LEAF sales disappointing? Duh, what do you expect?

[LTLFTcomposite]

I spoke to the sales guy who "sold" me my Leaf. He said they sold their demo, don't have any Leafs on the lot, and have no plans to get another demo at this time. Sounds to me like once the requirement from the home office was satisfied for how long they had to hold onto that demo it was a goner. Is this what all the dealers are doing, except maybe in some progressive areas like CA?

He did say if someone wants a Leaf he will guide them through the web site process and won't mark the car up over MSRP (sounds like there might be some wiggle room too), but that isn't much commitment to moving the product IMO. You can't go to a dealer, sit in the car, take a test drive, or talk to anyone for whom selling a Leaf will help them keep their job another month.

So if some guy is watching TV and sees a Leaf ad, and says to himself "I can't take these gas prices any more, this looks the way to go" and heads over to his Nissan dealer, what are the sales people going to say to him? Three guesses, and the first two don't count. You got it, "Oh you don't want that, it <list drawbacks here>, but look, we've got 300 Altimas here that get great mileage, what color do you want, can I get you cup of coffee, what do you want your payment to be, blah blah blah..."

 

[Weatherman]

I suppose they can always wander down to Weston Nissan. My orphan is still on their inventory list (after nearly four months), and they have another, orphaned SL, which has been around for nearly three months. They are, probably, still asking their ridiculous $700 "dealer service fee" for the cars, but at least you can test drive one. That's what I've recommended people who ask me about it to do. Test drive one of Weston Nissan's orphans, but don't buy one from them.

The Maroone dealers in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale still have their 2011 demos, but none of the other Maroone dealers have 2012s either in stock or on order.

South Floridians just have never been early adopters of alternative-fuel vehicles. So the fact there is almost zero demand for the LEAF, down here, doesn't surprise me a bit.

 

[TomT]

I guess I'm glad that I don't live in Florida! It sounds like it really sucks there for anyone who is trying to buy a Leaf in that state... How sad!

 

[keydiver]

After almost 4 months I have yet to see another LEAF in the wild.

 

[abasile]

After almost 4 months I have yet to see another LEAF in the wild.

What a difference. Yesterday I got passed by a silver LEAF on the freeway here in SoCal, and today my wife had to wait behind another LEAF at the Quick Charger. Hopefully with time, more Floridians will come to appreciate the benefits of EVs. Lots of folks don't know what they're missing.

 

[derkraut]

A few weeks back, I saw 4 Leafs in the parking lot @ a Von's supermarket here. I see one or more almost every day. I guess it depends on what part of the country you live in.

 

[Stoaty]

Seeing Leafs more and more frequently in L.A. area. A blue one (a twin?) passed me on the 101 a couple of days ago. When I go to my gym, I usually see another one parked in the lot (either a white one or the black one with the license plate that says something like "Tesla S" ).

 

[adric22]

I believe this is going to continue to be a problem. People need to be able to walk into a dealership and drive out in a new Leaf on impulse. That is how all other cars are sold. When people quote sales statistics to me as a sign of the leaf being a commercial failure, I always explain that you can't really make that comparison. What if Nissan dealerships didn't keep Altima's on the lot, but rather made customers order them and wait 3 months to get it. How would that affect sales of the Altima? I suspect most people would leave the dealership, go next door to the Toyota dealership and buy a Camry of the lot. I suspect that is what is happening with the Leaf. Potential customers want to buy a Leaf, they go to the dealership and there are none there. So the give up and go buy a Prius instead.

 

[Randy3]

IMHO, the fact that Nissan does not require all their sales people to be "LEAF Certified" just makes this worse. Each LEAF certified dealer has one or two LEAF sales people. If a walk up customer arrives and expresses interest in a LEAF, they are out of luck if the LEAF certified sales person is out. Those sales people who are NOT LEAF certified (most of the sales staff) have no incentive to sell a LEAF. While at different dealerships, I've spoken with the non-LEAF sales people. Some of them really do speak poorly of the LEAF. Many haven't even test driven a LEAF.

Come on, Nissan, stop making the LEAF the bastard-child car of your dealerships!

 

[Aeolus]

It seems every day I have at least one conversation with someone who is very interested in my LEAF, and really wants to move in the direction of an all-electric car. I think the LEAF owners are going to sell far more cars than all of the sales people on the floor of the Nissan dealerships.

Which leaves me curious as to why Nissan doesn't seem to interact more with the owners.

Maybe it's because they moved their corporate offices from So Cal to Tennessee and they aren't out where people buy the cars.

 

[ebill3]

Puyallup Nissan has 'em. Last I checked, they had four.

I've been looking for just about a year, and other than a couple in the SF Bay area, saw my first LEAF in the wild at the Kirkland Library last Saturday.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Then there's the web site nonsense on top of it all. They call it the drive electric journey I think. It's a journey all right. If you could buy a Leaf off their web site like it was Amazon it would make sense. But instead it's an extra step to dealing with the retail dealer process. If you want to buy a TV you can choose to buy off a web site like Amazon or a million others or buy retail from Best Buy or Costco, etc. How long would a retailer last that made you do both to buy a TV?

 

[Jagular]

Then there's the web site nonsense on top of it all. They call it the drive electric journey I think. It's a journey all right. If you could buy a Leaf off their web site like it was Amazon it would make sense. But instead it's an extra step to dealing with the retail dealer process. If you want to buy a TV you can choose to buy off a web site like Amazon or a million others or buy retail from Best Buy or Costco, etc. How long would a retailer last that made you do both to buy a TV?

Exactly right. Why do you have to go through a middle man (dealer) to buy a car? I should be able to order what I want, with the options I want, and have it delivered to my door. That way I'm not inconvenienced and I don't have to pay the middle man cost. They could sell it to me direct, cut costs, add convenience.

 

[Herm]

Why do you have to go through a middle man (dealer) to buy a car?

State law prevents that.

 

[1051]

After almost 4 months I have yet to see another LEAF in the wild.

Wow, I counted 38 Leaf's at LAX yesterday, 1 Volt and 2 RAV's. And still only 2 chargers. People are using the dashboard form that we have on the site

 

[Herm]

A picture would have been nice

Wont be too long before they start charging for parking.

 

[smkettner]

A picture would have been nice

Wont be too long before they start charging for parking.

I don't know why prime parking is free. Give us 100+ L1 in the long term for $1 day would still be sweet.

 

[cwerdna]

I've been looking for just about a year, and other than a couple in the SF Bay area, saw my first LEAF in the wild at the Kirkland Library last Saturday.

Depends on the area. When I lived in Redmond, WA, I'd very frequently see them running around. I'd even seen an old RAV4 EV running around too.

I do see a few here and there in the SF Bay Area. In a given day, I usually see 0-3.

 

[coqui]

Nissan needs to upgrade the people they hire as dealers. My "certified dealer" was close to useless. I've learned more on here than from the dealer. So, yeah, why do we have to go through a dealer? I ordered in April 2010 and finally got my Leaf late 2011; dealer is nothing but a useless middleman who marks up heavily and doesn't even know his own product well.
I did see a Leaf in the Wild here yesterday

Why do you have to go through a middle man (dealer) to buy a car?

State law prevents that.

 

[TomT]

That is under discussion in fact... They apparently feel that the flood of EVs shows that it is no longer necessary to subsidize parking at LAX...

Wont be too long before they start charging for parking.