Leafs Over Texas!

[AmarilloLeaf]

Congratulations on the car ... a brave early move ! Nice going ! What's the speed limit(s) on your route ? And, yes, the 65 will help.

Speed limits are 65 to 70. The last three to four miles are 'city' at 40 mph. .. last half mile is 25mph.

Tomorrow will be interesting, with winds of 25mph expected!...

Yes, it will be interesting.

When I drove this afternoon to the canyon, I had a 40mph tailwind. I left with 97 mile range, traveled 30 miles all downhill, and had 85 miles of range left.

By the time I drove back, uphill, and against the headwind, the next 38 miles dropped my range from 85 to 18 !!

[dfwcre8tive]

Just got my 7 day email. My dashboard says "week of April 6" so hopefully it will actually come. I don't think there's a big difference between the 6th and 8th but I definitely hope to hear more in the next few days!

Seems like things are proceeding pretty smoothly. Congrats to new Leaf owners of the past week.
Knock on wood I get 7 day email in the next week.

Anyone else working with Bankston on 635? Or Trophy?
Many of us will in April/May will be breaking in our dealers.

We have Bankston. No updates yet, but ours is still scheduled for "month of May 2011"

[dfwcre8tive]

A family member sent a message the other day saying that a Walgreens in Farmers Branch/North Dallas is currently installing EV charging stations. Has anyone seen anything or heard of these plans?

[dash]

Well, the last few days I've been communicating with the first dealer at the dealership I was speaking with. He seems to be a lot more on top of his game than the other guy I was working with and is able to provide me with a lot more solid info. Looks like they are scheduled to deliver my LEAF on Wednesday. He also said PDI takes about half a day and to expect "two hours" for the paperwork.

Interestingly enough, he said they delivered their first LEAF the week of March 21. I was kind of upset with that because I was the first person to order from Courtesy Nissan (they even said that in their dealer note on my dashboard which I have a capture of) on Sept 10. The delivery that took place two weeks ago was placed on Sept 13.

Definitely ready to take this baby home!

[dpfeif]

He also said PDI takes about half a day and to expect "two hours" for the paperwork.

My dealer took a day to prep.

And .. the two hours is real .. my dealer was a speed reader, .. and the check list was long .. we spent over an hour going over the car...
My financing was all worked out in advance .. so .. it took about 30 minutes....

[dash]

Picked up my Leaf last night! The dealership experience was absolutely atrocious and I would never do business with them again, but I can't even say how elated I am to FINALLY drive this thing into my garage.

I'll also post a few pictures soon!

Have any of you in DFW done window tint yet? If so, what dealership did you use? Did you use the ceramic tint?

[AndyH]

Picked up my Leaf last night! The dealership experience was absolutely atrocious and I would never do business with them again, but I can't even say how elated I am to FINALLY drive this thing into my garage.

I'll also post a few pictures soon!

Have any of you in DFW done window tint yet? If so, what dealership did you use? Did you use the ceramic tint?

Congrats dash!

I can't help with tint 'up there' but will absolutely vouch for ceramic. I had two cars down with Hüper Optic ceramic/IR block tint in 2003 and won't go back to anything that doesn't also block heat.

[AmarilloLeaf]

Anyone live near one of the proposed 85 mph speed limit areas?

That could really cut into your energy efficiency, but it would be interesting to see how a Leaf does at that speed.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7511083.html
Texas House backs plan to allow 85 mph speed limit.

Currently there are 80 mph speed limits, that apply in the daytime on I-10 and I-20 in Crockett, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kerr, Kimble, Pecos, Reeves, Sutton, and Ward counties. This translates to about 460 miles of I-10, east of El Paso to northwest of San Antonio, and 86 miles of I-20 west of Odessa.

[dash]

I don't live in those areas but I did get the Leaf up to 92 last night messing around north of Plano. That was kind of fun. I just wanted to check the speed as I was heading home for the evening as I knew I had plenty of range left to make it home safely. Oddly enough, I felt like it had a little more room to go but my wife wasn't going to have any more of it. Could have been a tail wind.. not sure but still very zippy!

For the tint I'm looking at a product called Madico Wincos. Has anyone used it on their Leaf yet? It's suppose to be one of the best films (ceramic -- like you suggest) and there's a shop here in Plano that does it FAR cheaper than what the dealership wanted ($290 vs $595). http://www.madico.com/window-film/automotive/

Also, I tried to use a ChargePoint station up in Fairview last night at the Whole Foods. Apparently you need a "key" to use it which I didn't have. RFID I'd imagine. I called the number on the station and they said the unit was under "maintenance" but it looked completely operational to me. It just said I had to swipe a card to start charging. They also took my name/address and are suppose to send one in the next week or two. Has anyone else in TX used a public charger?

Absolutely love the car and while I did have a bit of range anxiety my first day, I am happy to say that I can run my daily schedule without worrying about the range. I drive to work from my house (~8 mi city), then down to SMU main campus (~25 mi highway), back to work (another ~25 mi highway), and back home (~8 mi city) with about 30 miles to spare. On the highway I was sustaining 65-70 the entire way WITH the A/C on and in the city it's about 40 mph with a few lights.

Love. It.

[adric22]

For those of you who don't know, we do have a local electric vehicle club in DF/W. It is called the "North Texas Electric Auto Association" or NTEAA for short. We meet once per month. The next meeting is tomorrow in Irving. Here is the info on it:

http://www.nteaa.org/upcoming-events/

We usually have several electric vehicles at each meeting. Many home-built EVs and there will be some Leaf's there as well. I probably won't bring my Leaf, though. I'll probably drive my PHEV Prius so that there will be more variety of vehicles. So if you have a Leaf already, bring it to the meeting! if you just want to see some Leafs and other EVs and talk with local EV enthusiasts, just bring yourself!