Wednesday, February 1, 2017

How I wound up with a Nissan Leaf instead of a Chevy Bolt

I've been driving the Chevy Volt since late 2011:


First I had a 2012 then leased a 2014 ... that I just turned back into the local Chevy dealer on December 22 of last year. I thought I was going to Salem Oregon to pick up a new Chevrolet Bolt:

GM was selling the Bolt into Oregon and California first, so I contacted Capitol Chevrolet in Salem OR and arranged to come down on December 30 to sign a lease and pick up an orange version of the Bolt. The last I heard from this dealership, the car was to be delivered on the 26th or 27th.

I showed up on the 30th as planned to be told that, gosh, the car wasn't in yet (they blamed weather in the midwest) but please go ahead and sign this paperwork ... They could easily have called me to have me delay a week, but no.

I walked out. This is my latest annoyance with Chevrolet and I was so steamed I decided I never want to set foot in one of their dealerships again. I contacted an auto broker to see if he could get one from Oregon for me ...

He eventually reported that the $349 lease deal that Capitol Chevy had dangled in front of me applied only to Oregon drivers. For me, from Washington, it would have been something like $708.

Thanks anyway ... at the same time I had been seeing local ads for the 2016 Nissan Leaf, which was being advertised at fire-sale prices:


This now has a 30 KW battery, rated around 107 miles. This is enough for me for the next two years, I thought, so I visited Bellevue Nissan, signed lease paperwork, and drove home with a 2016 Nissan Leaf S.

So far (2 days) I'm quite happy with it, and I am planning just to roll into Nissan's "Tesla Killer" in 2 years when this lease is up ... or maybe just buy this one at the end ... the residual is listed as $11000 but I'll be surprised!

Thanks, Bellevue Nissan ... and goodbye Chevrolet!

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