.

I'd like to add to mine: the inability to use Recirculate and Defrost/Defog at the same time. That sucks in traffic, or even with just one vehicle ahead of you, if it's spewing smoke.

 

[Becky50]

After reading through this thread, I have to say the way he heater uses up so much of the charge on my 2012. Otherwise, I am still thrilled each time I go out and start her up.

 

[nosuchthing]

I hope Nissan is reading this... :lol:

 

[fotajoye]

Range: Nissan has had three years to improve the Leaf battery; but, hasn't. The true no-worry range of a new Nissan Leaf is 70 miles on a full charge when you drive it 55 mph on flat land. The range decreases from that point because of battery ageing and normal battery usage. In addition, the battery is rather fragile and looses capacity when operated in high temperature zones like Texas, Arizona and hot areas of California. Nissan also restricts fast charging to a certain number of events per week. Yet, we see no improvement in the range of the battery. Why?

And, what I dislike the most...a secret battery replacement cost; chin music from Nissan with no real solutions, i.e., an offer to rent the battery for $1,200 a year on the never, never plan; a suggestion that they will replace the battery after it loses 33% of its new car capacity. BTW, I'm sure they have calculated this is the worse case within the data they have collected. I'm sure they are very good at counting beans.

Nissan is blowing the opportunity to lead automotive personal transportation into the future; it seems as if they are waiting for Tesla to catch up in their segment of the business. If I were Nissan, I would be afraid, very afraid because Tesla's management is "all in" on EVs while Nissan appears too busy counting beans. And, BTW,I would like nothing better than to be all wrong on this[ but, so far this is what I see.

 

[planet4ever]

Range: Nissan has had three years to improve the Leaf battery; but, hasn't. The true no-worry range of a new Nissan Leaf is 70 miles on a full charge when you drive it 55 mph on flat land. The range decreases from that point because of battery ageing and normal battery usage. In addition, the battery is rather fragile and looses capacity when operated in high temperature zones like Texas, Arizona and hot areas of California. Nissan also restricts fast charging to a certain number of events per week. Yet, we see no improvement in the range of the battery. Why?

Some of what you say is true, but you are overstating the problem. Your "no-worry" range must be based on never using the bottom quarter of the battery's capacity. I would not call the battery "fragile" as we have no reports of any of them breaking, or indeed even failing completely. And Nissan no longer restricts the number of quick charges, only cautioning that you should not quick-charge if the battery temperature is near the red zone.

Engineering, testing, and manufacturing a new battery takes time. I don't fault Nissan for taking the time to do it right. They have told us that we will probably have a better battery some time during the 2014 model year.

Ray

 

[xado1]

i hate
the range,is there no way to install a second original battery pack instead of the back seat and install some cells in the trunk,then install a manual switch to change from battery 1 to 2,the car should work with both,i guess.
even my chinese zotye5008EV makes 100miles in european winter conditions,without regen!!!!!

i dont like the door-open-peep

for me the leaf is nr.2 behind tesla(ev)
nr1 hyprid ist the volt/ampera,but 2 month ago,the gov gave me 16.250$for buying a ev.now they would give me also 10.000$ for a ampera,that why i think about buying one.

 

[treinjapan]

It seems like the thing most people dislike is the battery degradation. So, knowing that the range is 80-100 miles, did most of you guys expect to be able to do a 70-90 mile commute regularly?

Also, has anyone on here actually gained access to that 5-year battery warranty and had their battery replaced?

 

[jhm614]

Also, has anyone on here actually gained access to that 5-year battery warranty and had their battery replaced?

Yes, there have been a few replacements. Some of the info is collected here

 

[apvbguy]

In addition to its usual uses in an ICEV, with my Leaf I've had to use it on inattentive pedestrians in parking lots. They have apparently accustomed themselves to listening for car engines rather than actually watching where they are going.

Yes. Before changing the horn people would be just backing up into me. They couldn't hear the leaf and they couldn't hear the horn.

you should consider patience, consideration and manners!
do you really blow your horn at pedestrians?

 

[ebill3]

you 2 should consider patience, consideration and manners!
do you really blow your horn at pedestrians?

No, of course not. But when I need or want a horn, I want something that can be noticed. Why bother with something that goes meep, meep?

REGEN. It was sad to start with, then they made it even sadder.
Tesla's regen - wow?!

But, wife and I sill very happy with the LEAF.

 

[TomT]

There is really only one thing that I truly hate about the Leaf: Battery degradation. The rest are dislikes: Soft handling; weak regen (particularly after the P3227 update); the pitiful nav, audio, voice recognition and display system; the horn; and the GOM.

 

[mwalsh]

It seems like the thing most people dislike is the battery degradation. So, knowing that the range is 80-100 miles, did most of you guys expect to be able to do a 70-90 mile commute regularly?

Also, has anyone on here actually gained access to that 5-year battery warranty and had their battery replaced?

I anticipated that expecting 70 miles at 5 years would not be too out of line. I'm obviously disappointed that it's not turned out to be the case. There have been a couple of replacements now under the warranty.

 

[treinjapan]

you 2 should consider patience, consideration and manners!
do you really blow your horn at pedestrians?

No, of course not. But when I need or want a horn, I want something that can be noticed. Why bother with something that goes meep, meep?

REGEN. It was sad to start with, then they made it even sadder.
Tesla's regen - wow?!

But, wife and I sill very happy with the LEAF.

How has this changed since the "R" mode or whatever was released in recent models? Are you disappointed with the regen just because it doesn't compare to other electric cars? Or because it doesn't appear to keep the battery up even though you're supposedly "regening" a lot?

 

[vrwl]

Battery degradation, the lack of ability to turn on the fan without turning on the full climate control system, the energy hogging heater, and now they've messed up our regen with a software update... other than that, I love this car!

 

[Stanton]

I can't believe no one has said it: pressing "ok" every time I start the car!
The disappearing regen has been baffling and a bummer as of late. I'm willing to cut the range/battery some slack assuming Nissan makes good on the "hot pack" replacement warranty; as early adopters we should acknowledge the unknowns of new technology.