Like Rodney Dangerfield....."we don't get no respect!"

This deal with the Leaf test drive event in LA has got me thinking about this Forum and the level of importance of it (and us) when it comes to Leaf promotion and advocacy. On the one hand, I think we are hugely important. On the other, I don't think that Nissan feels quite the same way and I'll tell you why....

It's not just the disappearance of Jessica as a regular contributor on the this forum. We rationalized that she had gotten busy with the roll-out, and I have no illusions to the contrary. But it's also this nagging feeling (and maybe this is just in my head) that we just don't seem to be important to Nissan except as Leaf customers, and I think this is the mistake.

Right now I'm sure you'll agree that we're making it up as we go along. Sure a lot of what we talk about is factual, as we interpret it from Nissan official statements and blogger/journalist reviews, but there is also much that is pure speculation. I think Nissan is missing a huge opportunity to "bring us into the fold", so to speak, and feed us good information to use here. Of course, this won't stop us from speculating in absence of fact, but they can at least guide that ongoing discussion if they want to. Right, wrong, or indifferent....once a Blogger's report is done, in most instances it's done, and he or she is off to the next shiny object!

I dunno, maybe I'm just being overly sensitive. But why would some random blogger, some of whom have a wider range of focus, on "lifestyle" say, or "technology", be a more valuable asset than someone who is enthusiastic about being an owner in just a few months time? I don't really get it.

The hard fact is that you are going to buy one regardless of how much attention they pay to you. In addition, the 'EV Community' is not enough to support the needed volumes. Sure, you could be helpful, but the risk is that you will not be pleased by some aspect of the car or some aspect of a reply from Nissan, so the risk is not worth it.

Net: they are going to carefully control communications throughout this roll out and their commitment to what they see as the 'hobbyist' contingent is going to be one of benign tolerance ahead of the debut.

sjfotos said:

Sure, you could be helpful, but the risk is that you will not be pleased by some aspect of the car or some aspect of a reply from Nissan, so the risk is not worth it.

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You might be on to something - Jess kept stressing to me how this was "not a production vehicle....." and how we would have to wait for "actual production units", like we wouldn't know what we were getting into with driving a pre-production car. I'm not going to use a "roll-eyes" smiley here, but I want to!

This forum is of little importance to Nissan and the fact they even had someone present here was surprising, forums like this are a liability and time commitment to a manufacturer. For Nissan to have someone to be able to properly answer all the questions here on a regular basis is a commitment of probably $30K a year fully loaded in a 50% resource allocation and it opens them up to potential marketing issues and loss of control of their message. This forum also is mostly a place for early adopters and enthusiast types which in some cases tend to be very particular and more educated and critical about the product. In addition since the EV is new to many people there is also quite a bit of misinformation spread about EVs and the Leaf in general. I'm sure Nissan is glad to have many passionate followers but this forum is not of significant importance to them as they have many more important matters to focus on during this launch. I know about five very passionate leaf buyers, none have a clue this forum exists. OF course the forum has value to it's members.