Trade iMiev for Leaf with quick charge?

Hello everyone,

do you think that I should trade my iMiev for a Leaf with quick charge?

Aaron

More info needed.

Trade for used?
Trade for new?
How often will you quick charge?

Kind of a weird question. What prompts it? Are you dissatisfied with the car in some way? I checked your previous posts, but there's not much to go on. I don't think we know you well enough to answer.

Thanks for responding!

I was at work and I couldn't write much earlier.

I have a 2012 iMiev that has level 1/level 2 charge port. No level 3/quick charge port.
I bought it from Car Max and I could exchange it for a Nissan Leaf that has a quick charge port.
I could break even with the trade. At times driving causes me back pain, but I feel better after readjusting the driver's seat and sleeping flat on my back.

I really like my iMiev since it's so unique. I almost never see other ones. The last time that I saw one was in February or March. They're so rare in metro Atlanta.

I'm considering the Nissan Leaf since it has a similar price at Car Max and I would like to take long distance trips and then recharge via quick charge along the way instead of waiting longer to charge my iMiev.

I'm also thinking of waiting until I can buy a Chevy Bolt or a Tesla Model 3 used, since they go 200 miles on a full charge.
That would get me further with less frequent charges.

I could always rent a gas car for long distance trips too.

What do you think?


Aaron

The i-MiEV can be found with quick charge. Both of mine have it. While the LEAF is a better highway car, I've found that the i-MiEV is more comfortable than any other car I've driven (I just got back from a 120 mile highway trek and I'm not sore or worn out like I am with other cars).

I'd shop around to see if an i-MiEV with quick charge is available. Of course, the Chevy Bolt will be out in another couple of months.

prodigious1one said:

I could always rent a gas car for long distance trips too.
What do you think?

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Rent, or maybe trade cars with a friend for a few days when you need to go out of town

Both it and the Leaf are basically 'city cars' and if I frequently need to make trips of 200 miles or more, and I could only have one car, I wouldn't choose either of them - Get a used Chevy Volt or something similar. If that wouldn't work for you, buy a $1K gas beater to use for those trips

We do 95% of all our driving in one of our two iMiEV's, but we knew when we bought them, we were always going to need an ICE car in the garage - It doesn't get started very often (once or twice a month maybe) but because we LOVE the iMiEV's, we'll always own a gas powered car for those trips it can't make

Don

prodigious1one said:

...I could exchange it for a Nissan Leaf that has a quick charge port. I could break even with the trade...

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Huh? I don't understand the math, unless the Leaf's battery has significant degradation (something we still haven't seen on US i-MiEVs) and they're unloading it.

prodigious1one said:

At times driving causes me back pain...

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Agree with PV1 that it simply is not an issue, no matter what the 'professional' reviewers had to say about our seats.

prodigious1one said:

I really like my iMiev since it's so unique...

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... and it has a whole bunch of advantages over the Leaf, unless you need five seats.

prodigious1one said:

I'm considering the Nissan Leaf since it has a similar price at Car Max and I would like to take long distance trips and then recharge via quick charge along the way instead of waiting longer to charge my iMiev.

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You're really talking about intermediate trips of maybe 150-200 miles one way. Anything longer and neither car with CHAdeMO will serve you well unless those charging stations are perfectly spaced and all working properly.

prodigious1one said:

I'm also thinking of waiting until I can buy a Chevy Bolt or a Tesla Model 3 used...

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Wait at least five years for those prices to drop down to be competitive with what you're presently looking at.

prodigious1one said:

I could always rent a gas car for long distance trips too.

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Best solution for the rare long trip, and will probably cost you less than paying some exorbitant prices for DCQC. How often do you take trips >100 miles one-way?

Edit: That said, in our San Francisco Bay Area and its proliferation of CHAdeMO stations, I am really happy that two of my i-MiEVs have CHAdeMO as this opens up more options. Case in point is today and taking someone to the airport (65-70 mile round trip, depending on which way I go): I can do the whole trip hypermiling a bit or I can stop for an afternoon tea and L2 charge for an hour or I can simply DCQC for less than ten minutes (just enough time to go to the bathroom).

Interesting question. I actually used to drive a Leaf before getting my 2014 iMiev. So I did the opposite: I traded in a Leaf that didn't have a quick charge port for an iMiev that did. I honestly much prefer the iMiev. The only advantages the Leaf has over the iMiev is that the Leaf has better interior build quality in my opinion, and the range is slightly more. The iMiev has numerous advantages, including much better visibility due to its huge windshield, more control over regen and much more aggresive regen using B mode which the Leaf doesn't have, and a more efficient HVAC system. In my opinion the iMiev is more fun to drive. The feel of the accelerator and brake in the iMiev is superior to the Leaf; it feels more "connected". Mitsubishi did a better job with the user interface. If I was in your position, I'd trade up for a newer model iMiev instead, as they have the quick-charge port as standard now. But if you're planning on taking your car for longer trips, the Chevy Bolt will be available very soon and it can go over 200 miles on a charge. Or you could hold out for Tesla's Model 3.

My take on this is that the presence of a CHAdeMO is mostly a comfort blanket. Mainly because nobody really wants to sit around and wait 25 mins for a charge in the middle of a journey if they don't have to.

From what's been said, it is not hugely likely that the CHAdeMO will be in the right place at the right time on your random journey - and it would also have to be working - something that reinforces the comfort blanket statement.

I used to CHAdeMO charge a lot more (because it used to be free, and now isn't), but for the £2 or whatever it costs me to charge, i'd prefer to stick the car on charge once I've finished my journey (though I do get a L2 charge in about 5-6 hours on 240v).

So to that end - and I also tested a CHAdeMO equipped Leaf as well as the IMIEV - I dont think the utility differs between the 2 (unless you have calculated that CHAdeMO is a game changer - which I believe it's not). I agree the Leaf looks more like a regular car, and has more mod cons, but the range is pretty similar I think, and the MIEV is more fun to drive - I agree.

I do have the comfort blanket, but I could certainly live without it - cant see any more CHAdeMO charges happenning soon for me since they charge is now more than it costs to drive the Insight about - which finishes the post - the IMIEV and Leaf are really only good when you have ICE back-up for those longer journeys. My wife has the Insight, which is significantly less fun to drive than the IMIEV, but it is a reliable ICE transporter.