See The Leaf In Person 9/20/10 @ Boardwalk Nissan

[MaryC]

Was that you beeping the horn?

I stopped by also. Lots of lookers at the car. I was surprised that it had a radiator/cooling system cut I guess that is for cooling the motor and for the AC. No spare tire, but a box of goo to fix a flat tire. One thing that struck me as I was sitting in the drivers seat is that the way the hood drops off, it is hard to judge where the front of the car is. Since that is the business end of the car , connectors and such you would not want to bump the front too often. Part of the learning curve of this car.

For a little car it seemed like it had good interior room.

Do not know if it was the same one, but this looked alot like the car seen in San Diego last week. Silver SV.

 

[gasmiser1]

Was that you beeping the horn?"
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Yup. That was me I have had a few cars now with wimpy horns that couldn't be heard at freeway speeds. The Leaf horn reminds me of the one on my 2001 Honda Insight(now has a Honda Ridgeline horn) and on my 1999 Toyota Tacoma truck(now has a Toyota Tundra horn). Leaf horn is definitely going to be upgraded right away.
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" I was surprised that it had a radiator/cooling system cut I guess that is for cooling the motor and for the AC. "
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Actually, the AC is on a completely different system. AC is all electric and more efficient than the heater system, per the Nissan rep.
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"One thing that struck me as I was sitting in the drivers seat is that the way the hood drops off, it is hard to judge where the front of the car is. Since that is the business end of the car , connectors and such you would not want to bump the front too often. Part of the learning curve of this car."
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This is typical of all newer arrow dynamic cars like the Honda Insight and Prius that I own. One must learn to gauge the length of the front end. And, no more "touch" parking to the curb or parking stop. The Leaf is too low and you'll ruin the bottom of the bumper.

 

[Tango]

I was at the look-see today too. A couple of notes not covered by gasmeiser:
Interior:

• Underneath the radio is a space to put a phone.
• Also underneath the radio, there are spaces for four connectors with small flip-up covers. On the SV version we saw, two of those spaces were occupied. One had a USB connector, the second had a 3.5mm audio input jack. The other two weren't used.
• The startup "chime" was different than on the Nissan website.
• The nav system is standard (not an option).
• The main system screen is a touch screen
• The car does not come with floor or cargo mats of any sort. If you don't order mats with the car, you'll have your feet on the bare carpet for the entire car (in one of the other threads, there was a question about whether the car came with cheapo mats and the mats available as an accessory were "better"). Susan, the GM at boardwalk said she'd sell them at the same price later if needed.
• When the seats are folded down, the "floor" is not level throughout the car. The trunk area floor is about a foot or more lower than the level that the backs of the fold-down seats. (This is different than on my subaru outback, where when you fold down the seats, they are basically on the same level as the cargo area floor).

Exterior

• the reps and the GM didn't know what the exterior would look like with the "eco package". There were folks asking if it was the huge "zero emissions" stickers or if it'd be something more subtle.

Ordering

• The dealers have seen a marked drop in number of orders over the last week or so.
• One of the nissan corporate reps (not the store GM) said that they're expecting 1000 cars delivered to the states in december, but wasn't sure what that meant in terms of people actually getting the cars. I think he was talking about 1000 cars will be at least on the docks by then, but transfer to the dealer and other issues he didn't know about. I have to add though, that he was being a little cagey about this, so i'm not sure if it's because he wasn't supposed to say, or if he was just guessing.
• The nissan corporate rep said he had been taking some flak over the lack of information about the accessories. He said he was going to take that back to corporate.

I didn't take notes directly, so i'll post more things if i remember them. I took some pics too, so i'll try to post them as well.

 

[Tango]

More random notes:

• The glove compartment is huge compared to other cars i've owned.
• The tire repair kit contains a pump you plug into the 12V car lighter system, and some goo that seals the holes. Obviously, this isn't going to help for a complete tire shred failure, but for most of the normal punctures that cause flats in day-to-day life, the GM (or was it the corporate rep) said it'd be faster/safer/easier to help you limp to a place for a tire repair or replacement.
• For a car without a smog-producing engine, there were more tubes under the hood (maybe some of them were wire wrapping) than i expected to see.
• The 120V "trickle charger" comes in a backpack like bag. There's a bit of a gimmick where there's a hook on the bag and there's a little D-ring on the side of the storage area in the back of the car so you can hang the bag and it won't shift around too much.

 

[mwalsh]

[*]Also underneath the radio, there are spaces for four connectors with small flip-up covers. On the SV version we saw, two of those spaces were occupied. One had a USB connector, the second had a 3.5mm audio input jack. The other two weren't used.

