New Ower of a 2014 Leaf

Hi - After teasing my employer that it wasn't right for a company with thousands of employees to constantly brag about being a Green Company and not have even one parking space where an electric car could be charged. Two weeks later the electricians were installing the Charge Points and Facilities was painting the "Green" lines in the parking garage. Now the burning question: "OK, when are you going to plug in?" Note - Next time put an anonymous suggestion in the box.

Saturday September 17th I fooled around at the "Real" Nissan dealer looking at off-lease Leafs and finally ended up at a specialty Hybrid Only shop who had the cars I wanted at prices that beat the Nissan dealers and no high dealers fees that drove the price up by thousands afterwards. The Nissan dealer seemed rather no pulsed about making a sale and even went so far as to claim they were not allowed to sell the cars I wanted yet so I would have to come back later (huh?). I got a 2014 Pearl White Leaf S with 16,000 miles on it and 12 bars on the battery that looks close enough to being just off the showroom floor for me. Cloth interior, bluetooth and backup camera along with the DC charge port. The CarFax comes up squeaky clean and the condition of the car appears to indicate that is true.

The families reaction to my surprise purchase was that this is a real car and not a toy or novelty. This morning at 6:25 AM my boss saw my Charge Point access request and granted it so now I am commuting to work for free.

The only immediate accessories I can see needing are a good cell phone mount and sunshades that are a good fit for the large windshield. A trailer hitch for my little utility trailer, a bike rack or a hitch hauler will probably be in the near future too.

I drove 48 miles down the interstate to get home after I picked it up and then ran local errands for hours till past sunset on Saturday and still had about 30 miles indicated as available. An overnight session on the 110 volt charger brought everything back to 100% by morning on Sunday. The only negative I see so far aside from the spare tire/jack situation is that Progressive quoted some pretty high rates for Comprehensive Coverage compared to what I am used to as a 61 year old safe driver.


Thanks,

Rocky

Congrats on the "new" Leaf. You'll want to shop for insurance, because rates vary a lot for these cars. Also, the thing that you plug in to charge the car at home is the "EVSE" or "Charging Cable." The charger is actually built into the car, and because your car has the QC option, you also get the faster charger. This won't matter charging at home or with a QC station, but it will charge twice as fast at L-2 240 volt stations as the base S with 3.3kw charger.

i used to have insurance with Liberty Mutual until they decided to pump up the rates a couple of years ago. i ended up with the British lizard company that begins with a G, and pay about $42 per month per car, i have two nissan leafs.

Congrats on joining the EV community. There are a ton of benefits too long to list here.

Review posts related to charging etiquette. And be careful to not sit in the EV charging spot at work for significantly longer than needed to charge. We don't want to discourage other employees from going green or prevent them from being able to charge.

Also, look into getting a level 2 EVSE for your home. The car will charge must faster, which means it will be ready for more trips and you will get better use out of it.

LeftieBiker said:

Congrats on the "new" Leaf. You'll want to shop for insurance, because rates vary a lot for these cars. Also, the thing that you plug in to charge the car at home is the "EVSE" or "Charging Cable." The charger is actually built into the car, and because your car has the QC option, you also get the faster charger. This won't matter charging at home or with a QC station, but it will charge twice as fast at L-2 240 volt stations as the base S with 3.3kw charger.

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Yes with the Quick Charge option I get the 6.6 KW charger built into the car instead of just the 3.3 and EVSE(Emergency Charger as the Owners Manual calls it) along with the DC port. The Charge Point at the office is a 6.6 so I would watch for an empty charging spot some time after lunch to charge the car in time for the drive home so I could start the AC while still on the charger. Taking a charging spot when I arrive at 7 AM would mean searching for another spot once the car was charged full when the parking garage was also full and likely having to park out in the sun, I work and live in Tampa Bay Florida where the roadways are over 100 degrees most of the year so stating off with a cool car helps a lot.

DuncanCunningham said:

i used to have insurance with Liberty Mutual until they decided to pump up the rates a couple of years ago. i ended up with the British lizard company that begins with a G, and pay about $42 per month per car, i have two nissan leafs.

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I was a hold-on/out that had been with that Umbrella company for over 40 years and just switched to a policy with the lady in the white apron for my other vehicles at a substantial discount so it was a bit of a shock to get a quote of over $1,000 every 6 months (almost the same price regardless of the deductable with literally only a $2 to $5 difference) for comprehensive on a car I paid less than $10,000 for. When I visit my local agent for the inspection (the lady in the white apron insists on it) who is a multi insurance company rep at an auto club I will see what they have for comparative quotes from other vendors.