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I'm all for eletric cars and I find Tesla an amazing car, but I'll never understand why people buy cars like Nissan Leaf or Prius. They're ugly, slow and expens

I'm all for eletric cars and I find Tesla an amazing car, but I'll never understand why people buy cars like Nissan Leaf or Prius. They're ugly, slow and expensive. I feel like the only reason to buy them is just for the sake of having a "green" car.

woof 13y ago
Those bloody tree huggers in those green cars, who do they think they are? So they can use renewable energy and their engines are energy efficient -but who cares?
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  The Leaf appeals to tree huggers. The Tesla appeals to practically everyone else. There's an important lesson there.
  - Retric 13y ago
    The tesla is way to expencive for most people to actually buy, even if it looks cool.
    - nsxwolf 13y ago
      The point is, everyone wishes they could buy one. It's the best reviewed car in history. Nobody in the non-tree hugging camp wants a Leaf even if they can afford it.
mercutio2 13y ago
> They're ugly It's challenging to find an objective arbiter of taste on cars. I happen to like the look. > slow I presume you mean something like "doesn't have as much power (and thus less acceleration) as my preferred style of car". That may well be true, but it's completely irrelevant to me how fast a car accelerates. Most of my time is spent at the speed limit (+8mph). > and expensive Well that is just ill informed. Prius consistently comes out on top (it's the cheapest) on total cost of ownership studies. And that's in the US, with its ridiculously low gas tax. The relative cheapness of a Prius is much more obvious in cultures that don't abhor Pigovian taxation.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
koblenski 13y ago
I'm willing to bet you've never driven a Leaf, and/or you're comparing it to all-out sports cars. You can get the Leaf S for US$21,300 after the federal rebate, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a higher performance car at that price.
voodoomagicman 13y ago
For lots of people, considering the cost over five years after gas savings and incentives, the leaf actually works out the be the cheapest car available.
ssmoot 13y ago
I bought a Leaf because it's much cheaper than the Jeep Grand Cherokee I had before (MSRP), and I spend a small fraction of the $200/month I was spending on gas to charge it up. I thought it was ugly as well before, but it grows on you. Honestly I think it's more of a familiarity thing. It's far from slow. It's faster than most hatchbacks in it's price range for city driving. You get a loaded Leaf for ~$27K (off the top of my head, after tax-credit). Anything faster is going to be in the same ball-park if not more (ie: VW GTi). I bought it because it saved me several hundred dollars a month and I've always liked hatchbacks. After test-driving it I was pleasantly surprised at just how much fun it was. Honestly I never considered it until a co-worker came back from a test-drive raving about it. Then I spent a few seconds thinking about it and realized it actually made some sense for my short commute.
- freehunter 13y ago
  But that can be the case for small hatchbacks as well. I traded from a Toyota 4Runner to a Fiat 500, and the Fiat was much cheaper (MSRP). I spend a small fraction of the $180/mo I was spending in gas (going from 15mpg to 35mpg). It's far from slow (even with only 101HP). I got it nearly fully-loaded for $18k (the only thing I don't have is the GPS built in). It's also super fun to drive. Obviously the 500 doesn't make sense for families (my SO and I have no plans for kids), but maybe the 500L would be a more apt comparison to a Leaf. All in all, the Leaf seems like a very expensive and very average small hatchback. I'm not trying to detract from your experience, I catch a lot of flak for driving a Fiat and I know how it feels. The comparisons you're using, however, are far from unique to vehicles like the Leaf. I would love to drive an electric car, but a small efficient hatchback running on gasoline (though I wish it was diesel) just makes more sense to me given the realities of electric car ownership.
  - secabeen 13y ago
    Nissan's been dropping the price on the LEAF. If you live in a state that provides ZEV rebates on top of the federal credit, you can get a LEAF down to ~18k. Same applies to the other city-car EVs (Spark EV and 500E).
  - 13y ago
nawitus 13y ago
>They're ugly, slow and expensive. Looks are subjective. I think they're not ugly, not the prettiest cars either. As a motorcyclist all cars feel slow. Most people don't need a high-performance car. They might be expensive today, but you need to take into consideration lower usage costs.
GFischer 13y ago
Aren't you Polish? Ugly? They can't be uglier than, say, an FSO or a Dacia :) . Slow? Many cars are slower than a Prius (I drive a Renault Twingo). See also http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130725164108AA0PqMD http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130725164108AA... Expensive? Yes. That's the dealbreaker for me, otherwise I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
digikata 13y ago
I think it's interesting now that lease rates are getting into the neighborhood of being a financial win in certain situations. E.g. if you have a case where if you owned a SUV or truck as a gas vehicle getting say 15mpg, a electric lease is $200/mo, and gas were $3.90, the breakeven point on gas cost is around a one-way 20 mile daily commute (if my rough calcs are correct). So if you commute further than the breakeven point, an electric vehicle lease could be putting gas money in your pocket.
fps 13y ago
I have a 2007 prius, and that car is nothing like you describe. - It's quick enough to merge onto any highway around Boston safely, without waiting at on-ramps. I don't notice it being slow, and my previous car was a BMW 330. - it's more than big enough for my wife, 2 young kids and 90lb dog to take on a weekend trip (with all our stuff.) - I drive it as hard as I can, and it consistently gets 42 mpg average in mixed city/highway. It's cheap as hell to run. - It's really nice inside, with lots of gadgets that most cars didn't have 5 years ago (like auto-dimming mirrors, reverse cameras, bluetooth, etc) - I bought it used, but new it was roughly the same price as a similarly sized and equipped (as in, not base model) conventional engined sedan. I'll agree, it is sort of ugly, but the new ones are much nicer, and actually one of the nicer looking non-performance cars on the market, in my opinion.

