Looky Loos questions

[mark13]

Untill I put the 0 emissions stickers on i got 0 questions..One guy ask me what i was advertising,I said clean air

 

[Jay]

Other than myself there has been zero LEAFs on Canadian roads this year until last couple weeks, (and there will only be 40 in total by year's end, 600 by end of 2012).

It is a rare day that anyone mentions anything about the car to me, or even know what it is. People just see it as an odd new car they haven't seen on the roads before. When they do ask, I get the 'how fast can it go' a lot more than I figured.

I'm pretty sure I'd have to have a big gaudy sticker all over it to get any attention, and frankly, I quite like the anonymity. It would be hell to have everyone all over it all the time once the novelty wore off. I like being unique, but I really like being unique without notoriety more.

 

[hpage]

Folks occasionally ask how I like it.. "It's an absolutely incredible car/experience, however it may not be for everyone -- it's not just a car but a lifestyle!"

 

[thankyouOB]

Not just a car but a lifestyle--I like it.

I pretty much have boiled down my opening comments to:

"Do you like buying gasoline?"

Then I add:
With very little planning, the Leaf works for 99% of my transportation needs. We do have a second car, should we want to drive to San Diego or San Francisco.
I spent 0 on gasoline and to run the car and, if we didnt have solar power, it would have cost us about $20 to go 1100-1200 miles this month.

 

[ghabel]

How about this bumper sticker?
http://www.zazzle.com/all_electric_vehicle_bumper_sticker-128165735204099180" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[adric22]

I have had my Ocean Blue Leaf for 6 months. I have had many people at work ask me about it, because word kind of spreads around. I've had a few people wave at me on the highway. And I've had maybe 3 people approach me in parking lots and ask me about the car. However, at least one of those people did not realize exactly what it was because they asked "What kind of mileage do you get with that?" So I had to explain why that was a difficult question to answer.

I do believe that somewhere between 50% to 80% of Americans do not even realize a car like the Leaf exists.

I suspect that 25% to 35% of the population mistakenly believe that hybrids are actually electric cars, as I used to drive a regular Prius and people often asked me questions regarding plugging it in.

I suspect the Leaf is simply not recognized by most for being a plug-in electric car.

I'm still to this day baffled as to why Nissan wanted to put the "zero emissions" label on the car. This troubles me for 2 reasons. First reason is that it seems to go along with the assumption that only environmentalists concerned about emissions would buy such a car. Second reason is that I suspect a lot of people have no idea what "zero emissions" actually even means. If they had put a logo something like electric, electric vehicle, 100% electric, electric drive, battery electric, etc... that would go a lot further to explaining what the car is when people walk next to one in a parking lot.

 

[TEG]

...I'm still to this day baffled as to why Nissan wanted to put the "zero emissions" label on the car. This troubles me for 2 reasons. First reason is that it seems to go along with the assumption that only environmentalists concerned about emissions would buy such a car. Second reason is that I suspect a lot of people have no idea what "zero emissions" actually even means. If they had put a logo something like electric, electric vehicle, 100% electric, electric drive, battery electric, etc... that would go a lot further to explaining what the car is when people walk next to one in a parking lot.

Even stranger, it is "zero emission" not "emissions"...

But in a way it makes sense, since plug-in hybrids like Volt, Fisker, etc., tended to start calling themselves "electric vehicles".
They say their primary motive force is from an electric motor so they are an electric vehicle with a range extending generator.
So, these days, saying you are an electric vehicle doesn't tell the whole story.

Saying "zero emission(s)" does more since I think it still conveys that there is no tailpipe whatsoever.

 

[TickTock]

I guess "100% Electric" was just too obvious.

 

[LEAFfan]

Even stranger, it is "zero emission" not "emissions"...
http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/x453/tgriner2/zeroe.jpg[/img[/quote]

In the Japanese language, they don't use 's' to denote plurals. For example, if there are 12 apples on a table, they say there are 12 apple.

