Nissan and Infiniti - NISSAN TO LAUNCH ALL-ELECTRIC LEAF AS UPGRADED 2012 MODEL IN NEW U.S. MARKETS does include QC AND cold weather package as standard features. now, how many people would pay extra for the cold weather package? anyone from FL, AZ, LA or South TX care to comment?
if you consider the cost of QC which was $700 yeah. The price increase works out to $2,420 for SV and $3,500 for SL. the cold weather package is also standard and have no idea what its value is, but guessing around a thousand. the exchange rate has hurt as well and many were surprised that there was no mid season price increase on the 2011. but then again, that would have caused a lot of bad blood. but we should be offered options here for those who simply cant pull the trigger on the higher price
Heated seats are a great feature during FL winters. When it gets down to 40 and 50 degrees, it feels you're freezing. Out last vehicle purchased in FL came with heated seats and it was a great feature. It was worth the extra $$. In a Leaf, sure - if I were in the market for one...with that MSRP. In the northern parts of FL it does get to freezing, just not for months at a time.
Leaf now starts at $35k and Volt at $40k. That raises the question how low Toyota will price the Prius PHV. Lithium battery is not cheap.
:rofl: When it gets that temperature, people jog in their shorts. Winter is declared over. That's 50 to 60 degrees warmer than we experience in January... where heated seats do indeed really make a difference. .
Don't make fun of it. 30 degrees in FL is COLD & I have lived in Maine and upstate NY. I have sat inside Daytona Int'l Speedway in the middle of the night at 50 degrees shivering cold during the Rolex 24. The high humidity just makes it miserable. And yeah, I remember the first thaw in NY going outside in the high 40s low 50s in a t-shirt thinking how gloriously warm it is too.
ya, its all relative. when i lived in Alaska, i can remember "spring" which was mid May when temps were in the teens and 20's. we would be out running around in shorts and t-shirts. but i also remember my time in Riverside, CA, jumping out of bed to stand in front of the heater when the temps hit the 50's.
I was looking forward to the new standard features on the 2012 but was (rightfully) worried about a price increase. I wasn't so sure that Nissan would throw in the extras for free. I mainly only wanted the heated seats (more efficient than providing cabin heat) but if I had the choice, given the confirmed price increase, I'd rather the cold weather package be an option that I wouldn't take. As some on MNL have stated, they'd rather have battery cooling than a battery warmer/heater. (The warmer supposedly only comes on at 14 F when the car isn't plugged in.) I'm still considering a Leaf (contingent on my future work, commute and charging situation). If I could, I'd rather take the equipment level and price of the 2011 SL w/QC option (hoping that L3 chargers) pop up. I've moved back to CA and CA tax credit going to $2.5K (from $5K) along w/the price increase makes the car less appealing... :/ And, it NEVER gets down to 14 F here. The darned weak dollar vs. the yen doesn't help.
Anyone got an ice scraper? I respect your view, that a humid 30 degree day in FL feels as cold as the North east (or often equally humid cold midwest) . . . but I still disagree. There aint nothing like REAL cold . . . and I've never even been close to finding it on the coldest FL day. .
We had one morning in Maine where the wind chill was -80. No doubt you cannot even get anecdotally close to that in the south...but, when Fort Myers was down to the low to mid 30s for a week straight last year that was like a week of 0 or less in the North. IE...it sucks!
