Leaf Owners Daring Tales/Boring Discussion Thread.......
Discussion
Anyone else on here finding that the are using their Leaf far more than their previous car as is just so convenient. Had ours just 3 weeks now and done over 600 miles, most of them by the wife and when I asked why she was doing more miles she said its because she doesn't have to worry about putting petrol in! Should have gone for more than 7,500 miles a year I guess on the Cheap Nissan deal.
It's the Leaf all the time for me, my Infinity is going on sale when the plates off and until the Mustang arrives I will get a cheap emergency car .
It's not a cost thing, part of it is not filling up part of it that it's a new experience and part of it that it's nice driving a new car .
Mrs still loves her Zoe even if the telematics are bust she wouldn't use them anyway
It's not a cost thing, part of it is not filling up part of it that it's a new experience and part of it that it's nice driving a new car .
Mrs still loves her Zoe even if the telematics are bust she wouldn't use them anyway
DSLiverpool said:
It's the Leaf all the time for me, my Infinity is going on sale when the plates off and until the Mustang arrives I will get a cheap emergency car .
It's not a cost thing, part of it is not filling up part of it that it's a new experience and part of it that it's nice driving a new car .
Have to agree with you... I am now barely using my e92 m3. It's not a cost thing, part of it is not filling up part of it that it's a new experience and part of it that it's nice driving a new car .
To be honest, I feel slightly embarrassed admitting this, as I love cars. On the face of it, many people might dismiss the Leaf based on image and looks.
But I have found the Leaf to have such a well judged balance between being comfortable and relaxing, as well as having sufficient performance, it makes it actually quite fun to drive.
EddieSteadyGo said:
Have to agree with you... I am now barely using my e92 m3.
To be honest, I feel slightly embarrassed admitting this, as I love cars. On the face of it, many people might dismiss the Leaf based on image and looks.
But I have found the Leaf to have such a well judged balance between being comfortable and relaxing, as well as having sufficient performance, it makes it actually quite fun to drive.
It's been 4 week since I sold my E90 380bhp 335i for my Leaf, don't miss the 335i one bit....Took the Leaf on it's first 'long' distance trip today, 100 miles cruise down the M1, charged up mid-way, wanted to 'top up' at London Gateway, but my Ecotricity card wasn't working fro some reason. But had enough range to get where I needed. To be honest, I feel slightly embarrassed admitting this, as I love cars. On the face of it, many people might dismiss the Leaf based on image and looks.
But I have found the Leaf to have such a well judged balance between being comfortable and relaxing, as well as having sufficient performance, it makes it actually quite fun to drive.
Hopefully the Ecotrocity card will work on the way back up north...otherwise it's going to be pushing the Leaf's range (100 miles door to door), have some Nissan dealers with rapid chargers saved in the Sat Nav if needed.....If anything the Leaf has made 'mundane' trips up/down the M ways much more interesting
Ohh...over 700+ miles in the first month of ownership also wasn't in the plan, will be probably be close to 800 miles by the end of the month!!....PCP deal is only 7.5K/year, so will need to cut back the trips!!
Edited by gangzoom on Saturday 25th April 16:58
Had my Leaf for 4 months now, love it. Saving me a fortune compared to my old company car.
One tip - built in carwings sat nav is pretty pants.
Use a Brodie holder with your phone, use Waze for Nav and Plugshare for finding charging points.
Don't bother too much for Eco mode, B mode is totally pointless, just press the brake pedal to get the same effect.
Going downhill? Push it into reverse which will quickly slip it into neutral meaning you can freewheel down the hill.
Obviously the slower you go, the better the range, really gets bad abov 65mph
One tip - built in carwings sat nav is pretty pants.
Use a Brodie holder with your phone, use Waze for Nav and Plugshare for finding charging points.
Don't bother too much for Eco mode, B mode is totally pointless, just press the brake pedal to get the same effect.
Going downhill? Push it into reverse which will quickly slip it into neutral meaning you can freewheel down the hill.
Obviously the slower you go, the better the range, really gets bad abov 65mph
I'm also in the process of opting out of our company car scheme & after buying a funky Renault Zoe for my wife in January, I'm weirdly excited about the arrival of my Leaf Acenta that is due mid May, as I'm also a die in the wool petrolhead.
That said, whilst a small part of the company car allowance is going towards the Leaf (the £120 pm diesel saving is funding the majority of the PCP cost!), the majority of the allowance is going towards a nice 17yr old hydrocarbon emitting Porsche 996, so everyone's a winner!
That said, whilst a small part of the company car allowance is going towards the Leaf (the £120 pm diesel saving is funding the majority of the PCP cost!), the majority of the allowance is going towards a nice 17yr old hydrocarbon emitting Porsche 996, so everyone's a winner!
Phunk said:
Had my Leaf for 4 months now, love it. Saving me a fortune compared to my old company car.
One tip - built in carwings sat nav is pretty pants.
Use a Brodie holder with your phone, use Waze for Nav and Plugshare for finding charging points.
Don't bother too much for Eco mode, B mode is totally pointless, just press the brake pedal to get the same effect.