woof 13y ago

Those bloody tree huggers in those green cars, who do they think they are? So they can use renewable energy and their engines are energy efficient -but who cares?

nsxwolf 13y ago
The Leaf appeals to tree huggers. The Tesla appeals to practically everyone else. There's an important lesson there.
- Retric 13y ago
  The tesla is way to expencive for most people to actually buy, even if it looks cool.
  - nsxwolf 13y ago
    The point is, everyone wishes they could buy one. It's the best reviewed car in history. Nobody in the non-tree hugging camp wants a Leaf even if they can afford it.

mercutio2 13y ago

> They're ugly It's challenging to find an objective arbiter of taste on cars. I happen to like the look. > slow I presume you mean something like "doesn't have as much power (and thus less acceleration) as my preferred style of car". That may well be true, but it's completely irrelevant to me how fast a car accelerates. Most of my time is spent at the speed limit (+8mph). > and expensive Well that is just ill informed. Prius consistently comes out on top (it's the cheapest) on total cost of ownership studies. And that's in the US, with its ridiculously low gas tax. The relative cheapness of a Prius is much more obvious in cultures that don't abhor Pigovian taxation.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

koblenski 13y ago

I'm willing to bet you've never driven a Leaf, and/or you're comparing it to all-out sports cars. You can get the Leaf S for US$21,300 after the federal rebate, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a higher performance car at that price.

voodoomagicman 13y ago

For lots of people, considering the cost over five years after gas savings and incentives, the leaf actually works out the be the cheapest car available.

ssmoot 13y ago

I bought a Leaf because it's much cheaper than the Jeep Grand Cherokee I had before (MSRP), and I spend a small fraction of the $200/month I was spending on gas to charge it up. I thought it was ugly as well before, but it grows on you. Honestly I think it's more of a familiarity thing. It's far from slow. It's faster than most hatchbacks in it's price range for city driving. You get a loaded Leaf for ~$27K (off the top of my head, after tax-credit). Anything faster is going to be in the same ball-park if not more (ie: VW GTi). I bought it because it saved me several hundred dollars a month and I've always liked hatchbacks. After test-driving it I was pleasantly surprised at just how much fun it was. Honestly I never considered it until a co-worker came back from a test-drive raving about it. Then I spent a few seconds thinking about it and realized it actually made some sense for my short commute.

freehunter 13y ago
But that can be the case for small hatchbacks as well. I traded from a Toyota 4Runner to a Fiat 500, and the Fiat was much cheaper (MSRP). I spend a small fraction of the $180/mo I was spending in gas (going from 15mpg to 35mpg). It's far from slow (even with only 101HP). I got it nearly fully-loaded for $18k (the only thing I don't have is the GPS built in). It's also super fun to drive. Obviously the 500 doesn't make sense for families (my SO and I have no plans for kids), but maybe the 500L would be a more apt comparison to a Leaf. All in all, the Leaf seems like a very expensive and very average small hatchback. I'm not trying to detract from your experience, I catch a lot of flak for driving a Fiat and I know how it feels. The comparisons you're using, however, are far from unique to vehicles like the Leaf. I would love to drive an electric car, but a small efficient hatchback running on gasoline (though I wish it was diesel) just makes more sense to me given the realities of electric car ownership.
- secabeen 13y ago
  Nissan's been dropping the price on the LEAF. If you live in a state that provides ZEV rebates on top of the federal credit, you can get a LEAF down to ~18k. Same applies to the other city-car EVs (Spark EV and 500E).
- 13y ago

nawitus 13y ago

>They're ugly, slow and expensive. Looks are subjective. I think they're not ugly, not the prettiest cars either. As a motorcyclist all cars feel slow. Most people don't need a high-performance car. They might be expensive today, but you need to take into consideration lower usage costs.

GFischer 13y ago

Aren't you Polish? Ugly? They can't be uglier than, say, an FSO or a Dacia :) . Slow? Many cars are slower than a Prius (I drive a Renault Twingo). See also http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130725164108AA0PqMD http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130725164108AA... Expensive? Yes. That's the dealbreaker for me, otherwise I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

digikata 13y ago

I think it's interesting now that lease rates are getting into the neighborhood of being a financial win in certain situations. E.g. if you have a case where if you owned a SUV or truck as a gas vehicle getting say 15mpg, a electric lease is $200/mo, and gas were $3.90, the breakeven point on gas cost is around a one-way 20 mile daily commute (if my rough calcs are correct). So if you commute further than the breakeven point, an electric vehicle lease could be putting gas money in your pocket.

fps 13y ago

I have a 2007 prius, and that car is nothing like you describe. - It's quick enough to merge onto any highway around Boston safely, without waiting at on-ramps. I don't notice it being slow, and my previous car was a BMW 330. - it's more than big enough for my wife, 2 young kids and 90lb dog to take on a weekend trip (with all our stuff.) - I drive it as hard as I can, and it consistently gets 42 mpg average in mixed city/highway. It's cheap as hell to run. - It's really nice inside, with lots of gadgets that most cars didn't have 5 years ago (like auto-dimming mirrors, reverse cameras, bluetooth, etc) - I bought it used, but new it was roughly the same price as a similarly sized and equipped (as in, not base model) conventional engined sedan. I'll agree, it is sort of ugly, but the new ones are much nicer, and actually one of the nicer looking non-performance cars on the market, in my opinion.