San Fernando valley leafers

[KayfromLA]

I am in West Hills and am looking at buying a Leaf. My experience with the Woodland Hills Nissan sales department was very unpleasant. Anyone has any experience with the service department? Are they competent? Thanks, and looking forward to joining you all.

 

[Stoaty]

I am in West Hills and am looking at buying a Leaf. My experience with the Woodland Hills Nissan sales department was very unpleasant. Anyone has any experience with the service department? Are they competent? Thanks, and looking forward to joining you all.

No experience with Woodland Hills Nissan. I took my Leaf to Miller Nissan in Van Nuys for the one year battery check in June. The service rep who signed my car in had just purchased a Leaf himself a few weeks earlier. He was really excited about it, so I clued him in on this forum, the Gid Meter, etc. They asked about brake fluid replacement (not needed until 2 years), but didn't try to upsell me on it when I declined. A good experience there. If you don't want to go to Fontana Nissan to buy, you can go to Downtown Nissan where Paul Scott, a longtime EV advocate works to purchase and/or get service.

 

[garygid]

Many have had good experiences at Fontana Nissan.

 

[TangoKilo]

Ya, Fontana Nissan, thumbs up... But it will be at the extreme end of you range (been there, done that). Did Fontana Nissan ever install the QC unit I heard rumored?

 

[KayfromLA]

My main concern is service once I have the car. Fontana would be close enough to buy, but not for regular service.
dont know about the QC but I will ask when I am out there

 

[Stoaty]

My main concern is service once I have the car. Fontana would be close enough to buy, but not for regular service.
dont know about the QC but I will ask when I am out there

There really isn't much "regular" service. Just:

--battery check once a year (any delaer can do that)
--rotate the tires every 7500 miles (don't have to go to a dealer for that one)
--change the filter for cabin air every year or two
--change the brake fluid every 2 years (could be done by any auto repair shop)

So, your only concern is where to take the Leaf if you have a real problem with it. Those problems are few and far between. Most of us just keep driving. In 18 months I have had the tires rotated once by a local tire shop and gotten the annual battery check.

 

[mikeEmike]

My experience with Mission Hills Nissan has been so-so. The sales person I worked with was a nice guy, but was not very knowledgeable about EVs. I didn't buy the car from him, not for that reason but because we couldn't negotiate a fair price.

I also tried their service department since it's the closest dealership to me. I had to go in twice to get the "grabby brakes" fix done. The first time, the service rep didn't know anything about the problem, couldn't find a service bulletin for the problem, and never saw an abnormal problem with the brakes of any of the LEAFs in the shop (could be that there haven't been many in the shop). The second time I brought in a copy of the service bulletin and asked him to apply it. Fortunately, the mechanic followed the service bulletin correctly and fixed the problem the first time. I also had them install the front license plate frame since the instructions made me a little nervous. They did a good job on installing the frame.

I'm not too concerned with using them at this point for service. The car seems to be pretty low maintenance, and this forum has helped out a lot with known issues, such as the brakes issues I mentioned. If I run into something serious, I may take it over to the dealer in Downtown LA, as they seem to get a lot of good feedback, but it's a pain for me to get down there.

 

[DTB]

I bought my LEAF from Woodland Hills Nissan and they also performed the 1 year service. Both experiences were so-so. The staff is generally friendly enough and efficient, but I didn't find them to be very informed, at least at that time. I was among the first to purchase which also means I was prob one of the first for the 1 year check, so maybe they have improved since. The service guy tried to upsell me on the usual work and also tried to charge me for the battery check. For me it is a convenient location and not any worse than any of the other dealerships so I use them.

 

[TomT]

I'd second that. They are OK for basic service but I'd not trust them for a problem requiring in-depth knowledge. And their sales department seems to be completely out to lunch when it comes to Leaf pricing, knowledge, and sales...

My experience with Mission Hills Nissan has been so-so. The sales person I worked with was a nice guy, but was not very knowledgeable about EVs. I didn't buy the car from him, not for that reason but because we couldn't negotiate a fair price.

 

[KayfromLA]

That was absolutely my experience of the woodland hills sales dept. I was looking at a used leaf, and I asked them to fax me the Carfax report. They tried to tell me that the could not figure out how to send it. So I bought it myself, and found the car had been rear ended.
Honestly, it bothered me more to think that they were trying to sell me a piece of cutting edge technology and couldn't figure out how to send email, than it would have to find out there was a flaw in the car.

 

[Stoaty]

That was absolutely my experience of the woodland hills sales dept. I was looking at a used leaf, and I asked them to fax me the Carfax report. They tried to tell me that the could not figure out how to send it.

Which is more likely: that they couldn't figure out how to send the Carfax report, or that they were lying because of what was in the Carfax report?

 

[KayfromLA]

My conclusion exactly.

 

[mhkp]

New here. I'll be getting a leaf in two weeks. I'll be doing local driving in Simi and Chatsworth and wanted to know if how many miles are deducted for going up the grade between Simi and Chatsworth?

Also, are the chargers at Chatsowrth metrolink free to use?

 

[RonDawg]

New here. I'll be getting a leaf in two weeks. I'll be doing local driving in Simi and Chatsworth and wanted to know if how many miles are deducted for going up the grade between Simi and Chatsworth?

According to Nissan's CarWings Route Planner, the distance between the 118/23 curve and 118/Topanga Canyon is only 16 miles each way and should use 4 bars of charge each way. That should not be a problem for you even in winter unless you have a severely degraded battery. You can also take Santa Susanna Pass Road and while that doesn't shorten the distance nor the elevation, it is a slower drive which also uses less battery charge.

Also, are the chargers at Chatsowrth metrolink free to use?

According to PlugShare, it's "currently" free but that of course can change at any time. Note though that since this a commuter rail station, and has free charging, the likelihood of finding the chargers tied up for the entire workday by other BEVs and PHEVs is significant, so I would not count on these on a regular basis.

 

[JasonA]

Miller is pretty good. Bought mine there, had the reprogram done there.. 0 issues. Mission Hills (near where i live).. is a bunch of idiots..

And they hate to move ICE cars parked in the charger areas out.

We need a San Fernando Valley chapter!!

 

[TomT]

We had one but the number of people showing up at the meetings dropped to the point where it was unofficially discontinued...

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=6068&hilit=meeting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We need a San Fernando Valley chapter!!

 

[user 10599]

I'm in Thousand Oaks but have easy access to the following dealerships, either from home or from my usual work commute.

Thousand Oaks
Simi Valley
Oxnard
Woodland hills

Does anyone have advice re which of these is best for servicing my new leaf?

 

[JasonA]

I've heard good things about T.O.

 

[user 10599]

I now have a level 2 charger, but need an electrician to install. Anybody know a good/reasonable one for this type of work in the Thousand Oaks area? What is a realistic price range for this type of install?

 

[JasonA]

I now have a level 2 charger, but need an electrician to install. Anybody know a good/reasonable one for this type of work in the Thousand Oaks area? What is a realistic price range for this type of install?

do you already have 240 nearby the location? in the garage? etc?

Do you have to extend the run?

Prob under a $1k depend. If it's just a dryer hookup or ext, under a $100