First Impressions After Test Drive

[marty]

Hi all,

ok, I've done it. I had my first hour in the LEAF today and loved it .


Took the demo LEAF from Blackburn NISSAN for a spin with missus and son after soccer practice.

They both loved the interior and the way it drove.

No one likes the back of it, including me.

It is a little to spacy and Renault Megane looking for me, but not an obstacle to get into one.

I downloaded the CARWINGS app from NISSAN as well as the battery info one from the American myleaf site
www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Leaf_Battery_Application
and played around with them.

Ordered blu tooth OBDII dongle and OBDII extension cord as mentioned in the thread, as well.

NISSAN has a demo mode for CARWINGS which lets you play a little bit. But the demonstrator was not set up for it.

I hope I can try some more with the three day rental I organised CloudNineCars.com.au for next weekend.

I like the statistics part where you can compare your driving to others like in the screen shots Duncan posted.

So if you drive your car more aggressively you shorten the battery life, yes?
I could see myself doing that on more the odd occasion. ;D

That's about the only thing I am paranoid about: the pack will pack will go cactus after the warranty is over....

How much did you have to pay for you LEAF or did you get finance for them?

You can PM me if you don't want to disclose publicly.

So far $34000 drive away was the best deal I could find.

Finance is something I am contemplating, too.

Even though I don't spend $85 on petrol at present it feels like I'm offsetting something that way....

[Phoebe]

Wow, you've done well for just one test drive, Marty. Glad your family like it too. Your stlye of driving sounds more like Duncan's than mine and he's already worn out his tyres ;D After next weekend you'll be absolutely sold so I guess you'll pay the $34000 they want

[marty]

Hi Phoebe,

I have a feeling.... you might be right.

I noticed you can't control the direction of air flow as you can in any other car I have?

You can't set it so air goes juts to the windscreen and feet or juts feet, just upper outlets ect?

[leafboi]

Glad you like it.

I'm sure your very excited now for your 3 days hire next week!

[Phoebe]

Aug 10, 2013 16:44:48 GMT 11 marty said:

Hi Phoebe,

I have a feeling.... you might be right.

I noticed you can't control the direction of air flow as you can in any other car I have?

You can't set it so air goes juts to the windscreen and feet or juts feet, just upper outlets ect?

I think you are right, Marty. Much as I have fiddled with airflow there doesn't seem much control. It does go to the windscreen if you press the right heat button. Don't know why they have skimped on this feature. It doesn't worry me much as I never use the air except when I have a fogged up windscreen, but in Melbourne I guess you need more than that .

[duncan]

haha good to hear you enjoyed it.

Re cost, we paid mid 40s for ours and there are some on here who paid mid 50s. So I think only a recent buyer would be a meaningful comparison. I am enjoying dodging servos regularly and it saves us about 50 a week. On a purely financial basis it's also worth servicing is extremely cheap and on the other hand I expect terrible depreciation

Re battery life an aggressive driving, I'd suggest driving how you normally do during those 3 days, you'll get an idea for it. The major impact on range is speed (eg 100klm/h will give you about half the range of 50klm/h), other minor impacts are degree of aggression with the throttle and whether the climate is on or off. Keep in mind the display of remaining range on the dash is at best a wild guess You will get a much better indication by getting the actual GIDs (which you can get via the battery app you downloaded among other ways) and applying the range chart which I've posted on here somewhere.

[marty]

Hi Duncan,

I will report back how the three day test goes.

What does this GIDs actually stands for?

Did you buy a OBDII dongle and have the app on the phone, as well?

[duncan]

Yep I use this one (first one I bought didn't work) www.ebay.com.au/itm/330790894071?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 . I've got a thread over here about it: ozleaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=everything&thread=110&page=1

the GID name is kind of a joke as far as I know....Gary Giddings who worked out what the message was on the CAN bus named it after himself (kind of like einsteinium or fermium I guess). But the point is that a GID is the actual battery capacity message that the Leaf uses internally. A new, healthy battery at 100% has about 281 GIDs. The car goes into turtle mode somewhere between 14 and 7 GIDs.

[marty]

Hi Duncan,

I just love this teccy stuff.

Found his page: www.wwwsite.com/puzzles/socmeter/

As well as his user profile on MyNissanLEAF.com

www.mynissanleaf.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=202

[Jim Hare]

Hi Marty,

You'll never go back! Regarding the air flow, you push the MODE button and it switches from feet to vents etc. and the defrost buttons are easy permanent buttons. Little things you will learn when you own it. Basically there is nothing missing, only additions.

Aggressive driving will not damage the batteries, it will just reduce your range which means technically you will be charging slightly more often.

Seriously, I wouldn't worry about it. I love a good hoon once in a while and I never feel guilty. Whack it in DRIVE, plant the pedal and get pinned to the seat!

[Phoebe]

I'd never spotted the MODE button, let alone worked out what it did and I've only had my LEAF 9 months Just went and tried it out - thanks Jim

[Jim Hare]

Now if we can only get you doing some hooning Pheobe, my work here will be complete! ;-)

[duncan]

yep I actually have one of those SOC (state of charge) meters as well, it shows GIDs, SOC, voltage, amps, and instant drain or regen all to 2 dec pl. But the battery app is newer, has more functions and is much more convenient. The only meaningful remaining benefit in the SOCmeter is that it includes logging of the CAN bus messages which can be interesting

[duncan]

BTW good to hear you are all coming over to the dark side muahahahaha