New leaf owner from Atlanta, most absurd trade ever?

So for many different reasons, my wife and I made the decision to purchase a Nissan Leaf. She currently drives a 2011 Honda Fit sport. But it wasn't her car that we traded in, it was mine: a 2012 Ford Mustang GT Premium with the 5.0 liter V8 Halliburton special (srsly it took 8 qrts of oil!). It was a strange feeling trading in my monstrously loud and overly powerful muscle car for a near silent, economically smart, electric car. I can't tell you the crap all my buddies and coworkers have given me for it too. But honestly, doesn't bother me in the least. I'm laughing all the way to the bank with my 120* mpg instead of 17 and riding in the HOV lane!

So anyway, we went with a 2015 SV in MorningSky Blue (my wife's choice. I prefer more neutral like the Gun Metallic but oh well). The biggest paradigm shift for me is how quiet and serene the cabin is while driving. I have always owned (purposely) loud cars. My most recent mustang had upgraded exhaust and other performance enhancements, so even on my daily commute, it was just a constant drone, which didn't bother me as I was used to it. But wow, the Leaf is so peaceful and i love it. I can listen to my audiobooks without being on max volume, and people can actually hear/understand me when using the bluetooth system!

That's not to say that the car is perfect by any means. I'd have to say that the biggest let down is carwings. I am planning to create my own app/automation via the api though. And on that note, why is there no way to tell the car to stop charging at a certain capacity (especially since the warranty/capacity states that consistent charging over 80% could degrade performance)? Oh well. I'll probably go the route that other have by using a timer on the outlet. What my eventual plan though is to tap into the carwings api and use some basic home automation to turn off the outlet when the car reaches a certain charge.

alteredshadow said:

And on that note, why is there no way to tell the car to stop charging at a certain capacity (especially since the warranty/capacity states that consistent charging over 80% could degrade performance)?

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Probably because Nissan wants a way to say, "Ah-ha! See? You screwed up! No battery replacement under warranty for you!"
Or because the 80% thing is a load of crap... who knows. (But they took it away because it messed up their EPA range estimates.)

alteredshadow said:

It was a strange feeling trading in my monstrously loud and overly powerful muscle car for a near silent, economically smart, electric car.

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Believe me, you are not the only Motorhead Leaf owner, there are many, many of us in this forum. I have owned several 400-500 HP cars, but also as a techy Geek I find myself drawn to electric cars now.

Another motorhead here. My last car was a turbo Supra. Love the Leaf.

keydiver said:

alteredshadow said:

It was a strange feeling trading in my monstrously loud and overly powerful muscle car for a near silent, economically smart, electric car.

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Believe me, you are not the only Motorhead Leaf owner, there are many, many of us in this forum. I have owned several 400-500 HP cars, but also as a techy Geek I find myself drawn to electric cars now.

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nice to know I'm in good company!

alteredshadow said:

I'm laughing all the way to the bank with my 120* mpg instead of 17 and riding in the HOV lane!

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Indeed. They might as well rename the HOV the Leaf lane these days.

I'm unclear as to why you don't want to charge past 80%? They removed that on the 2013 and never models. Most evidence that we are seeing is showing that charging to 100% is not a problem (especially on the 2015 models) You still however want to avoid leaving it at 100% for long periods of time, as this will keep it at a higher temp for much longer. Check some of the posts here on the 2015 models and you'll see that they are much more resilient.

tkdbrusco said:

I'm unclear as to why you don't want to charge past 80%? They removed that on the 2013 and never models. Most evidence that we are seeing is showing that charging to 100% is not a problem (especially on the 2015 models) You still however want to avoid leaving it at 100% for long periods of time, as this will keep it at a higher temp for much longer. Check some of the posts here on the 2015 models and you'll see that they are much more resilient.

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The 80% feature is nice for being able to charge the car until it stops and then not have to drive it right away. I use it all the time.

LeftieBiker said:

The 80% feature is nice for being able to charge the car until it stops and then not have to drive it right away. I use it all the time.

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Wait, are you saying there is a way to stop it at 80%? or that it would be a nice feature if you could?

And even if the battery is more resilient, my concern is the verbiage in the warranty. If I had a battery or related system crap out within the warranty, I'm afraid they could fall back to the verbiage that states that keeping a high charge is detrimental and void the warranty. Take this with a grain of salt as i have not opened up the 200 page warranty booklet on my 2015.

alteredshadow said:

LeftieBiker said:

The 80% feature is nice for being able to charge the car until it stops and then not have to drive it right away. I use it all the time.

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Wait, are you saying there is a way to stop it at 80%? or that it would be a nice feature if you could?

And even if the battery is more resilient, my concern is the verbiage in the warranty. If I had a battery or related system crap out within the warranty, I'm afraid they could fall back to the verbiage that states that keeping a high charge is detrimental and void the warranty. Take this with a grain of salt as i have not opened up the 200 page warranty booklet on my 2015.

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It's not in the 2015 model -- it was in 2011-2013(?) models.

tractioninc said:

alteredshadow said:

I'm laughing all the way to the bank with my 120* mpg instead of 17 and riding in the HOV lane!

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Indeed. They might as well rename the HOV the Leaf lane these days.

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Here in So Cal, Orange County to be precise it's the Tesla & Volt Lane =)

You probably could have made the V8 pretty darn quiet by popping out a fuse. Modern cars don't sound throaty enough, so they process the sound and pump it through the speakers to make it sound "right".

The real question is why the EV market hasn't caught on. I am sure there are some meat heads who would be won over if they could select an appropriate sound profile for when they mashed the pedal down (V8, street bike, Harley, steam engine, or Back to the Future DeLorean sounds!). The chimes for backing up and warning pedestrians are all rather disappointing.