What Do You Wish Your Leaf Had?

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ElectriCute

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 29, 2021
Messages
72
I'm sure many of you could come up something you wish your Leaf came with. On my 2022 SV, I wish I had a powered rear view mirror. I'm planning on getting a dash cam, and it would be nice to have a powered mirror to plug the cam into without having to drape the cable around the roof lining etc.
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
A solar roof!

Hmm. Visions of the vehicles in a number of science fiction franchises (mostly dystopian ones, at least in their origins) come to mind.

I wanted a radio with a CD player, one that didn't require opening the screen to access the drive. And all my research had convinced me that I couldn't get that beyond the 2017 model year. And I learned that it had continued to 2018, and ended up with a 2019 Leaf.

I wished that it came with sonar, because I intensely dislike backing into things (and I like backing into people even less). So within days of my pink slip being locked away in the fire-chest in my safe, I had a local autosound shop install a sonar kit.

I wished (especially after the autosound installer left it ajar without realizing it) that there was an alarm that would warn me if I tried to power up with the flap ajar. So I designed, built, and installed one.

I wished that it came with at least a donut spare, instead of just a compressor and a jar of slime, and wished that the portable charging unit were anchored a bit better in the trunk, rather than hanging on a plastic rivet that would get pulled out by any maneuver that was even slightly violent. So I bought an EZ-Spare, and a jack, and a set of wheel chocks, and built a plywood rack for my trunk that kept all of that, and my lug wrench, and my portable charging unit, secured and organized.

I wished that, with regard to having both a CD player and a GPS navigator, that I could "have my cake and eat it, too" (or as a bigamist might say, "have my Kate and Edith, too"). So I asked for one as a birthday present (speaking of cake), and built a bracket to mount it just to the right of the radio. I'd already installed a dedicated power socket for it behind the HVAC panel, when I'd tapped the lighter socket circuit to power my "flap ajar" alarm.

I wished it had a heated driver's seat. And so I found a reasonably-priced Dorman kit, and spent an afternoon wrestling with the upholstery (thankfully without having the side-curtain airbag blow up in my face -- thanks to all on this Board who advised me on how to avoid such mishaps).

And I wish that seat-heater were actually tied into the seat-heater circuit, and had a control mechanism that would unlatch itself when the car is powered down (instead of staying latched when the power went back on). I'm building that now, and it might be ready to come off the solderless breadboard during Thanksgiving week.

I wished, when I was still saving up the money to buy it, that I'd be able to charge it in the driveway, from a level-2 charging station that would be perfectly happy plugged into a 30A electric dryer circuit that had literally never been used, and didn't require a smartphone (or easy front-panel access) to operate it, and with the unit in the garage, and the charging cable hiding behind a bush when not in use. And thanks to the nice folks at United Chargers of Canada (the "Grizzl-E" people), I made all that happen, albeit a full week after I bought the car, instead of a full week before.

If you can wish it, and it doesn't violate the laws of your city, the laws of your state/province, the laws of your country, or the laws of physics, then you can probably find a way to make it happen. Of course, by then, you'll be so invested in your Leaf, that you'll want to be the last owner.
 
johnlocke said:
Memory driver's seat with 2 memories and an auto function to move the seat to the rear and down when exiting.

Maybe James L can do that for you. ;)

Illuminated buttons!!! I have an illuminated door unit from an Altima, and will probably install it, but I want ALL of the important buttons illuminated, and I want them that way without me having to do the work.
 
A giant tail pipe that points up at a 45 degree angle towards the drivers cabin of a truck and loaded with the finest cow manure from the local dairy with a button to instantly activate a device that will vaporize the cow manure into the finest of stinky smoke and propel it directly at the correct angle to reach the cabin of a nearly truck to make sure the smell and odors linger on the vehicle for weeks without any direct harm to the environment but will hurt the pride of said driver of said other vehicle next to my Leaf. :mrgreen:

ElectriCute said:
I'm sure many of you could come up something you wish your Leaf came with. On my 2022 SV, I wish I had a powered rear view mirror. I'm planning on getting a dash cam, and it would be nice to have a powered mirror to plug the cam into without having to drape the cable around the roof lining etc.
 
knightmb said:
A giant tail pipe that points up at a 45 degree angle towards the drivers cabin of a truck and loaded with the finest cow manure from the local dairy with a button to instantly activate a device that will vaporize the cow manure into the finest of stinky smoke and propel it directly at the correct angle to reach the cabin of a nearly truck to make sure the smell and odors linger on the vehicle for weeks without any direct harm to the environment but will hurt the pride of said driver of said other vehicle next to my Leaf. :mrgreen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGoyz8zE7Tc

Just needs a few mods to meet your needs :D
 
To put it mildly. Making people think (in reality, based on the smoke) that a Tesla is about to be enveloped in flames, in traffic, is criminally stupid. "Felony Stupid" as we used to say.
 
