[Greenbyname...]

So, it's approaching four years since a good number of us took the plunge into electric motoring, encouraged by fantastic offers from dealers on, yes, flame red Leafs. There was even a long running thread where we could share our experiences, mostly good, a few not so, with our Leaf.

I took mine on a PCP in February 2017, from Wessex, Gloucester, a mere £160 a month with a £1,000 deposit for 8,000 miles a year over 24 months.

My question is, what did you do or plan to do next? I'm interested because I'm thinking about my next move. Have you still got your Flamme Rouge? Or have you already moved on to another car? What influenced your decision? Has your Leaf been good overall?

My 30 Acenta has been a great car. We live in Derbyshire but have made several journeys to Edinburgh and the south coast, plus the Lake District, all with careful planning and only a few serious anxieties in the early days when I was still learning the ev 'knowledge'. I kept the car after the PCP was up but now am thinking about my next step. The Leaf 62 is out of my price range and the 40 wouldn't add enough extra mileage to make it worthwhile. So I'm likely to be looking beyond Nissan, with the MG 5 a strong possibility.

How about the rest of you?

 

[JonJ]

HI,

Great idea for a thread, I am still in the Flame Red Club!

We took delivery from our Flame Red Tekna 30Kwh 6.6kw in early March 2017 from Bishops in Guildford, for 190/month over 3 years with £190 deposit.
Have covered 29,000 fault free miles in it all over UK, even a made it up to Edinburgh in 1day from London on 4 rapid charges back in Jan.

Has been a great experience and a great car, have really looked after it and still cleans up like new. No issues at all so far except creaky mirrors which I oil every now and again.

Everything is holding up really well, including the battery which current sits at just over 95% SOH, tyres even still have about 5mm of tread on them! Have learned how to get the best range out of it when required, and have genuinely had over 130 miles, but more typically get 85-100miles on a motorway run.

We liked it so much that we paid off the £13k GFV and bought it outright back in March and intend to keep it for at least another 3 years, by which time it will be a much sought after appreciating classic car lol!

 

[djsoftware]

I joined the club in March 2017 on a 2 year pcp, loved the car but the GFV was high so I sold the car to a dealer as the prices were still high. I'd always planned to step up to the new one but they were quite similar inside to my Tekna Roll on six months and I really missed the car so brought another 2017 flame red Tekna a lot cheaper and bizarrely the new one had the virtually the same SOH as my previous one. This year has not been the best for the SOH as the car has sat around a lot but still love driving it. Luckily got the wing mirrors sorted before the 3 year warranty ran out but that's all. The best bit was I had the second car for about 4 days and managed to run it down to Turtle which I'd never achieved in the 2 years of the previous one 😀

 

[Greenbyname...]

Done 31,000 miles in ours and the SoH is still over 98pc. Don't do that many motorways and when I do I stick around the 60/65 mark. Almost always drive in eco. Quite a lot of hilly driving across the Peak District, but I'd guess the lifetime performance so far is about 4.7 miles per kWh, and we do get some cold weather here in Derbyshire!

Some people were speculating a few years ago that red flame Leafs would deprecate rapidly with the market being flooded at the end of PCPs but that doesn't seem to have happened and prices have held up pretty well.

 

[Rentagas]

We had a flame red (2 year £199 pm) and a black Leaf 30 (3year, similar cost). Flame red was replaced with an ipace on an 18 month deal. Ipace has just been replaced with a polestar 2. Black Leaf was replaced with a Zoe 50.
The Nissans were a fantastic introduction to electric motoring.

 

[DoctorSpludge]

So that's why when I was looking for my Leaf every single one of them was red! 😄

 

[Greenbyname...]

Only right that I should say what happened next for me.....

I ended up choosing the MG 5 Excite as my next EV. Around double the range of the Leaf and £ for £ nothing else comes close for the range it offers as a sub-£25,000 car.

Sorry to see the Leaf go, it was a great introduction to fully electric driving, very cheap to run and minimal impact on the environment. As our only car it was never going to be a long term solution, hopefully the 5 will be every bit as reliable.

 

[Scorzon]

Just caught up with this one, I took the plunge in June with a pre loved 3 year old Flaming Red Acenta. Ironically it was the only Flame Red I saw when I was looking. It had 22k on the clock and 94% SoH. After 6 months of daily ish driving it's at 27k and SoH is down to 89% 😭😭

So my mind is blown hearing of your 3 year old plus cars with higher mileages than mine yet with SoH in the mid/high 90s?

I'm still loving the Leaf but I have to say the MG sounds very enticing at that money. Well done Greenbyname!

 

[Greenbyname...]

Just caught up with this one, I took the plunge in June with a pre loved 3 year old Flaming Red Acenta. Ironically it was the only Flame Red I saw when I was looking. It had 22k on the clock and 94% SoH. After 6 months of daily ish driving it's at 27k and SoH is down to 89% 😭😭

So my mind is blown hearing of your 3 year old plus cars with higher mileages than mine yet with SoH in the mid/high 90s?

I'm still loving the Leaf but I have to say the MG sounds very enticing at that money. Well done Greenbyname!

Cheers, Scorzon. Hope you enjoy the Leaf. Still think it's a great car, but we'd had quite a few journeys when using the heater frugally to conserve the battery meant we would be pretty chilly when we reached our destination.

I didn't see the Leaf as just a city car, we had several journeys of 200 plus miles to Scotland and the south coast from here in Derbyshire. Yes, my battery was in phenomenal condition for the age, may have been fortune, but I do have a very light right foot, never did lots of high speed motorway miles, just drove steadily.

So now, with the bigger battery, we can have more heating and go a bit faster without worrying about the range.

Enjoy the Leaf. I'll always have a soft spot and be proud to have owned such a ground breaking car. Long live Leaf!