drive electric tour 10/8-10/10 @ OC Auto Show (Anaheim)

The Nissan LEAF drive electric tour event on 10.8.2010-10.10.2010 will be held on Lot 6 at the Anaheim Convention Center in conjunction with the OC Auto Show.

Hopefully, it will be run even better than it was at the AltCar Expo.

Admission is $10 for adults (but I think that is just for the main exhibits in the convention center, access to Lot 6 should be free).
Parking, however, is at least $10.

Please post any info and reports from this event if you attend.

$2 off coupon for the OC Auto Show admission ticket,
for 7 or 8 Oct. at http://www.orangecountyautoshow.com
(Use the "Coupon" link at the very bottom if the page.)

garygid said:

$2 off coupon for the OC Auto Show admission ticket,
for 7 or 8 Oct. at http://www.orangecountyautoshow.com
(Use the "Coupon" link at the very bottom if the page.)

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For a limited time you can use the promotional code "EARLYBIRD" for an additional $1 off. Also, the "e-ticket" purchase comes with a 12-month subscription to Motor Trend. I passed because I'm not into car mags, but $7 for a 12-month subscription plus admission to the show seems like a pretty good deal to me.

http://www.tixonlinenow.com/ocautoshow/tickets.asp?type=tixonlinenow&cid=16_11_etix_earlybird

I was at Tustin Nissan today and they had free OC Auto Show tickets for people wanting to see the Leaf. They told me to send anyone to the dealerhship or get them on the website.

http://www.tustinnissan.com

carshot said:

I was at Tustin Nissan today and they had free OC Auto Show tickets for people wanting to see the Leaf. They told me to send anyone to the dealerhship or get them on the website.

http://www.tustinnissan.com

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Not free Saturday and Sunday. Coupon is good for two $6 entries Sat & Sun. Still beats $10 but a little misleading and I hate that.

Fill in a form and they display a "ticket" to print directly from your browser.

Good for Thursday or Friday admission, or for to buy up to 2 Saturday or Sunday tickets for $6 each.

Also includes an optional 12-month Motor Trend subscription.

I did the $7 online for my wife and I (thanks for the tip here). She is really itching to drive the LEAF again. We are Reserved this time for 5:30pm Sat and we would like to spend some time sitting in a static car for a bit. If you start at the top of the garage and they want to do a street portion like AltCar... I wonder how they will do the course? This could be fun!

Free 12 month subscription

Good for Thursday or Friday admission, or for to buy up to 2 Saturday or Sunday tickets for $6 each

Click on the link for your FREE Orange County Auto Show ticket! - http://www.autoshowtickets.com/oc/friend.asp?code=OCTUSNIS

TRONZ said:

If you start at the top of the garage and they want to do a street portion like AltCar... I wonder how they will do the course?

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Typically events like this have come out onto Katella Ave, turned right onto Harbor Blvd, then right again onto Convention way, and right one last time on to West St. But that was at an event using the parking lot by the truck entrance off West St. I don't know how they would get you back in if they use the parking garage on the other side of the convention hall.

Does anyone know if any of the Nissan LEAF partners will be present at this weekend's event? It would be helpful to be able to talk to the AV or ECOtality people.

I spent a few hours there today. I bumped into Omkar and his brother, which was fun.

No sign of EVSE suppliers, either at the Nissan drive area or inside the Auto Show hall, so that aspect of last week's Alt Car Expo is missing in Anaheim.

Things were going smoothly at the Nissan Drive event. Their crowd management software was moving people through smoothly. You still have to wait through the successive "rooms" where they describe aspects of the car, Nissan's EV history, the batteries, the iPhone connectivity, the range management, etc. They had two static cars to crawl around in, so plenty of access for that activity. They had shade while you awaited your drive opportunity, much better than in Santa Monica in the afternoon.

One man had an 11:30 online appointment and he was still waiting to get into a group at 11:35, so he escalated the problem with a Nissan staff member and they got him into the next group. I recommend that everyone with an appointment should do that if time is getting late. They should move you ahead of walk-ins if you have an appointment. Whatever you do, don't miss the chance to drive the Leaf if they are running behind, speak up.

By the way, someone asked if the red paint is a metallic color. Yes, indeed it is. I think they are all metallic except the black. I looked closely at the black and it isn't metallic.

The drive course was more varied than the one they had in Santa Monica. It starts on the top deck of the parking structure (on the west side of the Convention Center, close to West Street), with a curvy course, then down a ramp to ground level and out onto West Street, then a quick right into a residential area and about a mile of driving along residential streets with some curves and several stop signs. Then back along West Street and onto the Convention Center property again. It was about a 10 minute drive experience.

