Leaf Test Drives in the US

[Yodrak]

'second car' means that you had one car and now have another, the new addition being the second car.

'secondary car' means the car that you use next most after your primary car, the primary car being the one that you use the most.

It's quite possible that one's second car is their primary car. That's what my Leaf will be when I get it, because I do not plan to get rid of my current car. However, the Leaf will be my primary car because I intend to use it daily, while my first car will be relegated to secondary use for those few longer trips that will be beyond the range of the Leaf.

'Second car' does not mean the same thing as 'secondary car'.

Then, what does it mean ?

 

[evnow]

'second car' means that you had one car and now have another, the new addition being the second car.

'secondary car' means the car that you use next most after your primary car, the primary car being the one that you use the most.

Yes - but the problem is most people replace a car when they get Leaf, instead of adding to the personal fleet. Afterall people don't call their cars 7th car or 8th.

As I keep saying, journalists just don't seem to have the concept that
- 60% of Americans have multiple cars in the family
- Most of them drive much less than 100 miles a day
- On few planned outings that need longer drives, they use one of the cars and are usually a family drive

 

[LEAFfan]

'second car' means that you had one car and now have another, the new addition being the second car.

'secondary car' means the car that you use next most after your primary car, the primary car being the one that you use the most.

Yes - but the problem is most people replace a car when they get Leaf, instead of adding to the personal fleet. Afterall people don't call their cars 7th car or 8th.

As I keep saying, journalists just don't seem to have the concept that
- 60% of Americans have multiple cars in the family
- Most of them drive much less than 100 miles a day
- On few planned outings that need longer drives, they use one of the cars and are usually a family drive

I don't know about the rest of you, but we plan on using my LEAF as the Primary car and only car. My wife's other car is going to sit and sit and sit with some gasoline extender fluid in her tank. If we need to go to Vegas or CA, I'm going to do it in the LEAF as soon as the DC fast chargers are ready.

 

[Gonewild]

Me three.. :mrgreen:

 

[Yodrak]

I agree with you on all of this.

All I'm saying is that if one has more than 1 car, using the terms 1st car, 2nd car, etc, does not give any indication of which car is the primary car (gets the most use) and which is the secondary car (gets less use for whatever reason). So when the article said that the Leaf would be best as the second or third car, i.e. would be best for a multiple car family, it does not imply that one of those other cars would be the primary car. The article did not say anything about which car would be the primary car, which you and another poster attacked it for. The article did not even have the word 'primary' in it, yet you (or the other poster?) wrote that the author did not know the meaning of the word.

It's OK to challenge an article or its author for what is said if one disagrees with what is said, but it's not OK to put words in the author's mouth and then challenge them for something that they did not say.

Peace!

Yes - but the problem is most people replace a car when they get Leaf, instead of adding to the personal fleet. Afterall people don't call their cars 7th car or 8th.

As I keep saying, journalists just don't seem to have the concept that
- 60% of Americans have multiple cars in the family
- Most of them drive much less than 100 miles a day
- On few planned outings that need longer drives, they use one of the cars and are usually a family drive

 

[Ready2plugin]

Here is a review from the Bay Area NPR station:

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201010081630/b

Nothing new, but she has a major case of "Range Anxiety" because there are no current charging stations. At least Edmunds got it right that the Leaf would be the primary car and an ICE would be the secondary! She did mention the blind spot looking out the back, wonder what Nissan can do about this on future models. They are doing a series of reports on EV driving this week.

 

[evnow]

http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2010/10/2011-nissan-leaf-ev-second-drive-shows-first-impression-wasnt-wrong.html

On an 82-degree Tennessee afternoon, with another writer in the passenger seat, I hit 92 mph on the highway, going up a slight hill all the way. I still felt as though there was a little bit more to go, but lifted my foot at 92 because I thought I spied a state trooper's patrol car way back down the road.

Perry said he was passenger in a Leaf in Michigan a while ago when the driver hit 94 mph.

High-speed highway driving is not friendly to EV range - but the Leaf's range indicator showed 84 miles when we left the Nissan garage with a nearly full battery, and when we got back with 30.4-miles on the odo - my high speed run included - it showed we still had 50 miles left. So we dropped only 3.6 miles during the drive. Not bad
...
And, I took one over to an empty parking lot across the street from Nissan's digs for a couple of self-timed acceleration runs. Nissan hasn't released 0-60 figures yet, but we've heard estimates in the range of 8- to 9-seconds. I timed both of my runs - with a digital watch, not a professional setup - at around 7 seconds.

 

[JasonT]

A lot has been said about the 0-60, and although I don't care to much either way, the numbers reported on edmunds surprise me. I could have sworn the only numbers I've seen about 0-60 has been "11 seconds". Have I missed something about this?

 

[evnow]

A lot has been said about the 0-60, and although I don't care to much either way, the numbers reported on edmunds surprise me. I could have sworn the only numbers I've seen about 0-60 has been "11 seconds". Have I missed something about this?

Yes I was surprised too - I always thought it was 10 to 11 seconds, though in the beginning Nissan was talking about equivalent to a V6 car.

 

[lne937s]

If it is ~7 seconds, it wouldn't surprise me. Nissan claimed the GTR went 0-60 in "less than 5 seconds" before the launch. 10 seconds to ~7 seconds is about the same level of understatement as 5 seconds to 3.5 seconds.

 

[sjfotos]

I'm amazed any corporate manager would admit to being in a product run going over 90 mph on a public byway! Wait until the corporate attorneys read that one. They'll be slapping governors on every one of those test/tour vehicles!

