So the time has come, I am currently car shopping again. I’ve been threatening it for a while now, but with the 2015 Solo National Championships going on this week, and a few other life things figured out, it is time to make the 2016 autocross season happen!

So a few details. I’m once again looking at early 350z’s, this time around I’m not looking for a daily driver, this next car will be built specifically for autocross and a fun weekend toy, with some daily driving here and there (thankful I have a short commute). I am looking for the perfect car, how do you define that? Well, in an ideal world the perfect 350z for me would be

I’ve been one to do a lot of time lapse videos, I’ve actually been doing them since 2006, I think this was my first one, it is at least the oldest one I could find on YouTube. Over the years I have used a number of different cameras, different software and as you can see from my YouTube Channel different subjects (predominantly cars, though lots of them).

So I am in Canada today/tomorrow at DotNetNuke’s engineering office. I got into Vancouver early this morning and picked up my rental car. When I was walking by the rental cars I saw a ton of Fiat 500s, I was hoping that Hertz would have those for rent, as that was where my reservation was.

To my dismay they did not, they offered me a Smart ForTwo. I figured, what the hell, I’ll try it out. Big mistake.

This has to be the biggest POS I’ve ever driven. The car can’t shift to save its life, it is an automatic transmission that feels like a 15 year old trying to learn to drive a manual is controlling the clutch.

The brakes won’t hold the car in place unless you hold the pedal to the floor.

It has no power (can’t say I expected any), it is loud, I have to wonder if the damn thing is a diesel, I guess I need to figure that out before I return it tomorrow evening.

Comfort wise it actually doesn’t feel too small, the drive is okay once you get past the brakes, sound, and transmission.

If you ever get the chance to drive/buy a Smart ForTwo, don’t!

If you've read the latest article from Michael Ramsey in the Wall Street Journal you may have noticed that LeafOwner.com was mentioned! Big thanks to Michael for taking the time to setup a phone call and interview me (Chris Hammond) for his article.

I don't know if the article will be made public or not, right now it's available to subscribers only unless you find it through Google News (though that only works some of the time apparently based on my testing).

Here's a screenshot of the original article (only the section mentioning LeafOwner as I don't want to reproduce the entire article).



And a link to the article itself

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001...

If you are interested in purchasing LeafOwner.com, shoot me an email info at leafowner.com

So I got an email from Boardwalk Nissan earlier this week that my car was in! The website said it would show up the week of the 8th, came in early!

I'm going in on Monday afternoon with the money to purchase it. Here are some photos I took of it sitting on the floor today.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond...

So all the details are yet to be published, or even decided based on what I have been told, but we should all plan a little gathering on Saturday in San Francisco, to welcome the first Leaf owner in the world (for a production Leaf, not a preproduction model) who will be getting his Leaf earlier in the day.

Start making plans and be ready to get to meet some very interesting people to ask Leaf questions to! If you're down with going post here, let's get the bay area leaf crowd out in full force! There may even be some swag and food of some sort, no promises though ;)

We'll be gathering around 1:30pm at a location yet to be announced somewhere in the city (SF). I'll have more info by Friday, if not sooner. I'll edit this post with details when available.

So Autoblog is reporting that the first Leaf is going to be delivered in Northern California on Saturday the 11th. Something tells me that is definitely going to happen.

Anyone else got any news?

I wonder who it will be, and what Dealer it will be at?

So for those of you who have been around since the early days of this site (April 2010), you have likely noticed things have died down a bit. That's not because there hasn't been any Leaf news as of late, just that life got in the way! I had my first child a month ago and have been enjoying everything that has brought me. 

I have been logging into the Nissan site every couple of days to see if I had an estimated delivery date, and I'm glad to say that I finally have something! 



The site tells me I should see the Nissan Leaf sometime in the month of January!

So that's exciting, does anyone else have an estimated date yet? If so, when?

I hope everyone got to take part in the Nissan Leaf Driving Tours that are going on, I went to the event in San Jose on the 30th, I took a load of photos, they've been up on the site for a while now, but in case you haven't see them you can find them with the URL below.

https://www.leafowner.com/Pictures/vie...

So, all completely unofficial of course, but it looks like Lance Armstrong is getting his Nissan Leaf next week, according to a tweet he sent to @leafowner earlier today.



I wonder when Steve Jobs will get his? Hopefully not before Lance!

Nothing like last minute notices..

Today only, from 11am-1pm there will be a Nissan Leaf at Boardwalk Nissan in Redwood City. You can visit, take a look, and I hear even sit in it. I might head down over lunch and take some photos, haven't quite decided yet.

C

Good news today on the Nissan Leaf front! They bowed to the pressure from all of us at LeafOwner.com (kidding of course) and went with a 8yr 100k mile warranty for the leaf!
https://green.autoblog.com/2010/07/27/...

PRESS RELEASE

Nissan Announces National Market Roll-Out Plan for Zero-Emission Nissan LEAF

- More than half of 17,000 reservations located in initial launch markets -

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, nearly 17,000 future Nissan LEAF drivers are learning when the world's first affordable all-electric, zero-emission vehicle will be available in their markets. Consumers who have placed reservations for the Nissan LEAF received a communication today regarding market timing and next steps in ordering the all-electric vehicle.

