Love the Leaf - not too happy with Nissan

We leased a 2014 Nissan Leaf on 08/01/2014.

We love the car!! But, we aren't happy with Nissan!

When delivered, it was missing: Charging cord, floor mats, tow hook cover, and SD CARD.

We got the charging cord, floor mats and tow cover after about 1.5 weeks.

It's been over a month and we have not received the SD CARD !!!

Now, I just went to make a payment, and the Nissan lease corporation has no record of our lease!

This is ridiculous!

Hee hee, then you don't have to pay?

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought we did lease a car, but I guess we didn't. My mistake. Have a good day!"

Hmm... did you give the dealer all "10"s on the eval? ha! Sounds like that dealer has a serious problem - I wonder if it is unique to their Leaf sales or if they have issues on all other vehicles as well.

I've had my 2015 SL for a week and a half without the SD card. It's pretty boring driving without the center console doing anything. Last I heard from my dealership the SD appears to have been lost (never sent to me) and now they're trying to get a new one from Nissan. I'm not thinking this dealership will be getting all 10s from me.

I love how I can't even change the clock successfully.

Why cripple the car so much? SD card problems happen all the time. I can understand the Nav going out but why take everything else offline?

does this sd card have info on it the car needs? If you just need a sd card just go buy one for $15

The SD card in the NAV unit is custom programmed for each unit. They cannot be copied or replaced with a generic SD card. If I recall, only Clarion can supply it to Nissan. There are several other threads if you search. In one of them recently, a dealer tried to tell the Leaf owner that he needed to replace the entire $3500 NAV unit, but it was resolved by another dealer much cheaper.

You (or the dealer) can easily order map updates or replacements online at this link. They come on a new SD card and to order it you have to give them information from your current NAV screen...

http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/Navteq-NissanNorthAmerica-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewStandardCatalog-Browse?ShowAllProducts=YES&CatalogCategoryID=iM8KCghB9t4AAAEuFBFDJP3i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

burtondav said:

We leased a 2014 Nissan Leaf on 08/01/2014.

We love the car!! But, we aren't happy with Nissan!

When delivered, it was missing: Charging cord, floor mats, tow hook cover, and SD CARD.

We got the charging cord, floor mats and tow cover after about 1.5 weeks.

It's been over a month and we have not received the SD CARD !!!

Now, I just went to make a payment, and the Nissan lease corporation has no record of our lease!

This is ridiculous!

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Agree it's a really bad experience, but this is due to dealer incompetence. Unfortunately, state laws make it very difficult for manufacturers to avoid having to sell through "independent" dealers.

I generally advocate rating dealers with all 10s if they did a good job on the sale because even a "9" is interpreted as "bad" by Nissan. But when they reek of incompetence like this I would give the dealer the lowest rating possible.

Randy said:

You (or the dealer) can easily order map updates or replacements online at this link. They come on a new SD card and to order it you have to give them information from your current NAV screen...

http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/Navteq-NissanNorthAmerica-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewStandardCatalog-Browse?ShowAllProducts=YES&CatalogCategoryID=iM8KCghB9t4AAAEuFBFDJP3i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Click to expand...

Unless the charging network and a much longer range battery gets a lot better I wouldn't see the need to update my maps for $179; would be shocked if someone actually was able to switch regions in one of these unless the car goes on a flat bed to get there ! Love my LEAF but quite doubtful if it ever goes beyond IL, WI, IN or MI from Chicago ... I have seen these map SD upgrades go for more than this for other mfg.'s but also for less

The charging stations are updated over the air so no need to update the map for them...

redLEAF said:

Unless the charging network and a much longer range battery gets a lot better I wouldn't see the need to update my maps for $179

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Car leaf support. They helped a ton the first month we had our leaf (hell month) but the 16 months afterward have been perfect. They paid our first month lease payment, because of issues we had with leaf.

What phone number is that? I'd like to call them since it's been 2 weeks after I took delivery of my Leaf but still haven't received a SD card.

There is one central Nissan EV support line:
(877) NO GAS EV (or 877-664-2738)

You can use this same number to get free emergency roadside assistance while under warranty or have technical questions contemplated (and sometimes answered).

Bob

In my humble opinion, The SD card is so central to proper operation they should not offered it for sale with it missing.

This is not a Nissan problem as they do not control the sale. It is the selling dealers problem.

All cars come from the factory with the card installed. It the selling dealer had so poor control of their inventory why is it Nissan's problem?

Moral of the story? Check the car out before you accept delivery. If everything isn't as it should be, don't take the car.

On a slightly different tangent: these Nissan dealers (and all car dealers) ought to be watching carefully the distribution model Tesla is using. Set up a storefront in an upscale regional mall, hire a few folks to staff the place, and be done with it. Service is handled separately at nearby industrial parks. No need for dedicated property, buildings, signs, lights every night, heavy security, etc. Much more efficient, and much less intimidating for the customer. The reality is, they can't even seem to keep the lousy fast chargers working, that are installed right at the dealer property! I wouldn't be complaining if it were offered to all paying customers free of cost, but they are not. I would expect Nissan corporate to be all over NRG, Charge Point, or whoever is operating this "network" that EV drivers are supposed to depend on to get to where they are going. Instead, they are treated as vermin by many dealer GM's, and that is troubling. Come on Nissan, call them all in and tell them they need to support the EV concept entirely, or just decide not to sell them in the first place. Let the dealers who are willing to support the vehicle, and its drivers, benefit from the business. I have no problem paying for superior service, but severely detest paying for mediocrity, or worse.

UDPATE - the dealer FedExed us a new contract to sign.
And low and behold the lease payment is higher than what we originally signed.
We've had the Leaf for 44 days and still no valid contract!

burtondav said:

UDPATE - the dealer FedExed us a new contract to sign.
And low and behold the lease payment is higher than what we originally signed.
We've had the Leaf for 44 days and still no valid contract!

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IF you have other dealers in the area I would suggest you drive over there with the (unsigned) new contract (and the old one just in case) and say - "Here is your car, no thank you" and go away.

IF you signed a contract (and they did too) that contract is it - they can't go increasing the payments etc. Since you are not happy with the vehicle give them the option to walk away (with their car) and you walk away buying it elsewhere.

Just my 2c. As you can see I have a very low tolerance for such games - one could say it was "just a mistake" in which case they sound totally incompetent and deserve to lose your business.