Will be for the heated seat switches, once the cold weather package is introduced.

 

[Tango]

Some pics from today:
Here's under the hood. Looks almost like a regular car.

The 120V trickle charger:

This is the tire "fix-it" kit pump which is stored behind a panel in the left side of the cargo area. The goo was in a cylinder next to it (no pic of that though).

It's hard to tell from this perspective, but the glove compartment is very deep.

CDs are inserted behind the nav screen. just below the CD slot there is a cover that comes off to reveal two SD slots. One was labeled "MAP" (probably for the nav system). I don't know what the other one was for.

This is underneath the radio in the middle of the dash. The top left black square holds the USB port, the top right holds the 3.5mm audio jack. mwalsh mentioned that the other two may be for the heated seats once the package is available.

Pics of the dash.

 

[Rat]

Excellent stuff, folks. Thanks to all.

 

[EVDRIVER]

I mentioned this elsewhere but pack is about 30KWH total, no reserve, no using it to fill in pack loss over the years, just there to keep from having a low DOD, no surprise. 24kwh usable.

 

[gasmiser1]

Tango-

Nice pics. I saw you there taking pictures of the Leaf. What kind of camera were you using? I knew I couldn't compete with my little iPhone 3GS, ha ha.

Did anyone else think the black gloss plastic console at the shifter knob and trim around the nav needed to be a mat finish or carbon fiber trim option? It seems that those two areas will get scratched very easily.

 

[mwalsh]

Yes, nice pics Tango! Thanks!

 

[Gonewild]

Tango-

Nice pics. I saw you there taking pictures of the Leaf. What kind of camera were you using? I knew I couldn't compete with my little iPhone 3GS, ha ha.

Did anyone else think the black gloss plastic console at the shifter knob and trim around the nav needed to be a mat finish or carbon fiber trim option? It seems that those two areas will get scratched very easily.

I like and wish I could order it without having to buy the ECO package. I know it can scratch but I never set things on my console so it should not be a problem. I do not know how you would scratch the nav area?

 

[palmermd]

Can you spot the car salesman in this picture?

 

[friendnumber1]

Some pics from today:
Here's under the hood. Looks almost like a regular car.

Anyone want to explain the 12 volt battery sitting there on the right?

 

[DeaneG]

Anyone want to explain the 12 volt battery sitting there on the right?

It operates the horn. The battery is small, that's why the horn isn't very loud.

 

[AndyH]

Anyone want to explain the 12 volt battery sitting there on the right?

The aux battery will run the car's accessories. It'll also energize the high voltage pack relays/contactors so we can drive the car. A dead or missing aux battery means we cannot connect the 350V battery pack to the controller, or the DC-DC converter that'll recharge the aux battery.

 

[JasonT]

• The startup "chime" was different than on the Nissan website.

Can't find the video, but somewhere there is a posting of the three sounds you can select from. I wonder if one of the other two were selected.

 

[johnr]

no more "touch" parking to the curb or parking stop. The Leaf is too low and you'll ruin the bottom of the bumper.

Can you or someone else tell me exactly how high the bumper is off the ground? My current car is low enough that I have to go at an angle up the curb to my driveway, but it's just high enough to clear those parking lot blocks.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Anyone want to explain the 12 volt battery sitting there on the right?

It operates the horn. The battery is small, that's why the horn isn't very loud.

Funny and so untrue.

 

[gasmiser1]

no more "touch" parking to the curb or parking stop. The Leaf is too low and you'll ruin the bottom of the bumper.

Can you or someone else tell me exactly how high the bumper is off the ground? My current car is low enough that I have to go at an angle up the curb to my driveway, but it's just high enough to clear those parking lot blocks.

I left the tape measurements at home today, but as I recall, the front bumper edge is about 9" high and an inch back the underneath wind covers drop another couple inches. Plus, the front tires have a rubber lip wind deflector that drops a few inches to about 5-5.5" high.

There is no way you can touch park at a curb or parking block without damaging the front somehow.

However, the rear is at least 10-10.5" high. So, backing into a parking spot would work just fine.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Anyone want to explain the 12 volt battery sitting there on the right?

The aux battery will run the car's accessories. It'll also energize the high voltage pack relays/contactors so we can drive the car. A dead or missing aux battery means we cannot connect the 350V battery pack to the controller, or the DC-DC converter that'll recharge the aux battery.

Based on the battery I saw it's only role would be to engage to contactors and energize the dc/dc. When the dc/dc is off this battery would ONLY power the alarm which is is very low draw. This battery could not handle much else for very lng and as soon as the key is turned to acc the dc/dc would be on.