Test Drove a Nissan Leaf today

[mbepic]

I had registered at Dixie/401 Nissan a couple of weeks ago to test drive the Leaf today;

When my wife and I arrived this morning, the 'marketing' company were just setting up because today was officially the Leaf introduction and test drive for this particular dealership.....it is a large Nissan dealership in the heart of Mississauga and Southern Ontario.

There were at least 3 Leafs to choose from and they were all optioned SL models that included rear camera, 400v optional charge connector, cargo security cover and possibly a few more extras. Didn't find out how much this option sold for as sales staff were not readily available, just the 'test drive' coordinators.

I have always thought of the Leaf as a smaller car than the Volt but in taking a good look at the wheel base and over-all length it is probably pretty close to the Volt specs........I really think the design of the two vehicles, being so different makes one think that the Volt is a much larger car.

The biggest disappointment with the Leaf was the interior. I thought it really reflected small car economy and quality; only a beige, cloth interior is available in the Leaf.......no optional leather at this time. There was lots of leg room in the back seat area for 3 passengers.........this was a plus but probably the only plus I found.

When I opened the driver's side door, I looked down at the inner panel of the door that extends out past the interior side panel and I thought this inner door panel section looked rather cheap looking....4 or 5 painted nut/bolts and simply not a very refined look that I would expect on a modern car of today.

The Leaf was quiet, as expected, smooth running and a pleasure to drive; since my only 'test drive' of the Volt was tightly controlled and very slow speed, I really couldn't compare this aspect of the Leaf to the Volt, at least yet.
It was an interesting test drive because the young lady that escorted us, felt she had time to allow my wife and I an extra five mins. or so beyond the normal route; this may have been a mistake because after driving for 5 or 10mins. she realized that she had no idea where we were.........may have been all the talking we were doing about different aspects of the Leaf..........so our 10min. test drive must have been close to half hour. I know that we used at least 25km of range during that drive. I found myself, when my wife was driving us back to the dealership, with the help of the GPS, I was constantly looking at how much range was left and knowing that there was no backup system to get us back if things really went wrong.

My wife is short @ 4' 11" and the seat did not adjust upwards for her, like the Volt; she concluded that there was 'nil' visibility out the rear for safe lane changes and the back-up camera would definitely be necessary for reversing. It was just not the same comfy drive for her as it was for me. However, with that said, she had no complaints about the Volt when we test drove that vehicle back in May.

This mornings experience also proved to me that there was no way, that if we had bought that Leaf on the spot, we probably would not have enough range to go up to Brampton, see Wainair's new Blue Topaz Metallic Volt and then get home to Port Perry on that one charge.

A couple of tidbits of information:

The standard charge cable plugs into a 120v outlet and takes about 16hours to charge (we all knew that).
The optional 'bullfrog power' 240v charge station costs about $2,300 installed and will allow an 8hr charge.
The SL model Leaf comes with a commercial charge connector on the front of the car and this will allow a 'commercially' located 400v charge when needed, however, I was told by a couple of people, that you don't want to 'super charge' too often as this tends to degrade the battery over time. How that fits with an 8yr warranty, I don't know.
There are five 'green' colours that can be selected for your new Leaf............Blue and Maroon (red) would be my choices.
Cargo area did not look as appealing as what I remember comparing to the Volt; there is a carpeted support piece (raised part of floor) immediately behind the rear seat backs and this really interrupted the over-all floor space.............important if you want to lay something that is large, flat on the floor, like golf clubs.

Ok, did I mention Wainair's Blue Topaz Metallic Volt sitting on the dealer's lot in Brampton; very nice!
The interior appointments are much superior to the Leaf; it definitely looked like a larger car than the Leaf.
My conclusion now is that the Volt concept........serial hybrid EV hit the target and the Leaf will probably make a nice 2nd 'commuter' type car but the quality was not the same.

Am I a little biased at this point...........YES, I have to be now BUT I know I made the right choice for my driving needs..............the Leaf would never get me to Windsor, ON let alone Arizona in January. What can I say more?

[DonC]

Sounds very accurate. Hope you had fun with the test drive!

As a FYI, you can get an accessory that fits into the back cargo area which makes the floor level with the seats when folded down. It's nice and gives you two lower bins into which you can stuff all kinds of stuff.

[mbepic]

Sounds very accurate. Hope you had fun with the test drive!

As a FYI, you can get an accessory that fits into the back cargo area which makes the floor level with the seats when folded down. It's nice and gives you two lower bins into which you can stuff all kinds of stuff.

Thanks for that info; that wasn't mentioned by the Leaf marketing specialist but I didn't mention anything to her about the rear cargo area other than it was nice that the seats folded down.

[Roadburner440]

Even though I alreayd leased the Volt I still would like to test drive a Leaf... I would really like to go full EV one day, and hope that by the time the lease is up that there will be more longer range EV's on the market. I think they both are good cars. I just think GM designed the Volt to be more upscale, and almost more sports car like on purpose to try and justify the $40,000 price tag a little more..

