The first time I drove my girlfriend in my Nissan Leaf she was astonished when I told her not to turn on the heat. Whaaat? What kind of car did you buy here? We were kind of new in our relationship and I was new in a two year stint with a vehicle that was purely electric with a limited range. Eventually we would come to realize that we could use the heater, air conditioner and drive it all over the place. There was a definite learning curve as to the range and the anxiety that it came with but it would fade the more we lived with the car. She would wonder how much it was costing her for me to charge overnight at her house and I told her that it was about a buck. Hard to fathom, but then she would see it on her utility bill and figure out how much time I was spending with her. "Hmmm", I guess we're getting serious as she would see the $20-$30 extra on her bill. "You jerk" she said. "You said it was only a dollar!!". I reasoned with her that for every one hundred dollars you spend on gas, you would only spend twenty on electricity. I had to pay her of course but a funny thing happened. She started borrowing my Leaf. Yes, she started liking this very inexpensive car to drive. Comparatively speaking, it only costs about two to three cents a mile to drive a Leaf compared to a conventional gas powered vehicle which costs about eleven cents a mile.
She used my Leaf to go grocery shopping and various errands and the funny thing she admitted. "I really like your Leaf".
You see, when you drive the Leaf you realize how quiet it is and how you can have a conversation pretty easily. It's eerily quiet. We would notice as we'd drive about on the town merrily fraternizing out about our favorite spots that people just didn't hear us coming up to park as they crossed the street. As a matter of fact, dogs didn't hear us either or they didn't expect this quiet car to be ready to send them flying into the bush. We had to watch that. There is a bit of intimacy with the Leaf because you have to plan your day with it. You have to know where to charge it if you venture on the fringes of it's range. It really isn't a big deal because there are plenty of places to charge it out here in the Pacific Northwest.
We had fun with the Leaf. We would travel and have dinner at places within it's range and gamble to see if we could make it home on one charge laughing and talking all the way back. We never once stranded ourselves but had a great time with it. Eventually my lease expired and I decided to get another Leaf but they couldn't make me the same kind of deal so I went back to a gas car.
Nissan initially had high residual value hopes on the Leaf that where a little optimistic. For what ever reason the values dropped considerably and this made a nice pre-owned Nissan Leaf a great buy on the used car market. Many can be found at a great price for a late model modern car that uses no gas, has unbelievably low maintenance costs and had all the engineered safety with eleven air bags! A run-around town car that is very reliable, is perfect for a new driver or as a second car. Of course we have one. Offered at $5450.00
253-473-6200 Ext 1215 Mauricio
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