Since the crowds were minimal, I was able to drive the course twice today. I'm still very impressed with the build quality, the acceleration, the handling, and the quiet, relaxed feel of driving. While the steering feels very power boosted, I felt confident in where I placed the car. One thing that hasn't been discussed much is the front visibility. As in the Prius and other cars with short front ends, you have no view of the nose of the car, so placement in parking slots will have to be learned. Drivers who are used to cars with longer noses will find the Leaf's view through the windshield takes some getting used to.

Someone posted about being concerned about seat comfort. I spent quite a while in the front seats today, with that in mind. While the seats are not power adjustable and they only have front/rear, seatback angle, and a height adjustment wheel, I still found them wide enough and comfortable for me. There is plenty of leg space in front, and that helps to provide a comfortable driving position. As far as the seat material quality, I looked for signs of soil and wear on the fabric and I wasn't able to see any. These are the same cars that went through three days of customer drives last weekend.

Someone asked earlier whether the Nav screen that shows the range circles can be zoomed in to street level and the answer is yes. I didn't play with any of the audio options, and the Nissan Drive program ride-along advisors aren't trained in many of the on-screen functions, so you should probably bring some of your music and try it in the static cars, which are fully powered, by the way.

Boomer23 said:

Someone posted about being concerned about seat comfort. I spent quite a while in the front seats today, with that in mind. While the seats are not power adjustable and they only have front/rear, seatback angle, and a height adjustment wheel, I still found them wide enough and comfortable for me.

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The main reason the seats are not as confy as they could have been is to make you stop before running out of range

No, that's what the spikes are for that shoot up out of the driver's seat bottom when you get to 3 miles of range remaining. You have to stand up for the last few miles.

It was nice running into you there Boomer! I saw Gary and Mitch there too

Where's the characteristic electric motor "whine" noise?

I expected to hear that noise, but did not notice it. Was I just too involved in avoiding the cones, or pretending to know how to drive? But, now that I think back, I do not remember hearing it. Did I forget already? ... pause ... Forget what? :lol:

Yes, very light (Japan style, not EURO style) steering, but the car still seemed to miss the cones, but maybe it was "trained"? I did not try hands-off to see if the wheel would re-center. Did anybody else?

The left side of the cargo area has a can of "Goo", and what appeared to be a 12v air-compressor for tire inflation. Also is a small black "bag" (side-opening envelope style) containing 3 "tools", which appeared to be:
1. a flat-blade screwdriver
2. a wheel lug-nut wrench
3. an inert carbon rod ... no, a steel rod with a thumb-sized loop in one end, ?? on the other.

A BIG (towing?) eye-bolt was found in the glove box, but might not be standard equipment.

It was not clear how one might jack up the car to get a wheel off.

The L1 EVSE was a heavy plastic box, split on the narrow edges where there appeared to be an o-ring waterproof seal. It appears that there are probably screws behind the 6 "feet" on the backside of the EVSE box. Heavier than I expected, probably one could drive over the box without damaging it.

More later, taking wife to drive today.

Heading over to the OC auto show with the family this afternoon. Looking forward to my test drive and poking around the cars.

We might see you there, JPV. I have a 2 pm appointment for my wife to drive.

Nissan will hate me for doing this, but i'm enough of a jerk to do it, just for fun. (Nissan, please don't delay my Leaf's delivery date, just because I have a sense of humor.)

Of course, this was the biggest flaw I saw in the whole day's operation, so that's saying a big thumbs up for how well their event is running.

Nissan had a Drive Electric Tour map posted in the waiting area. While I was waiting for my drive, I was bored enough to wander over and read the map.

Here's what they had posted for Arizona:



So you folks south of Tempe in "Tuscan" can look forward to your drive when the tour arrives there.

By the way, Tucson was spelled properly on the Tour schedule posted elsewhere on the same sign.

I pointed the error out to one of the very helpful Nissan fellows there and he called someone else over. They were much chagrined and said they would get that fixed pronto!

Boomer23 said:

Nissan will hate me for doing this, but i'm enough of a jerk to do it, just for fun. (Nissan, please don't delay my Leaf's delivery date, just because I have a sense of humor.)

Nissan had a Drive Electric Tour map posted in the waiting area. While I was waiting for my drive, I was bored enough to wander over and read the map.

Here's what they had posted for Arizona:

So you folks south of Tempe in "Tuscan" can look forward to your drive when the tour arrives there.

By the way, Tucson was spelled properly on the Tour schedule posted elsewhere on the same sign.

I pointed the error out to one of the very helpful Nissan fellows there and he called someone else over. They were much chagrined and said they would get that fixed pronto!

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That's posted for all to see so don't worry about snapping pics of anything you see. I took pics just now ov the AV truck ... its got maybe 10 or 12 plugs on it. Well here I go ... I'm in the next group ...again.

Boomer23 said:

So you folks south of Tempe in "Tuscan" can look forward to your drive when the tour arrives there.

By the way, Tucson was spelled properly on the Tour schedule posted elsewhere on the same sign.

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But seriously, how many of us want to live in Tuscany rather than Tucson ?