 

[Packet]

In the Japanese language, they don't use 's' to denote plurals. For example, if there are 12 apples on a table, they say there are 12 apple.

There's a concept of plurals, but they don't modify the noun itself. In Japanese, nearly every non-proper noun is implicitly a mass noun -- i.e., a noun that has no separate plural form on its own, like 'moose' in English -- but it still gets modified into what might as well conceptually be a plural by use of a counter, a josuushi. There are counters for flat objects, long objects, stories, games, people, pieces of sushi, etc. So '12 apples' could be written as 'ringo juunika' -- literally, 'apple 12-fruit.'

Deliberately using the wrong josuushi can lead to some really subtle Japanese puns, which cannot be effectively translated.

However, the fact that there's no direct correlation in English to josuushi is why some native Japanese speakers do have problems with English nouns changing into another word when they're plural. Thus, 'You want to buy bag of 12 apple?' type questions. And, as you point out, quite possibly our 'zero emission' badges as well.

(As a side note, don't attempt to post in Japanese here; the forum throws a mildly alarming MySQL error if you do, as I just discovered.)

EDIT: (Aaaand I forgot my original point due to the forum barfing on my initial post.) That said, I do think 'zero emission' may be meant as a description. Think of it like they were saying 'the LEAF, the first mass-produced zero-emission car' -- the plural wouldn't make sense there, really.

 

[Mark510]

I average about 2 interactions/day.

One very friendly attractive woman spoke with me about it. She confessed that she loves the leaf but drives a Nissan Juke (or Jute?) and it looks kind of like a Leaf so she pretends she is in a Leaf. Yea.

A guy in a Volt got angry at me the other day. We kind of passed back and forth, then he saw my license... I have no plates yet. So I filpped the dealers advertisement/fake plate over and wrote on it in big bold letters, "I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO A GAS STATION.". Yea, he got kind of 'funny' after seeing that.

An interesting observation: Women seem to ask intelligent questions and be more interested in it. Either they love it because it is green or are fascinated by it and think its a smart move. From the reactions I've seen so far, Nissan should focus some marketing attention on women.

 

[adric22]

An interesting observation: Women seem to ask intelligent questions and be more interested in it. Either they love it because it is green or are fascinated by it and think its a smart move. From the reactions I've seen so far, Nissan should focus some marketing attention on women.

That hasn't been my experience. Most women I've talked to are afraid of it. They don't like the idea of switching from what they are comfortable with (gasoline) to something new and scary. They don't like the idea of possibly running out of power either. I think women have more range anxiety than men. My wife included. She's okay driving the car 20 miles round-trip. In fact, she'd just about rather take the Leaf to be honest. But if the trip becomes 40 or 50 miles, then she is suddenly afraid. And maybe some of it isn't fear as it is being spoiled. For example, if we take it on a long trip that is pushing the limits of the car, I will drive with the climate control off and attempt to avoid the freeways or at least keep it under 60 mph if I'm going to be on the freeway. She can't tolerate compromise like that.

 

[HighDesertDriver]

We live not only in a desert climate, but a Leaf desert. Including the dealer's demo vehicle, there are only three Leafs among 250,000 people living here. A fourth Leaf will begin coming from the Los Angeles area whenever the local college gets around to turning on their four existing solar-powered J1772 Coulomb stations.

We have been approached only twice, the first while parked next to the inoperative and soon-to-be-removed Costco chargers -- "Is that all electric? How far does it go? Thanks. See ya." The second was at a Burger King by a survivalist who had driven in from his isolated desert outpost for supplies. He was full of good questions, but I had to politely excuse ourselves when his eyes glazed over and he wandered off onto taxes, building code enforcement, the "police state," . . .

While I'm happy to answer questions, we're not looking for attention and I think a white Leaf just blends in with the more numerous other "quirky" Priuses, FITs, Jukes, etc. running around the area.