Nissan LEAF first will be available to consumers in December, in California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and Tennessee. These areas are home to The EV Project – the largest electric vehicle and infrastructure deployment ever undertaken. The EV Project is a result of a partnership with charging infrastructure provider ECOtality and partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy. Customers in these first five launch states, who represent more than 55 percent of total Nissan LEAF reservations, will be able to place firm orders for the Nissan LEAF starting in August.

Nissan LEAF will be introduced to Texas and Hawaii shortly thereafter, in January 2011; North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina and Alabama follow in April 2011; and be rolled-out to the balance of the nation beginning in Fall 2011 with availability in all markets nationwide by the end of that year.

"We are pleased to see so many people making a choice for a zero-emission future by placing reservations for the Nissan LEAF," said Brian Carolin, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, Nissan North America. "Consumer feedback and market readiness have been key drivers in developing our phased rollout. Nissan is able to target areas of customer demand for early launch, while continuing to work in future markets to ensure the continued success of electric vehicles."

Nissan North America also is informing its consumers that the lithium-ion battery pack that powers the Nissan LEAF will carry a warranty of 8 years or 100,000 miles – matching U.S. market competitive conditions.

Consumers who have reserved the Nissan LEAF online will be invited to place orders through their dealer for the vehicle in advance of market roll-out timing, allowing time for consumers to select a dealer and assess home charging needs. Nissan is continuing to take reservations for the Nissan LEAF through its website, www.NissanUSA.com. Interested consumers are encouraged to place a reservation, which entails a $99 fully refundable fee to secure a spot on the list to place an order.

The reservations process has educated Nissan about more than just geographic distribution. Some information we've learned about future Nissan LEAF drivers includes:

* Favorite color: The favorite color of Nissan LEAF owners is blue. More than 30 percent of reservations are for blue Nissan LEAF electric cars. Silver is a close second, at about 26 percent. The remaining reservations are close to evenly split among red, black and white.
* Trim level: About 75 percent of Nissan LEAF orders are for the SL trim level, which adds a rearview monitor, solar panel spoiler, fog lights, and automatic headlights.
* Home and Parking: About 75 percent of people who placed reservations own a single-family home. About 68 percent have attached garages, while an additional 18 percent have detached garages or carports. Home ownership and dedicated parking are important factors for Nissan LEAF drivers who plan to charge their vehicles at home.
* Purchase time: About 67 percent of Nissan LEAF reservations holders have indicated that they'd be ready to purchase or lease a Nissan LEAF within one year of placing the reservation. An additional 24 percent indicated they would be ready in one to two years.
* Interests: Several primary interests are inspiring people to order a Nissan LEAF. Cited interests include energy independence (35 percent); environmental consciousness (34 percent); and cost/fuel economy (20 percent).


In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive design, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO2 emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling. More information on the Nissan LEAF and zero emissions can be found at www.nissanusa.com.

SOURCE Nissan North America

Nissan sent out an online survey asking about warranty and battery life for the Nissan Leaf.

From reading through the survey it looks like they are considering 5yr/60k warranties, or 8yr/100k warranties.

There is definitely a lot of information in the survey, and they ask a lot of "what would it take to make you not buy a Leaf". I was pretty strict on I won't accept a 5yr/60k mile warranty, I have no interest in the risk of being an early adopter of the Nissan Leaf if they aren't going to back the product with a very rigid warranty. 




Here are a couple more screenshots from the Survey

What was your overall response to the survey? Did you get it today? Did you fill it out? What do you think the Warranty should be?

So today we headed out to the meetup we organized at the LiveStrong event in San Jose, it was a great day catching up with some fellow leaf enthusiasts, I'll have a full review of that event and photos posted later today.

For now though, check out the Nissan Leaf Charger Quote I just received. I got an email saying it was completed, and I was able to login to the Nissan Leaf website to retrieve the quote.

Here are the details.

product/service  total

standard installation  1,296.68

charging dock, wall mount 15' cable *  721.12

installation permit and processing  50.00

shipping and delivery  49.95

permit and inspection fee (level 1 120v/20a) 0.00

sales tax * US$66.70

total US$2,184.45
expires on 12/31/2010

and a screenshot from the website.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond...

Damn, I should start taking the 101 to work more often, wish I had seen this (not sure when it was taken, but it was very near my house/work!)!

Did you get in on the Nissan Leaf preregistration event last week? Well I did, and I’m excited about it! So excited that I went and did something, I purchased a domain name and setup a website for it (running on DotNetNuke of course)!

Check out the website at https://www.leafowner.com/

I’ve setup some forums and started posting a few news bits. I hope to update the site daily with the latest in Leaf news! If you’re interested in contributing to the site check it out and shoot @LeafOwner a message on twitter!

I still need to get a logo together, any designers out there interested in putting something together?

Chris Hammond excited about an electric car? Yeah, weird eh? but I’m all about this! Stay tuned!

Update: wow I can't believe I put in the wrong URL earlier! https://www.leafowner.com

So I know I'm not buying a car anytime soon, but I think I've found what I need to buy next.

Click the link for more