New Cars Suck & Why We Didn't Get a Chevy Volt

I have to pinch myself - Did we really get an electric vehicle? I've wanted to be free from the petroleum cartel for years. "Tell President Obama he can get out of Iraq and Afghanistan - I'm not buying anymore oil." I have to admit it is very cool to own a Nissan Leaf. The first mass-produced all electric vehicle.

I want to think Yoli and I have always had cool quirky cult vehicles.  For some people cars are just like appliances - like a toaster - it just has to work. If it stops working you throw it away. Just fill it up with gasoline and go. No emotional attachment. It's just an appliance.


I guess I've always liked cars with - je ne sais quoi - you know, character, mystique, unique design. To the "appliance driver" this might seem frivolous. To them a car is just a utilitarian mode of transportation. A necessary expense.


I also like old things. Things that have history. Things that come with a story. I've always loved older cars - never liked new ones. Not because new ones are expensive, but because new cars have no character. The last time I bought a new car was in 1979. 


When Yoli and I started dating, back in the middle paleolithic era, (gas was $0.93 a gallon) she was driving "Mildred," her 1971 Chevy Chevelle. Too many parking tickets later the city of SF towed her car and demanded too much money for its return. Sorry Mildred we'll see you in heaven. 


Yoli needed some wheels so I gave her a little Italian Fiat 128 I had. Her first 4 speed. I had been driving an old 1970 Renault which I smashed up just before I met her. 

Yoli driving my 1961 Corvair

It didn't take long for the Fiat to give up. By then I had a 1961 Corvair. We actually had a collection of Corvairs. Not Corvettes, Corvairs. The cars that were deemed "unsafe at any speed" by Ralph Nader. Corvair: The American Porsche. Aluminum air-cooled rear engine. Fucking unconventional for an American car. First uni-body construction. An amazing feat of engineering; way ahead of its time.

I bought Yoli a gorgeous metallic blue 1964 two-door coupe, and bought a 1965 coupe we gave away to Yoli's sister Leti when she lived in La La Land, and my 4 door 1961 Corvair.

We've had an old Toyota Land-cruiser and a couple of Suburbans (when we started having children) a 1980 Mercedes 300D that ran on vegetable-oil and the last diesel station-wagon built by Mercedes Benz imported to the USA; a 1987 300TD, which we just sold to a lovely couple who, believe it or not, also own a Nissan Leaf. 

We have had our share of old cars and SUVs and for the longest time we've been wanting to convert an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle to electric. We even went as far as buying a "bitch bucket" (VW Cabriolet) as a donor vehicle. We never had the cash or the time to do it. 

Chevy Volt

When GM announced there entry into the EV(electric vehicle) market Yoli and I got excited. Yes, it's new, but very exciting. The Chevy Volt 
would provide 40 miles of battery range and would come with an ICE that would extend the range past 40 miles. There was only one problem. It was a four-seater. We need five seats, and I'd rather not have to buy any gas at all.


Enter Nissan. Nissan took a little longer to announce their EV but they would get it into production around the same time as the Volt. It would have 100 mile range, and it would have five seats. The Nissan Leaf would be the first mass-produced all electric vehicle in recorded history, so says Nissan.


I plunked down my $99 and reserved one on the spot.


So getting a Nissan Leaf was a no brainer, just like going to see Prince at the HP Pavilion on Saturday for $37. What does Prince have to do with all this? Nothing - I'm just name dropping.

Trickle or Phil It?

There are many things to consider if you decide on getting an all-electric vehicle, among them is where to charge the batteries. The Nissan Leaf is not a hybrid vehicle. It uses batteries to provide energy to an electric motor, so you can't pull-up to a gas station and fill up with fuel.  Your fuel is the charge stored in your battery.


This is both, the best thing about the Leaf, and the worst. Potential EV manufacturers have all probably had nightmares about this issue. With the advent of an increasing amount of manufacturers joining Nissan in the electric car business; cities and municipalities are all planning to provide charging stations all around the US. San Francisco already has charging stations up and running. For free, for now.


Nissan partnered with AeroVironment to provide an easy solution, a home EVSE (charging station).  During the process of ordering a Leaf you are encouraged to purchase one of these "level 2" EVSEs. The cost; over two-thousand dollars. I don't know about you, but I don't like spending money unless I have too.

If you read the forums for the leaf you'll find many people like me. This sort of sentiment always leads to American ingenuity, ergo what people are calling "Phil's Upgrade."

Up till now a few manufacturers are promising lower priced alternatives to the $2K+ home EVSE. I've scoured the internet looking for info on availability and prices only to be disappointed by the fact that no one knows when they'll be available nor what the price will be.

Enter Phil, he has a solution available today.

The Nissan Leaf comes with a trickle charger. This thing is capable of charging your Leaf at a very slow rate, and allows you to use a common household outlet.  Problem is, it will take you close to 20 hours for a full charge from empty. Not very practical for daily use.