 

[evnow]

I'm amazed any corporate manager would admit to being in a product run going over 90 mph on a public byway! Wait until the corporate attorneys read that one. They'll be slapping governors on every one of those test/tour vehicles!

Why ? He only said "someone else" drove over 90 mph

 

[jhm614]

NY Times: Back to Back Leaf vs. Volt test drives: Here

these are real cars with different dynamic natures. The Volt is a pleasant cruiser and commuter, while the Leaf is more lively and may appeal more to a driving enthusiast, albeit a driving enthusiast on a leash

 

[sjfotos]

NY Times: Back to Back Leaf vs. Volt test drives: Here

these are real cars with different dynamic natures. The Volt is a pleasant cruiser and commuter, while the Leaf is more lively and may appeal more to a driving enthusiast, albeit a driving enthusiast on a leash

Thanks for the article jhm614, this part just frosts me...how dumb does ab average driver have to be to get stranded?

"The Leaf is a pure electric car, which may give it environmental bragging rights among those who abhor fossil fuels, but there may be a penalty for extended goofing around: you could end up walking. Once the battery is depleted, the Leaf becomes yard art until it gets a good, long suckle at an electric outlet."

Like.....running out of juice will be a GIANT surprise and a random walk event pun intended.

 

[jtk]

just FYI, there is a video clip demonstrating the external audio warning sound. This is a euro car... i assume it would be the same here:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/26/nissan-leaf-launches-in-europe-takes-us-for-a-drive/

very spacey

 

[JasonT]

just FYI, there is a video clip demonstrating the external audio warning sound. This is a euro car... i assume it would be the same here

Unfortunately, that video has been around for a while and it's not entirely "real". This video caused a bit of an uproar around here because it sounds as if the car is going to make a very loud sound. As near as we can tell this video has the sound the car makes superimposed over video of the car driving around. Although the sound is accurate, it (probably) doesn't sound that way in the environment presented in the video.

 

[jtk]

just FYI, there is a video clip demonstrating the external audio warning sound. This is a euro car... i assume it would be the same here

Unfortunately, that video has been around for a while and it's not entirely "real". This video caused a bit of an uproar around here because it sounds as if the car is going to make a very loud sound. As near as we can tell this video has the sound the car makes superimposed over video of the car driving around. Although the sound is accurate, it (probably) doesn't sound that way in the environment presented in the video.

ahh sorry about that.

 

[Rat]

I have a minor gripe about how this is organized. I signed up for the only test drive in my vicinity, which is this weekend, the weekend of the Silicon Valley Marathon. The window was 3 days, Fri - Sun. Nissan set it up to coincide with the marathon start/stop location and time, apparently to play off the green nature of the car and fitness, rah rah. Well, I couldn't sign up for Sunday, the day of the marathon because I'll be running in the marathon (the half, actually - my full marathoning days are over) and that'll wipe out my whole day. I tried to sign up for Saturday, but could only get an 8am start time, and my wife, who wants to go on the test drive, doesn't want to get up so early on a weekend, and it had a conflict for me as well. So that leaves Friday 10am, which I signed up for. Today I found out that I have to pick up the race packet on Saturday. I thought I would be able to do it either Friday, or Sunday before the race. So now I have to drive into downtown 3 days in a row. Parking is not great in that area and it's more than 25 miles round trip each time. This is probably whining, I know, but Nissan could have held this elsewhere, such as close to where the vast majority of the Silicon Valley buyers are located, farther west like at Google HQ, etc. Woz is from Cupertino.

 

[johnr]

just FYI, there is a video clip demonstrating the external audio warning sound. This is a euro car... i assume it would be the same here

Unfortunately, that video has been around for a while and it's not entirely "real". This video caused a bit of an uproar around here because it sounds as if the car is going to make a very loud sound. As near as we can tell this video has the sound the car makes superimposed over video of the car driving around. Although the sound is accurate, it (probably) doesn't sound that way in the environment presented in the video.

ahh sorry about that.

The actual recording in real life condition is here - this is a comparison between a regular car and the Leaf with the sound emitter turned on - you can hear it but just barely (skip ahead to 1:30 to get past all the talking): [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyqmKuDbPOw[/youtube]

 

[sjfotos]

I have a minor gripe about how this is organized. I signed up for the only test drive in my vicinity, which is this weekend, the weekend of the Silicon Valley Marathon. The window was 3 days, Fri - Sun. Nissan set it up to coincide with the marathon start/stop location and time, apparently to play off the green nature of the car and fitness, rah rah. Well, I couldn't sign up for Sunday, the day of the marathon because I'll be running in the marathon (the half, actually - my full marathoning days are over) and that'll wipe out my whole day. I tried to sign up for Saturday, but could only get an 8am start time, and my wife, who wants to go on the test drive, doesn't want to get up so early on a weekend, and it had a conflict for me as well. So that leaves Friday 10am, which I signed up for. Today I found out that I have to pick up the race packet on Saturday. I thought I would be able to do it either Friday, or Sunday before the race. So now I have to drive into downtown 3 days in a row. Parking is not great in that area and it's more than 25 miles round trip each time. This is probably whining, I know, but Nissan could have held this elsewhere, such as close to where the vast majority of the Silicon Valley buyers are located, farther west like at Google HQ, etc. Woz is from Cupertino.

Cheer Up! You could be in Pennsylvania with the first nearby drives scheduled for 90 miles away in DC in MARCH.