Going downhill? Push it into reverse which will quickly slip it into neutral meaning you can freewheel down the hill.
Obviously the slower you go, the better the range, really gets bad abov 65mph
But the whole point of the Leaf et al, is that you get free top ups when on overrun or braking, so the whole free wheeling idea is contrary to that? The free 'engine' braking is surely a better bet?One tip - built in carwings sat nav is pretty pants.
Use a Brodie holder with your phone, use Waze for Nav and Plugshare for finding charging points.
Don't bother too much for Eco mode, B mode is totally pointless, just press the brake pedal to get the same effect.
Going downhill? Push it into reverse which will quickly slip it into neutral meaning you can freewheel down the hill.
Obviously the slower you go, the better the range, really gets bad abov 65mph
Meant to agree with other posters, that I find I'm choosing to use my wife's Zoe at weekends for the general 'nipping into town' trips, rather than use the current company car & not just because it's so much cheaper but also because it's more relaxing & yet fun to drive in that sort of environment.
Completed the 200 mile round trip at the weekend...57% of the Ecotricity Rapid chargers I tried to use this weekend were not working 
Didn't get stuck as I had plans A/B/C...It's a good 'experience' but I cannot recommend it on a regular basis.
At least it was all 'free', I notice the odometer coming up-to 800 miles, since picking it up 4 weeks ago....Not bad at all, considering I've used about £3 of my own electricity to recharge the car in that time. Every £ saved, is a £ extra going into the 'Tesla fund'
Didn't get stuck as I had plans A/B/C...It's a good 'experience' but I cannot recommend it on a regular basis.
At least it was all 'free', I notice the odometer coming up-to 800 miles, since picking it up 4 weeks ago....Not bad at all, considering I've used about £3 of my own electricity to recharge the car in that time. Every £ saved, is a £ extra going into the 'Tesla fund'
appletonn said:
Phunk said:
Had my Leaf for 4 months now, love it. Saving me a fortune compared to my old company car.
One tip - built in carwings sat nav is pretty pants.
Use a Brodie holder with your phone, use Waze for Nav and Plugshare for finding charging points.
Don't bother too much for Eco mode, B mode is totally pointless, just press the brake pedal to get the same effect.
Going downhill? Push it into reverse which will quickly slip it into neutral meaning you can freewheel down the hill.
Obviously the slower you go, the better the range, really gets bad abov 65mph
But the whole point of the Leaf et al, is that you get free top ups when on overrun or braking, so the whole free wheeling idea is contrary to that? The free 'engine' braking is surely a better bet?One tip - built in carwings sat nav is pretty pants.
Use a Brodie holder with your phone, use Waze for Nav and Plugshare for finding charging points.
Don't bother too much for Eco mode, B mode is totally pointless, just press the brake pedal to get the same effect.
Going downhill? Push it into reverse which will quickly slip it into neutral meaning you can freewheel down the hill.
Obviously the slower you go, the better the range, really gets bad abov 65mph
rudebhoy said:
200 miles , so in theory you would only need 2 full charges? How many did you need 3?
Starting at 90% charge each way, only needed one charge each way....BUT finding a rapid charge point that worked on the way back home was a nightmare. Original plan was to charge up at 20 miles in, but that rapid was out of action. Next one was only 20 miles along, but that was also out of action!!
So I could try the next one...which I could have made, but if that was out of action as well, I would be stuck with 10-15 miles of range, but another 40 miles or so to go..
So I diverted to a local Nissan garage that I knew more reliable....I stopped the nearest rapid to my house once i knew I had enough charge to get home, just to check on the status of that rapid....It turned out of the two chargers, only one was working.
IF the Ecotricity rapid chargers were more reliable, than the journey would have been easy, but with a >50% failure rate, it's not a net-work I want to rely on to get me from A to B if I was in a hurry!!
Gad-Westy said:
Seems as good a place as any to ask. When my wife test drove a Leaf prior to purchase the sales guy mentioned an app that would tell you whether a charge point is occupied or not. Now that she has a Leaf she's keen to use it. Anyone know what the app is?
CYC - charge your car Works most of the time and their technical support worked well for me when I was being overly ambitious trying to charge my car directly from the app in an area with rubbish phone signal!
Gad-Westy said:
Seems as good a place as any to ask. When my wife test drove a Leaf prior to purchase the sales guy mentioned an app that would tell you whether a charge point is occupied or not. Now that she has a Leaf she's keen to use it. Anyone know what the app is?
The thing you need to know is not whether it's occupied but whether it's working. I've never yet got to one of my three local Ecotricity points and found it in use, and I can also report that they've all been working perfectly for some time now.Ecotricity do not yet have live data about whether a charge point is functioning, but they are working on it.
T5GRF said:
Well after a faultless and enjoyable first 1000 miles the heater has stopped working.. Took it into the dealer this morning for diagnostics and apparently they have no idea what's wrong with it and have now sent the fault codes to Nissan Japan to assist..
Oh dear. At least its a good time of year to find a fault like this. Looking around on google, it looks like heater failure is not a totally unusual occurence. Hope you get it fixed soon. Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff