[jmacneil]

My Leaf 24 (Acenta) is in for its fifth annual service and MOT today and my local Nissan dealer kindly arranged for me to get the use of a Leaf 40 (Tekna) for the day.

ePedal didn't take too much getting used to at a basic level - though I suspect I'd need a lot more practice to get "efficient" with it - I suspect there's a tendency to regenerate more than you would in the old Leaf.

It does seem to be a mass of buttons everywhere. When I've been lusting over a Tesla Model 3 for years now, I find it peculiar that any car should need so many buttons!

I suspect I won't get a chance to try out ProPilot, which is a bit of a shame, since I'm only about 4 miles of urban roads away from the Nissan dealership and both trips between the dealership and my work will mostly be in rush-hour-lite traffic. The local speed limit notification is nice to have, but I definitely prefer the digital speedo to the analogue dial - much easier to tell if you're within the limit at a glance when the speed is there in big bold numbers.

It's a wee bit quicker off the mark, but not "Oh my God that's fast" - which is more what I expect of the Tesla.

So, an interesting opportunity to see how things have moved on, but I suspect I'll still end up mortgaging my Granny to be able to buy a Tesla Model 3 in a year or so.
One of the major use cases I have for a longer range EV is to be able to travel down from Edinburgh to Malaga to visit my Dad, who it seems is likely to be moving back out there (semi) permanently - and for that trip I can't see either the Leaf 40 or the 62 being nearly as useful as a Tesla.

 

[EdH]

My Leaf 24 (Acenta) is in for its fifth annual service and MOT today and my local Nissan dealer kindly arranged for me to get the use of a Leaf 40 (Tekna) for the day.

ePedal didn't take too much getting used to at a basic level - though I suspect I'd need a lot more practice to get "efficient" with it - I suspect there's a tendency to regenerate more than you would in the old Leaf.

It does seem to be a mass of buttons everywhere. When I've been lusting over a Tesla Model 3 for years now, I find it peculiar that any car should need so many buttons!

I suspect I won't get a chance to try out ProPilot, which is a bit of a shame, since I'm only about 4 miles of urban roads away from the Nissan dealership and both trips between the dealership and my work will mostly be in rush-hour-lite traffic. The local speed limit notification is nice to have, but I definitely prefer the digital speedo to the analogue dial - much easier to tell if you're within the limit at a glance when the speed is there in big bold numbers.

It's a wee bit quicker off the mark, but not "Oh my God that's fast" - which is more what I expect of the Tesla.

So, an interesting opportunity to see how things have moved on, but I suspect I'll still end up mortgaging my Granny to be able to buy a Tesla Model 3 in a year or so.
One of the major use cases I have for a longer range EV is to be able to travel down from Edinburgh to Malaga to visit my Dad, who it seems is likely to be moving back out there (semi) permanently - and for that trip I can't see either the Leaf 40 or the 62 being nearly as useful as a Tesla.

Edinburgh to Malaga would be much better in and ICE vehicle and,really, the butons are a lot easier than poking around with a touch screen. They are mostly very well placed in the Leaf

 

[jmacneil]

Edinburgh to Malaga would be much better in and ICE vehicle and,really, the butons are a lot easier than poking around with a touch screen. They are mostly very well placed in the Leaf

The main reason to drive rather than fly would be to save on Carbon emissions. So not much use taking an ICE (and besides, I'd hope to be "EV only" if we get a Model 3). I'd quite like to explore France along the way (and Northern Spain), so travelling by Tesla (mostly using the Supercharger network) would suit me fine. Autopilot would help to ease the burden on the longer motorway stretches - and the more squiggly scenic bits it would be less of a burden to be driving anyway.

I'm sure I'd get used to the buttons in the newer Leaf - but the minimalist simplicity of the Model 3 does appeal - most of the time you don't need to fiddle about with settings on the move anyway, so having a fairly logical (and responsive) touch screen doesn't seem a huge hardship. What I really have no knowledge of is what can be controlled by voice command in either one.

 

[Chrisb]

As a Leaf 30 owner who has driven the Leaf 40 a fair bit and has just test driven a Model 3 finally i have to say it will take you about 2 seconds of use to come to the conclusion the single big touchscreen in the M3 is genius and i am on the whole blown away with the car.The newer Leaf interior is a step backwards IMHO from the original Leaf where as the M3 is the future.