Interesting list.

No one mentioned TMS? CCS? I thought for sure they would be mentioned right off the bat. AWD?

Top item for me: I would like steering that is both speed sensitive and a LOT less light. Good heavens! I get that it's set up for comfort - fine with that, but this is ridiculous. Better control over torque steer would be good, too. My GTI had plenty of low end chutzpa (and wasn't much faster off the line), but never pulled the wheel out of your hand.

How about a sportier suspension? Wouldn't take much, it's not too bad now. This _could_ be a sportier car without much work. Would sell a lot better (and get panned in the press a lot less) if it was, IMNSHO. Even to folks who don't particularly value sporty cars.

Payload rating of just 900# could add a bit of headroom.

We have the 2019 - exactly one USB, type A port? Really?

Spare might be nice, but frankly, this is an urban corridor runabout. No real need in town.

I still think it's a great value for the dollar in an EV. Not much on my wish list.
 
For the occasional road trip, a couple adapter would sure be nice...but that said, Chademo support in the US continues to get better. Even EA station reliability is going up.

2 years ago when I traveled from Chicago to Iowa City a few times, EA was the only DC game in town for Iowas and western Illinois. Now, it's amazing. Iowa city alone has 4 DC stations with 8 Chademo nozzles.

Indy, where I was this past week has free Chademos appearing at many BP stations. Not super fast, but add to the redundancy to the ability to travel.

And there are many more stations going in across the country. I am not saying ccs didn't win, I am just saying Chademo is more alive than its ever been (as a dead standard in the US).

As for thermal mgmt. Yes it would be nice, but at least in the midwest, I have seen thermal throttling exactly 0 times. I have yet the need to do over 500 miles in a day though...so I am not an extreme road tripper case. I have done 400 straight in 90F+ weather and would guess that another 200 would have pushed me over thermally, but I can't stand to drive that much, so really kind of a nonsequiter for us.
 
frontrangeleaf said:
No one mentioned TMS?
What's a TMS?
Spare might be nice, but frankly, this is an urban corridor runabout. No real need in town.
Apparently you've never dealt with a catastrophic tire failure on a freeway. I have. And I have the tetanus shot notation in my medical records to prove it. A compressor and a jar of slime doesn't cut it (and even if it did, it would likely be at the cost of a ruined TPMS sensor). And neither does missing a concert because I had to wait for AAA to tow me to the nearest America's Tire ("Discount Tire" if you're outside the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area), when I could have changed the tire in 15 minutes, rushed my dinner, and still gotten to Disney Hall by curtain time.

(In the actual incident to which I allude, changing the tire took 15 minutes; cleaning the wounds from the exposed steel belts took another 5 minutes, in a local church's restroom, and I may have had to miss dinner entirely. After I got my tetanus shot and had the wounds seen by a doctor, I literally went straight from Kaiser to Home Depot, and bought a pair of work gloves.)
 
hbquikcomjamesl said:
frontrangeleaf said:
No one mentioned TMS?
What's a TMS?
Spare might be nice, but frankly, this is an urban corridor runabout. No real need in town.
Apparently you've never dealt with a catastrophic tire failure on a freeway. I have. And I have the tetanus shot notation in my medical records to prove it. A compressor and a jar of slime doesn't cut it (and even if it did, it would likely be at the cost of a ruined TPMS sensor). And neither does missing a concert because I had to wait for AAA to tow me to the nearest America's Tire ("Discount Tire" if you're outside the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area), when I could have changed the tire in 15 minutes, rushed my dinner, and still gotten to Disney Hall by curtain time.

(In the actual incident to which I allude, changing the tire took 15 minutes; cleaning the wounds from the exposed steel belts took another 5 minutes, in a local church's restroom, and I may have had to miss dinner entirely, to get to the concert on time. After I got my tetanus shot and had the wounds seen by a doctor, I literally went straight from Kaiser to Home Depot, and bought a pair of work gloves.)
 
I carry a spare for trips. It's a good insurance policy.

I do love the design of attaching it under the car, but don't have the equipment to do it at my townhouse. If there was a place that offered the service aftermarket, I might consider it. The only annoyance is that it takes up part of the boot.


For around town, we dont carry it with.
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
I carry a spare for trips. It's a good insurance policy.

I do love the design of attaching it under the car, but don't have the equipment to do it at my townhouse. If there was a place that offered the service aftermarket, I might consider it. The only annoyance is that it takes up part of the boot.


For around town, we dont carry it with.
I wish Nissan didn't waste the lower area space under the current trunk floor area. There is plenty of space to have made a very deep trunk capable of holding a spare (if desired) or have a super deep trunk underneath a raised (flat) hatchback load deck.
 
They supposedly did just that for Australian Leafs - because Australia requires a spare tire. They even have a part listing for the rack to hold the tire, but you can't buy it here, IIRC. US regulators are more easily purchased - or at least rented.
 
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