[mbepic]

Even though I alreayd leased the Volt I still would like to test drive a Leaf... I would really like to go full EV one day, and hope that by the time the lease is up that there will be more longer range EV's on the market. I think they both are good cars. I just think GM designed the Volt to be more upscale, and almost more sports car like on purpose to try and justify the $40,000 price tag a little more..

Thanks for your comments; I am especially interested in why you decided to 'lease' the Volt. I am also seriously considering leasing the Volt when it is delivered. My reasoning is this.

I believe that with a four year lease, although it will cost me about $5,000. more, technological changes will take place to possibly make today's Volt seem outdated. I will be able to simply turn my Volt back to the Lessor and move onto something more advanced. Also, if technology doesn't do what I expect, I believe that the 2016 Volt will have come down in price, be more mainstream vehicle and probably would be a wiser purchase at that time. I guess I'm not too confident in the $16,000 residual value that I'm hearing will be placed on a Canadian Volt lease............might be hard to sell at that price if a much newer, better, advanced Volt is on the market at that time.

Just my opinion. Look forward to hear yours!

[joefoerster]

Thanks for your comments; I am especially interested in why you decided to 'lease' the Volt. I am also seriously considering leasing the Volt when it is delivered. My reasoning is this.

I believe that with a four year lease, although it will cost me about $5,000. more, technological changes will take place to possibly make today's Volt seem outdated. I will be able to simply turn my Volt back to the Lessor and move onto something more advanced. Also, if technology doesn't do what I expect, I believe that the 2016 Volt will have come down in price, be more mainstream vehicle and probably would be a wiser purchase at that time. I guess I'm not too confident in the $16,000 residual value that I'm hearing will be placed on a Canadian Volt lease............might be hard to sell at that price if a much newer, better, advanced Volt is on the market at that time.

Just my opinion. Look forward to hear yours!

I also decided on a lease, for much of the same reasons. The technology is either going to change for the better, or die (unlikely). The state of the art today is a great start, but it has to get better fairly quickly to accommodate a wider range of drivers and situations. Apartment dwellers come to mind. So I was betting in 3 years the improvements will be significant enough that I will want to get the newest model. If that proves to be untrue, I can either turn it in and walk away, or decide to buy out the car. I'm hoping gas engine cars are soon only found in collector cars and museums. (I have 3 collector cars myself, but I'd still rather drive the Volt!)

[therfman]

Don't forget when leasing that the EV rebate could very well be gone by the time you buy the next car. If not because of the numbers sold, because of a change in government.


As for the Leaf, I would consider it if we needed a second car and it was 10k$ less expensive. But the i-Miev should fill in that gap well.

[VoltMama]

FYI... We have a "car guy" in the Sacramento area called "the Car Czar". He is a bit of a radio -TV personality as well. I was told he was invited to drive a Leaf to a "function" and back. The Leaf just barely got him there and then he could not find a place to charge the vehicle. The kicker ended up how long he would have to wait for the car to charge. I will watch for the video to show up in the future...but this is all the more reason why the Volt can be considered "More Car than Electric"!

[surfingslovak]

The standard charge cable plugs into a 120v outlet and takes about 16hours to charge (we all knew that).
The optional 'bullfrog power' 240v charge station costs about $2,300 installed and will allow an 8hr charge.
The SL model Leaf comes with a commercial charge connector on the front of the car and this will allow a 'commercially' located 400v charge when needed, however, I was told by a couple of people, that you don't want to 'super charge' too often as this tends to degrade the battery over time. How that fits with an 8yr warranty, I don't know.

Thank you for your thorough report, really enjoyed reading it. I'm a regular on the Leaf forum, but I have a Volt on order and I'm considering a swap. I like the Leaf, but I see the Volt as a better fit.

I just wanted to point out couple of things. The usable battery capacity of the Leaf is about 21 kWh. The 240V charger supplies about 3.2 kW net of losses and the 120V trickle charger supplies about 1.1 kW. This means that it takes about 6.5 to 7 hours from empty to full on 240V and about 19 hours on 120V. However, most owners don't use the full range and often only replace what has been consumed by their commutes. This means that the effective charge time is about 2 to 3 hours on 240V and 7 to 8 hours on 120V, depending on the length of the commute.

You mentioned quick charging. It's a fairly novel concept on the North American market and there are very few QC stations available as of this writing. They are more numerous in Europe and in Japan. Quick charging will not void the battery warranty of the Leaf, but Nissan is quite clear about accelerated capacity loss if this option is used often. Furthermore, and I'm sure you are aware of this, Nissan does not provide any capacity warranty for the battery and from what I understand, premature degradation due to frequent quick charging would not be covered.

[hodad66]

I drive 5K per year and the Leaf would have fit my habits just fine.
Those with a commute close to it's total range are kidding themselves
as "stuff happens". The off-white interior was the reason that I
jumped ship..... that and "sport mode" on the Volt... ;-)