 

[MikeProcter]

Having driven a Leaf 40 for 20,000 miles and previously a Leaf 24 for 40,000 miles, I have a little experience of them both.

Firstly let’s get the elephant out of the room. The Leaf in any guise is not a Tesla M3 competitor. Full stop. There is no comparison. The M3 isn’t a hatchback

and yes, for the OP trip from Edinburgh to Malaga, the Tesla is the only choice other than a Kona/eSoul/eNiro/iPace.

When I took delivery in March last year of my ‘40, it was a revelation compared to my 24. It handled better, was as quick with eco on as my 24 without, and considerably faster without. I can now overtake at 40-60 without having to plan.... it felt at the time a completely different car. It was quieter and more comfortable, but that might just be going from an Acenta to a Tekna. Yes lots is still the same, but so much had changed. Plus the range almost doubled over my 4 1/2 year old when I sold it Leaf 24. Thevtech in the car is great, apart from the infotainment system. That is dire and I don’t use it.

For me and my usage it fits really well. I no longer have to plan rapid charge stops every working day.

I use ProPilot most days up & down the motorway, rarely use ePedal unless in heavy congested traffic, preferring B mode.

It’s not perfect. I do not like the suspension on rough potholes roads. The steering wheel is comfortable for me but not everyone due to its lack of telescoping. The boot is big. And I need a big boot to get all my gear in.

My car is my office & I spend usually between 1 & 6 hours a day in it. The Leaf works for me, but so would an ioniq. Or an eNiro, an M3 might not due to the smaller boot & poor access.

 

[jmacneil]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Traffic on the way to return the car was a fair bit heavier than the morning run and I got a bit of a chance to play with ProPilot (actually got it to activate for a few seconds!) and TACC. Not having previously used any sort of "driver assist" feature other than "dumb" cruise control it was an interesting little experiment.

Overall I liked the car, definitely a substantial step up from the old model. Once the Leaf 24 has to go I'd definitely have one to replace it. But I'm not sure I would want one to do very long trips given the middling rapid charging situation.

One oddity, I managed to catch my head on the parcel shelf twice putting my stuff in the boot - once in the morning and again, less severely, despite being aware of a potential issue, when it came time to "head home" at the end of the afternoon. Very odd. Never done that on my own one. Also found the centre arm rest a bit less useful/comfortable than in the 24. And still convinced there are a few too many buttons overall.

 

[zap fizzle]

The buttons are absolute insanity! The M3 is just a little step too far into minimalism but better than the scifi nightmare that is the LEAF 40 cabin.

An LR3 will be a fine and interesting way to get to Spain the first few times. It will consume days and days of your time and cost waaaay more than flying if you account accurately for depreciation costs, though. With paid supercharging the fuel cost won't be much lower than a decent diesel. I would get pretty bored of spending £1000 (are you sleeping in it too?) and 4 days to do a round-trip to Spain.

LEAF just couldn't do the journey - imagine the third chademo stop of the day in Spanish summer with no battery cooling. It ain't gonna work.

 

[jmacneil]

An LR3 will be a fine and interesting way to get to Spain the first few times. It will consume days and days of your time and cost waaaay more than flying if you account accurately for depreciation costs, though. With paid supercharging the fuel cost won't be much lower than a decent diesel. I would get pretty bored of spending £1000 (are you sleeping in it too?) and 4 days to do a round-trip to Spain.

Actually more likely to be an SR+. But that doesn't make it too much worse. I'd find it hard to justify flying out to Spain a couple of times a year to see Dad, on CO2 grounds. And there's a lot of France and Northern Spain I haven't gotten around to seeing yet - so I would consider the trip part of the holiday and take a few days over it, rather than trying to storm it in just two or three days. Maybe 4 days each each way, leaving about six days near Malaga for a typical two week break. Given my annual mileage now seems to be about 10k, a long trip once or twice per year won't put me into silly mileages - and if I do by an M3 I would plan on keeping it for at least 10-15 years, so depreciation isn't that much of a concern.

 

[zap fizzle]

About 4 billion citizens of Africa, India, and China are industrializing their countries & lifestyles. They're going to emit so much CO2 that your travel is utterly, utterly immaterial. Visit your father or regret it when he's gone.

SR+ range ain't great TBH. Slower charging too. LR a much better bet for long-term ownership.