Picking up my Leaf was the most uneventful car dealership experience of my life. Since we negotiated the deal through email, we made an appointment for my arrival as well. My sales man greeted me at the door, I signed a few papers, he took me to the business manager where my lease documents awaited my signature, and out to my new 2012 Nissan Leaf we ventured. Light $252 for my first payment, (that was $235 a month plus tax and no down payment on a 24 month lease) my internal chesire cat smiled.
My Leaf shimmered in the sun like a beautiful a horse waiting for a bucket of oats. My sales man talked me through the exterior, the intelligent key system, the door handles and the solar panel. Next up, I slid into the driver's seat and he in the passenger, and he disclosed all the buttons, jingles and chimes. After a few my signatures and a promise on my part to survey him highly, we shook hands and away My Leaf and I galloped.
My drive home took me 12 miles. Whereas I had 91 miles on the meter when I left the dealer, I arrrived home with only 72. I had driven the interstate at 80 miles per hour. The sales man mentioned that my Leaf would take a little while to get used to me and my driving style, and once it understood how I drove, my range would adjust. The sales man had also synched up my phone for me, and of course, my first call on the way home was from Mom.
Mom had lots of questions, starting with, "What's a Leaf?" She had never heard of them, and she vowed to drive by her local Nissan dealer to get a sneak peak. How much range? How long to charge? What's it look like? Does it have doors? And a clock? Does it have a back up charger? Patiently, I answered 100, 4-10 hours depending on the voltage, kind of like a Juke, 4 doors with a hatch back, yes for a clock, and a navigation system, and a back up camera, and no on the back up charger. We finished the coversation, and of course, she asked when I would come see her again.
A bit later, my family and I journeyed out to dinner. We started to figure out the navigation system, and I finally started to put together all the set up I still had to do regarding CarWings. Suddenly, my yellow master warning indicator turned on and the car started randomly chiming. You know the sound the chime makes on a plane when you press the Call Attendent button? It sounded like that. It would occur at low speeds and high speeds. I had no clue what the sound meant.
On the way home from dinner, we still had the yellow indicator light and the chiming. Plus the low tire light popped up too. Good lord. I am no Luddite, but I was clearly intimidated by sounds I didn't understand. We got home, and I had about 50 miles left on my range, so I decided to plug my Leaf in.
I will be moving in a few months, so I won't be installing the 220 charger. I will trickle charge until I move. Out from the bag in the trunk, I pulled the charging cord. Quickly, I figured out how to pop the charging door and plug in the car. I plugged it into the 110 outlet right next to the vehicle which also charged our Verizon Fios set up. The outlet blew.
Well, what I mean is that the outlet has one of those resetting buttons. And it popped, but we did not trip the breaker. No problem, I just routed the cord to another outlet, and my Leaf's blue charging buttons on the dash lit up followed by the yellow charging button the display. I tucked my Leaf in for the night and pulled out the manuals. I wanted to solve the mystery of the chiming.
First, I goggled chiming. Although a few afcionados had chiming questions and answers, none addressed my scenario. I started reading and reading. I learned a lot about my Leaf, but nothing about my chiming. So I thought I'd set up my CarWings and maybe the "system" would look at my Leaf and tell me what was wrong.
Setting up CarWings was fun! The first thing I had to do was name my car. I knew instantly that my 2012 Leaf was a girl and her name was Suzi. Thus, Suzi was born. I set up my account at nissanusa.com and downloaded the Nissan Leaf app. I perused the FAQ a few times to determine what my various login and passwords should be, then I went to bed.
The next morning, I awoke and Suzi was fully charged! I did the final synching of CarWings, but I still did not have an answer to the chiming. No worries, I figured that if I inflated the tires, perhaps that would take care of the chiming. I made a quick trip to the gas station to inflate my tires.
Pulling into the gas station was surreal. No gas for me, thanks! Quickly, I unscrewed the tire caps and filled the tires with air. Suzi beeped everytime the tire pressure achieved its desired pressure. How nice! What was also nice? The yellow master light disappeared along with the low tire light. Unfortunately, on the drive home, the chiming continued.
I picked up my daughter, and off to swim practiced we journeyed. Chiming all the way. I had her start to document the chiming. 9 mph going faster. 21 mph slowing down. 59 mph steady. 39 mpg slowing down. We had over 30 chimes in a 20 miles drive. I called customer care again, and they still had no clue, even though they were very nice. They suggested my hatch might be open and that I should open and close it. I did, no change.
I called my sales man. No clue. He asked me to bring the car back on Monday for the technician to look at it. We made an appointment for 10 am.
But I refused to admit defeat. In my line of work, I troubleshoot my customers' software issues, and I couldn't believe I couldn't figure this out. I asked my husband to drive for a while, and I fiddled with the navigation system and all the buttons. I finally found the answer! I had disabled the audio voice on the navigation system, and its replacement is a warning chime if you've gone the wrong direction. I quickly realized that I had set navigation on my first night going out to dinner, and Suzi was just trying to get me to my nearest charging station! Because I was listening to a CD, I didn't have my map view up on my navigation screen, so I wasn't getting the visuals that corresponded with the chimes. Mystery solved!
Note to Nissan: Could we get a mini map display on the CD view?
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