minispeed
Well-known member
So how many times have you actually gone past turtle to the car not moving when you haven't made it home? Has it ever stopped without getting to a flashing "--" GOM or with a very short turtle mode? I've hit turtle on my 2015 once, and it was on purpose to learn. I floored the car from a stop to 25 mph about 6 times after the "--" while going around my block 3 times, I hit turtle mode right before my driveway and didn't drive in that mode for more than a few feet.
Those are the only times that really mean the car didn't have enough range.
All the others could be a problem with the car calculating the energy inside the battery. IE you could have your low battery warning coming on at the wrong % and be able to drive 30 miles past that. You shouldn't be afraid to drive with the low battery warning or even the very low battery warning. You need to learn how much range your driving style will actually have. You also have so few miles on the car that it might be possible that the computer just has to learn the upper and lower limits better and you have to show it what it can and can't do. This may mean driving around in the shortest loop possible on your street till turtle like I did. You could also have a drive that cause the guess o meter to spike.
For example my drive, I live on the top of an escarpment. Everyday that I leave for work I'll go down the hill, I will also usually have any wind at my back and then the rest of the drive (45 miles) is mostly down hill but slight. By the time I get to work and charge back up to 100% the GOM sees a history of downhill wind at the back driving and gives me a high guess, in the winter it's been 90ish miles, in the summer it was as much as 125. But then I turn around, head against the wind and mostly up hill then right at the end I climb the escarpment and get around 1.5 miles/kWh while going up. So after driving 45 miles from an original 90 (winter time) estimate it will now show me 10-20 miles on the GOM but if I turned around and drove the other way I could easily go double that before running out for a total range of 65-95. Then when I charge at home it will have it's last memory of being that climb up the hill and show me 75 in the winter to 100 in the summer.
If you were getting 41mpg in a civic automatic then this probably has nothing to do with your driving. However if that number was from the civic computer and not your own pump calculations it could be about 5% off which would still be pretty good. If it was a civic manual transmission most of your good habits could be from the way you shift since a manual civic is capable of over 50 mpg. If that is the case you could have some really good manual transmission habits that now don't have any ability to show up in your Leaf driving and you could have some bad habits that aren't masked by your good shifting anymore.
You mentioned the car feels like it's got a pull or drag. Try a neutral coast down (if you're really concerned about the law like another poster stated do it in a parking lot) to see if that makes it go away. If not then you could have a brake or alignment drag. If it does go away then it is almost certainly the regen that you are feeling.
The tire PSI can be a good "patch" to get you back up to feeling more comfortable with the car but from the numbers you quote it doesn't sound like your tires are under inflated. There's a lot of info out there for people who have gone over PSI (over both car specs and tire specs). I'll let you do the searching and make up your mind without trying to force it on you but I'll point out that the info that says over PSI tires "round out" and ride high in the centre isn't true to todays modern built tires.
I don't want to sound like I'm telling you to throw money at it but did you also know there is the option to use a generator (if you buy the right type) to charge it? If this is an option for you where you park it at work it may make it easier to live with the car and will probably be cheaper than getting out of the lease right now.
Those are the only times that really mean the car didn't have enough range.
All the others could be a problem with the car calculating the energy inside the battery. IE you could have your low battery warning coming on at the wrong % and be able to drive 30 miles past that. You shouldn't be afraid to drive with the low battery warning or even the very low battery warning. You need to learn how much range your driving style will actually have. You also have so few miles on the car that it might be possible that the computer just has to learn the upper and lower limits better and you have to show it what it can and can't do. This may mean driving around in the shortest loop possible on your street till turtle like I did. You could also have a drive that cause the guess o meter to spike.
For example my drive, I live on the top of an escarpment. Everyday that I leave for work I'll go down the hill, I will also usually have any wind at my back and then the rest of the drive (45 miles) is mostly down hill but slight. By the time I get to work and charge back up to 100% the GOM sees a history of downhill wind at the back driving and gives me a high guess, in the winter it's been 90ish miles, in the summer it was as much as 125. But then I turn around, head against the wind and mostly up hill then right at the end I climb the escarpment and get around 1.5 miles/kWh while going up. So after driving 45 miles from an original 90 (winter time) estimate it will now show me 10-20 miles on the GOM but if I turned around and drove the other way I could easily go double that before running out for a total range of 65-95. Then when I charge at home it will have it's last memory of being that climb up the hill and show me 75 in the winter to 100 in the summer.
If you were getting 41mpg in a civic automatic then this probably has nothing to do with your driving. However if that number was from the civic computer and not your own pump calculations it could be about 5% off which would still be pretty good. If it was a civic manual transmission most of your good habits could be from the way you shift since a manual civic is capable of over 50 mpg. If that is the case you could have some really good manual transmission habits that now don't have any ability to show up in your Leaf driving and you could have some bad habits that aren't masked by your good shifting anymore.
You mentioned the car feels like it's got a pull or drag. Try a neutral coast down (if you're really concerned about the law like another poster stated do it in a parking lot) to see if that makes it go away. If not then you could have a brake or alignment drag. If it does go away then it is almost certainly the regen that you are feeling.
The tire PSI can be a good "patch" to get you back up to feeling more comfortable with the car but from the numbers you quote it doesn't sound like your tires are under inflated. There's a lot of info out there for people who have gone over PSI (over both car specs and tire specs). I'll let you do the searching and make up your mind without trying to force it on you but I'll point out that the info that says over PSI tires "round out" and ride high in the centre isn't true to todays modern built tires.
I don't want to sound like I'm telling you to throw money at it but did you also know there is the option to use a generator (if you buy the right type) to charge it? If this is an option for you where you park it at work it may make it easier to live with the car and will probably be cheaper than getting out of the lease right now.