Phil will upgrade your trickle charger to run on 240v allowing you to charge at a much faster rate. Plus it will still work on 120v household current. Cost $264 including a 120v adapter.

Phil is in Berkeley and today I'm shipping my trickle charger to Phil so he can have it upgraded and back to me by Thursday of this week. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime you can check-out his website

http://evseupgrade.com/

There's plenty to read at Phil's site. Be sure and read before you buy. Don't take my word for it. Oh yes I almost forgot - you're going to need a 240v outlet to take advantage of the upgrade. I'll probably address this issue in another post.

Garage Wars

It's funny how much stuff one can collect in a couple of years. What's worse is when you have siblings that help you along the way. Our garage has been the family storage place for more than 12 years.

Most people can relate. Human beings have a tendency to accumulate and hoard stuff. Granted, I know plenty of disciplined minimalists. People who manage to keep their house looking like a Japanese garden; the ones with two rocks and 20 square feet of nothing. That's not our family.

I have seen some amazingly useless and worthless items in our garage. But someone thinks it might be needed one day. Like this old 1970s microwave. It's huge, about the size of a small refrigerator. It looks like a remnant from the Cold War, and it surely doesn't work. It's all dented and dirty, but one day it might be needed. Sure. Give me a break. Why can't we just throw it away?

In our garage there are boxes of items that have not been seen for seven to ten years. If you haven't needed it for more than a year you don't need it; get rid of the fucking thing. Please!

So when we decided to get our Nissan Leaf Yoli and I started to dread the day we would have to ask our "storage partners" to get their stuff out of the garage to make space for our electric car.

Well, the day has finally arrived. We have a new electric Nissan Leaf.

You have to see this garage - it is full to the brim. We would have to get rid of a lot of stuff, if we were going to fit the Leaf in this garage.  Luckily there was a wonderful solution.

No, not a thermo-nuclear device. The two old jet-skis that hadn't been used in about ten years. These two fun water-born thrill machines take up about as much room as a 2011 Nissan Leaf!!

About a year or so ago, when we reserved our Leaf, we had asked around to all who would listen about these jet-skis. Yoli's godparent's son Hector Macedo had shown interest. He told us he would be glad to take them and fix them up and that we would always have access to them if we wanted to jet-ski in the future. So we told Tere, Yoli's oldest sister and the owner of the two jet-skis.  She showed a bit of resistance so we decided we would wait to the last minute then try again when we finally got the Leaf.

Last week when they called us from North Bay Nissan to tell us that our car had arrived from Japan, I called Hector. He said,"I'll come over right away..." This afternoon the jet-skis are in Hector's possession, and finally out of the garage. We haven't told Tere.

Hooray. Hallelujah. Whoopee, yay, yippee and every other stupid exclamation you can think of. It fits - the Nissan Leaf fits. A little tight, but it fits.

The Leaf - finally in the garage

In the picture you'll see an old style Maytag washing machine. It's been in the family for decades. I think we better keep it. 

You never know when we might need it...

First Day with the Leaf

Yoli and I had contacted long time friend Francisco Jaramillo to get a ride to North Bay Nissan in Petaluma - about 50 miles north of our home in San Francisco.

Francisco, and his beautiful wife Grace, live in Petaluma. He commutes daily to San Francisco. (I couldn't do it) Francisco agreed to give us a ride, but we had to get to the financial district before he left for his long commute home. It was Friday the 13th of May. Our lucky day. It seemed appropriate for us to take public transportation and car pool to pick-up our all electric battery powered Leaf.

We walked to the nearest bus stop and took Muni to downtown SF and waited somewhat impatiently for our ride. On the drive up to Petaluma we caught-up with our friend Francisco. We talked about the usual things. How the children were getting older and moving on to college. You know. How our parents are getting older and more dependent.

We were surprised how pleasant it was dealing with North Bay Nissan. Car buying is quite different from when I sold cars. We had reserved the car back in April 2010 and placed an order on October 14, 2010. Ron Coury gave us a great deal at 5% under MSRP. Our salesman Tony Muscatell was great - he explained everything about the Leaf including a few things I didn't already know. Like the fact that most dealers are now selling them for 5% over MSRP. Hmm, I could make 10%...

Stopped at the Golden Gate for a picture

After completing an extensive demo and check-out list we were on our way south to our home in SF. Wow, what a quiet smooth ride. Yoli fell asleep on the way and I drove silently through the beautiful scenery on our way home.

As I drove south looking at the range indicator, which keeps track of how many miles of juice you have left, I discovered a new sensation. I am positive this is a sensation that is shared with all people who own electric vehicles; it can only be called "Range Anxiety."

Luckily I live in San Francisco - seven by seven miles.  We drove over 50 miles from the dealer and still had close to 30 miles left.  That's plenty for me.

I'll end this first entry by saying that now we have to clear some space in the garage. I better go help Yoli...