I've been lurking this forum for a couple of months while I've considered getting a Leaf. I figured all the Leaf-er's here might appreciate this story about my test drive. I apologize if the story gets a bit rambling, I can't help it...
Went to the nearby dealer on Sunday to take a look at a Leaf. The dealership's "Leaf expert" wasn't in that day, but the kid who was taking care of us seemed pretty well-educated about the Leaf. Being the nerd that I am, I had done a ton of research on my own, and he didn't seem to say anything that was at odds with what I'd read. Spent a little time with the model in their showroom, and then headed out to take the test drive.
One problem, both of their "test drive" units that were plugged into the L2 had been blocked in by one of the salesmen, who couldn't be found at that moment to move the offending vehicle. So we grabbed one off the lot. When my SO fired it up, I saw that the range meter said 28 miles. This didn't seem like that big of a deal, as loop that we were going to drive seemed like it would be "short". Turns out that the loop is 17 miles, mostly highway. I think you see where this is going. On top of that, the high that day was 25F, and the low the night before had been something like 12F. So the car was cold-soaked, and my SO needs the heat on when it's 55F out, let alone 25F.
So to summarize, 25F air temperature, cold-soaked car, 28 miles on the range meter, 17 mile highway driving loop. Heat on basically the whole time. Hit LBW about 6 miles from the dealer, hit VLBW @ about 2 miles to go, if I remember correctly. Interestingly, we pulled off to switch drivers about half-way at a shopping center that had a Blink L2 and DC. I figured the kid would pop it on the charger for a bit while we went over some of the interior features, etc. He showed us how you would hook up, but didn't actually charge the thing. As we were getting closer (and lower on electrons), I made a joke about him having to buy beers for all the sales guys if he managed to turtle it on a test drive. I was driving, but SO says he was really sweating it in the back seat. Didn't end up turtle-ing it, but we had to be damn close when we got back to the dealer, and plugged in at another L2 in their service department.
Anyway, thought you all would be amused by the story...
--G
BTW--The kid said that the dealer would be putting in a DCQC soon. Should be available 24/7. Alan Webb Nissan, Vancouver, WA.
Went to the nearby dealer on Sunday to take a look at a Leaf. The dealership's "Leaf expert" wasn't in that day, but the kid who was taking care of us seemed pretty well-educated about the Leaf. Being the nerd that I am, I had done a ton of research on my own, and he didn't seem to say anything that was at odds with what I'd read. Spent a little time with the model in their showroom, and then headed out to take the test drive.
One problem, both of their "test drive" units that were plugged into the L2 had been blocked in by one of the salesmen, who couldn't be found at that moment to move the offending vehicle. So we grabbed one off the lot. When my SO fired it up, I saw that the range meter said 28 miles. This didn't seem like that big of a deal, as loop that we were going to drive seemed like it would be "short". Turns out that the loop is 17 miles, mostly highway. I think you see where this is going. On top of that, the high that day was 25F, and the low the night before had been something like 12F. So the car was cold-soaked, and my SO needs the heat on when it's 55F out, let alone 25F.
So to summarize, 25F air temperature, cold-soaked car, 28 miles on the range meter, 17 mile highway driving loop. Heat on basically the whole time. Hit LBW about 6 miles from the dealer, hit VLBW @ about 2 miles to go, if I remember correctly. Interestingly, we pulled off to switch drivers about half-way at a shopping center that had a Blink L2 and DC. I figured the kid would pop it on the charger for a bit while we went over some of the interior features, etc. He showed us how you would hook up, but didn't actually charge the thing. As we were getting closer (and lower on electrons), I made a joke about him having to buy beers for all the sales guys if he managed to turtle it on a test drive. I was driving, but SO says he was really sweating it in the back seat. Didn't end up turtle-ing it, but we had to be damn close when we got back to the dealer, and plugged in at another L2 in their service department.
Anyway, thought you all would be amused by the story...
--G
BTW--The kid said that the dealer would be putting in a DCQC soon. Should be available 24/7. Alan Webb Nissan, Vancouver, WA.
