Some disappointments

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raleedy

Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2014
Messages
20
My local dealer offered to swap me out of our 2014 SV into a new 2016 SV with some modest monthly savings on the lease payment. What could possibly go wrong? Just a few things:

1. The 2014 had LED headlights with automatic switch, and fog lights. The 2016 has none of this, and the headlights are poor. I noticed this immediately on leaving the dealer's lot.

2. Somehow the 2016 has a wider turning radius.

3. The new 3G connection doesn't allow communication with my phone . . . so far. I haven't had time to try for support, but the connection works fine, somehow, from my desktop computer.

4. The biggest thing is the MPGe. Over 30 months, the 2014 averaged 4.2 mi/kwh. In the new car, I'm getting only about 3.4. This has a very large impact on range. Granted, it's cold just now, and we'll have to see how it does in warmer ambient temperatures. But for the moment the difference in power consumption means that I have only roughly the same range as in the old car, but with much longer charge times.
 
Except for the headlights and phone issue, I think you are looking at tire-related problems, not any change in the car itself. have you inflated the tires to 40psi or so? The dealership would have set them at a terrible 36psi. They also need to wear in a bit. If the car really does have a wider turning radius, it may have a problem in the steering gear.
 
I can only guess how dim the halogen headlights are with the low float voltage of the 12-volt battery--not much you can do about that now. I am not aware of any suspension changes so turning radius should be the same. If front wheel alignment was way out, it would affect efficiency and possibly the turning radius. As LeftieBiker said, tire pressure is the most likely cause of the low efficiency. I had the telematics upgrade done on my 2015 and it did not impact my ability to check car status from laptop, iPad, or BlackBerry (Android app) so I think you will get the phone issue resolved.

Gerry
 
You can replace the OEM halogen headlight bulbs with Philips "X-Treme Power" bulbs, but the improvement will be very modest. Mostly they just fill in the empty spots in the pattern that the high beams have, a bit.
 
raleedy said:
My local dealer offered to swap me out of our 2014 SV into a new 2016 SV with some modest monthly savings on the lease payment. What could possibly go wrong? Just a few things:

1. The 2014 had LED headlights with automatic switch, and fog lights. The 2016 has none of this, and the headlights are poor. I noticed this immediately on leaving the dealer's lot.
I'm guessing your '14 SV has the quick charge + LED headlight package (LED Headlights + Quick Charge Port: LED headlights, auto on/off headlights, fog lights, quick charge port per specs tab of http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/presskits/us-2014-nissan-leaf-press-kit).

Per Specs tab of http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/presskits/us-2016-nissan-leaf-press-kit, you can't get that package anymore on the SV. You need to go to SL auto headlights and LED headlights.

Yes, the halogens are a lot worse than the LEDs. I asked for headlight upgrade advice at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=20234 w/o doing an LED conversion from random (not big name) vendors, which I'm hesitant to do.
 
I've driven LED's and halogens. Halogens with best bulbs are no worse than LED's.
This is just an illusion 5000-6000K light gives. In bad weather halogens are better.

Halogens with OEM bulbs are worse than LED-s.

PS: Nissan LED and other high-grade LED headlights (Mercedes, BMW, etc) are not comparable.
They use different technology and different chips, different optics.

Nissan is not burning bulbs below normal voltage. 13V in warm weather. In US bulbs are rated at 12.8V,
in EU 13.2V.
My BMW (and all BMW-s made in this century) have onboard voltage around 13.6-15,5V (depending on situation)
but they keep bulbs at reduced voltage (PWM method) if engine running. I bet Mercedes does the same.
 
I swapped out my 2013 SV for a 2016 SV at lease end much as you did.

1) I also lost the headlight upgrade in the 2013 which i missed immediately but I never missed the fog lights. This never occurred to me while I was shopping.

2) I also lost the seat heater on the back seats which i had in my 2013. Because I live in Seattle I usually rely on the seat heaters except for defrosting so I've gotten some grief my kids about the loss of the back seat heater.

3) I took an efficiency hit as well. I think it is partly due to the greater weight of the 30kWh battery and the Michelin tires which I've heard are not as efficient as the Bridgestones I had on my 2013. I'll be curious if this improves with tire wear. I'm at about 13K miles now but it is cold and wet now so efficiency is in the winter lull anyway. The Michelin's do seem to be wearing better than the original Bridgestones did. I had to the original Bridgestones at 30K miles in my 2013, these seem to be wearing better.

4) On the whole though I really like the 2016SV. I traded in at 45K with 12 bars but I was very close to losing the top bar. I really noticed a big range boost from the "tired" 2013 with a 24 kWh battery with the "fresh" 2016 with a 30kW battery. I think I've got about 35% range improvement over the 2013. I also got the Bose upgrade and backup camera both of which I like.

I'm happy with the swap, if I had to do it again I would have liked the LED lights (but probably not enough to get the SL).
 
I checked the empty vehicle weights and 30kWh model is not meaningfully different from 24kWh model.
New tires definitely have more rolling resistance than used ones.

I recommend upgrading halogen bulbs RIGHT AWAY - don't wait until they burn out - this will take few years.
hqdefault.jpg


Stay away from bulbs that a) are cheap b) have blue tint from top to bottom.
You will get back to LED brightness if you switch to expensive bulbs.
 
I did a little test of the "low voltage theory" a couple of weeks ago. While driving on a dark country road, with the high beams on, I turned on the wipers. This should have raised the 12 volt system voltage a bit, but it made no difference at all in the brightness of the high beams.
 
I recently got a 17 and the headlights are disappointing to me as well. I am not coming from a earlier Leaf but a BMW that had excellent head lights. However, when I turned on the headlights the first night I had to look around to see if I switched them all the way on. I thought I just had the fog lights on or something at first. Unfortunately the headlights were on, they are just pitiful. I don't see great at night after having my eye's lenses replaced and these headlights sure leave a lot to be desired. I wish I had tested this out before I bought the car. I was thinking of getting and SL instead of an SV before and probably would have gone for the SL had I known this at the time.

I guess I should up my tire pressure as well. I had read that a few places before and it is easy to do. I do generally agree that a little extra air pressure helps how most cars do on the road. I was a driving coach while I worked through college and we would recommend people up their pressure to ~40 lbs. before coming on our private range. There is a point where too much pressure will cause the inside of the tire to wear too quickly and will hurt cornering speeds but generally a little higher then recommended from the factory will help the cars responsiveness and have a small increase in mileage. When I go to the track, I keep logs of my tire pressure before and after each session and I really dial the car in with pressure. It is amazing how big an impact tire pressure can have.
 
I was thinking of getting and SL instead of an SV before and probably would have gone for the SL had I known this at the time.

The LED option replaces only the adequate-for-most low beams. The high beams remain terrible halogens.
 
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