The official "I got my Leaf" thread

[yunebug]

Hi everyone!

Bought a 2011 SL with 88k miles on it. The battery was replaced in 2015 and currently has 11 bars (84.xx% SOH).

So far, LOVE IT. Looking to participate and contribute here for years to come!

[Amazing1]

Hello Everyone. My name is Mark. My wife and I rarely drive more than 35 miles so I decided (yes, at 1st it was my idea and my absolutely wonderful wife of 33 years joined in later) to give owning an EV a shot. I had to agree to sell my beautiful 2004 Corvette Convertible which might make me insane, but I have another nice car available to me to drive if necessary, so "Let's Go Electric" here we come.

Have purchased a very clean 2014 Ocean Blue Leaf SV. The car seems to have some features (factory and maybe? added) that I'm sure once we "old" folks figure out how to use will make owning this car something wonderful. Car has 30K miles and shows 11 bars on the battery condition gauge. Showed 76 or 78 miles (again, old, can't remember) at full charge so we're hoping to have a long, happy experience with our new purchase.

I have oh so many questions. I don't even have the car yet but I have an appointment to have a dedicated 240v outlet installed a few days from now. If you can tell, I'm very, very stoked and truly look forward to becoming a contributing member of the MyNissanLeaf community.

[GaleHawkins]

yunebug and Amazing1 welcome as Leaf owners. Today I have had our 2016 Leaf SL purchased with 21.6K miles for four weeks. Thankfully I have not let the wife drive it yet.

Actually I got it because of her in part in that I drive her to work each morning and pick her up every afternoon making me a Go Get Her. She is recovering from a broke hip out in the horse lot and has a long walk from the parking lot. The Subaru Forester gets good MPG but the cost for two 30 mile round trips daily added up plus I hate to run a gas engine for AC and heat when parked. The Forester is more like a Jeep and the Leaf more like a Lincoln Towncar in comfort.

At the age of 68 and with major physical limitations from arthritis (Ankylosing Spondylitis) I am loving the Leaf but it is kind of like I did not know have dumb I was until I got my first smart phone. I am starting to get the hang of using Leaf Spy Pro daily and it is helping me grasp the EV advantages. Still working on the shifting thing. Normally I am fine with it but a few times I got stuck in N and could not get to R or D. After a second of panic I just rebooted the computer (turned the car off and right back on). The four external cameras let me see how to park now since I have no head movement.

After a month I know I do not want to give up the Leaf for these local 15 mile one way trips.

Best of Leaf ownership.

[GaleHawkins]

Welcome Gale! Personally, I think a 200-mile mission to drive your new Leaf home would have been a great adventure and shakedown cruise. Especially if you had a seasoned EV driver along and had your charging points all laid out. But glad you got her home and are learning the ropes. Home L2 charging is great, and finding all the local charge spots is fun. Get the Plugshare app and look around your neighborhood.

Thanks. Learning the ropes and meeting a lot of interesting people. There are a lot of Nissan vehicles in the area but I think I may be the only one in the county to own a Nissan without a gas tank.

[goldbrick]

Still working on the shifting thing. Normally I am fine with it but a few times I got stuck in N and could not get to R or D. After a second of panic I just rebooted the computer (turned the car off and right back on). The four external cameras let me see how to park now since I have no head movement.

One thing I've learned is that there is no harm sitting in D at a stop light, so I try to always check the car is in gear when I get to a red light.

For example, if I coast up to a red light in N, sometimes I forget to put the car back into D when the light turns green. Then there is that moment of panic, much like sitting there with the car out of gear on a manual transmission when the light turns green. But with the Leaf, there is no downside to being in D at a stop, unlike a manual car (clutch disengaged so throwout bearing must spin) or an automatic (car idling in gear causes torque converter to slip).

I think the car's controls are smart enough to realize the car is stationary and the brake is on so there is no torque from the motor. When the brake is released, a small amount of torque is enabled to allow the car to creep forward but I don't feel that when the car is stopped.

Glad you are enjoying your Leaf. It sounds like you have a great attitude for EV's and I hope you enjoy it for a long time.

[LeftieBiker]

Yes, the motor is essentially Off when the car is stopped in D.

[Daklein]

We inherited our 2014 S from my dad at the beginning of September. I rode my bike from Detroit to western NY and drove it back with him. The trip through Canada was a fun charging adventure but took nearly 12 hours where we normally could do under 6 hours driving with normal traffic speed. A couple places we couldn't make it from one QC to the next without an L2 somewhere.
When we got it home, it had about 24400 miles on it, SOH 94.9% (still 12 bars). Now we're up over 26700. SOH is 94.8%.

In late September, I replaced the PTC successfully, driving the Leaf from Detroit to Chicago and back to get a heater from a salvage car. Heat still works now, which is pretty nice with this week's cold snap and snow. Fingers are crossed that the heater keeps working.

Replaced two of the remaining original tires this week. They hadn't been rotated very well, and two tires had been replaced maybe 5000 miles ago. Put on a trailer hitch to carry bikes on the back, that works nice.

Generally, it meets our needs 95% of the time and we love it. But there are certain trips where fast chargers are not close enough together, and it would be nice to have one vehicle that would let us go almost anywhere, almost normally. (Still will have a truck for towing things, or going to get a new battery)

Next up, I picked up a 62 kWh Leaf Plus pack from TN (salvage yard near the plant, from development or test vehicle). Allegedly about 6000 miles on it, and that sounds reasonable because it shows 97.5% SOH. Yeah, and 172 AHr capacity, Oh Yeah. Can't wait to get this put in the car and working!

[blueangel78]

Next up, I picked up a 62 kWh Leaf Plus pack from TN (salvage yard near the plant, from development or test vehicle). Allegedly about 6000 miles on it, and that sounds reasonable because it shows 97.5% SOH. Yeah, and 172 AHr capacity, Oh Yeah. Can't wait to get this put in the car and working!

How much was the salvaged pack out of curiosity?

[808leafy]

Just picked up a 2018 SV w/All Weather package (so useful in Hawaii). Gave up the tech package but I got a crazy good price. Really happy with it so far.

Extendmyseat brackets are waiting to be installed this weekend (I’m 6’5” and fit, but would love the legroom), and I just replaced the in-cabin filter with the Bosch HEPA model with the instructions from this forum (without removing glovebox). Doing some testing to replace the headlights with LED or HID bulbs, or swapping the assembly’s with a used LED assy. off eBay. The service manual wiring diagrams appear to make it possible. Halogens as is are way too dim.

Excited to drive this thing everyday now.

[TheLostPetrol]

I got a 2018 SV with Cold Weather package, Quick Charge port, ePedal and ProPilot Assist two weeks ago. Interestingly, the former owner left two EVSEs in the trunk. One is the standard Nissan Level 2 EVSE but without the NEMA 14-50 to 5-15 adapter, and the other is an unbranded Level 1 EVSE marked "16 Amps" that seems to charge at 1.5 kW on my garage's 120V outlet (which is on a 20 amp circuit). The one thing I miss from my 2015 Leaf is the Around-View cameras' display. Oh, well.

I like the dynamic cruise control (the only feature of my wife's Prius Prime that I envied), although it does tend to brake later and more strongly than I would, but the steering "Assist" is not an improvement over my manual steering. I've read elsewhere that the 2019 Leaf has less "ping-pong" steering than the 2018. ePedal is really growing on me for around-town driving.