Reader Warning: This is a philosophical post. If you are not interested, don't read it.
I am raising this topic hoping to stimulate discussion about the impact of this forum. For me, MNL has been an extremely valuable source of information. It is great to have dealer participation (Thanks Brendan (Boardwalk) and Leon (Mossy) and The Center for Sustainable Energy (for CVRP in CA) to provide us information. As an early adoptor, my goal is to help make the LEAF a success story by providing feedback to fix/iron out any issues/bumps along the way and to promote wide spread general (not to just environmentally conscience) adoption of EV's.
It is pretty clear that the influence of MNL has grown to be substantial, so I began to think about my experience on this forum since joining many months ago. One thing I note is that this has put Nissan under a magnifying glass, alowing me to see things I have never before seen in a consumer product rollout. This is good because it finds and identifies the problems and you have to know what they are before you can fix them. But it also tends to highlight the problems and diminishs the positive things.
So if Ms./Mr. Joe Average thinks "Maybe I should look into this electric car thing I am hearing about." and goes to MNL to get some insite and information, what will they see and what message will they walk away with regarding the LEAF and EV's in general? This raises a challenge: how do you raise issues/problems/concerns while not negatively impacting the goal of making LEAF's and EV's successful?
Second thing I would note (and I will probably get it for this) is a lot of feeling of entitlement. What do we deserve? As first owners what we should get? Nissan owes us.... I want benefits as much as anyone and there are legitamite requests/concerns. But if what we "want" overshadows what we want to achieve, we may loose sight of what really matters.
So, as we continue to participate here, remember: "With power comes responsibility"
I am raising this topic hoping to stimulate discussion about the impact of this forum. For me, MNL has been an extremely valuable source of information. It is great to have dealer participation (Thanks Brendan (Boardwalk) and Leon (Mossy) and The Center for Sustainable Energy (for CVRP in CA) to provide us information. As an early adoptor, my goal is to help make the LEAF a success story by providing feedback to fix/iron out any issues/bumps along the way and to promote wide spread general (not to just environmentally conscience) adoption of EV's.
It is pretty clear that the influence of MNL has grown to be substantial, so I began to think about my experience on this forum since joining many months ago. One thing I note is that this has put Nissan under a magnifying glass, alowing me to see things I have never before seen in a consumer product rollout. This is good because it finds and identifies the problems and you have to know what they are before you can fix them. But it also tends to highlight the problems and diminishs the positive things.
So if Ms./Mr. Joe Average thinks "Maybe I should look into this electric car thing I am hearing about." and goes to MNL to get some insite and information, what will they see and what message will they walk away with regarding the LEAF and EV's in general? This raises a challenge: how do you raise issues/problems/concerns while not negatively impacting the goal of making LEAF's and EV's successful?
Second thing I would note (and I will probably get it for this) is a lot of feeling of entitlement. What do we deserve? As first owners what we should get? Nissan owes us.... I want benefits as much as anyone and there are legitamite requests/concerns. But if what we "want" overshadows what we want to achieve, we may loose sight of what really matters.
So, as we continue to participate here, remember: "With power comes responsibility"