grandmas

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Going blue and green

Grandma's new ride
It wasn't really my plan to go green when we bought our new car.
We just paid off our SUV and my little Mazda 3 had 120,000 miles on it so we went "shopping" to see what was out there.
I had noticed the Nissan Juke cars running around and was curious about the space inside and what it cost. I wanted to know if it came in chocolate brown.
That's when the salesman showed us a Leaf in the line next to the Jukes.
Marc was especially intrigued.
I agreed to a test drive where we noticed two things, it drove really well and it was so quiet that the teenager in the road in front of us didn't move for us until we honked.
But it is an all-electric car and we really knew nothing about them.
And we were on our way to other things (like a vacation to Maui) so we couldn't stay around and chat.
We left but not before the salesman pointed out we could get around $8,000 in tax breaks, never have to buy gas or oil again and help save the environment.
We went home thinking.
Everywhere we looked in Hawaii there were Leaf cars.
We started researching the possibilities.
Seems these have been for sale since 2011 and each year, the range of distance one can go between charges improves. One can plan on about 85 miles at a go between charges and there are various ways and plentiful ways to charge them.
We looked at the ways and means including the cost of putting a charge port in our garage and/or converting a standard plug to 220.
Marc checked out the less important things like how they work and perform. I wanted to know if I could get it in light blue and how my CDs would sound in it.
We came back to our salesman to get some answers and now we are the proud lessees of a pretty blue 2015 Nissan Leaf.
In some ways it feels like we just bought a grown-up toy though it drives and feels like a real car.
In other ways, we feel like we're moving into the future, changing and evolving. We're getting into the habit of plugging in our car each night and driving a sweet ride that makes no noise.
The back side
We're excited and proud and scared to death!

3 comments:

  1. So how much does your electric bill go up? More than the cost of gas/oil?

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  2. Sorry, that' s per month plus you can recharge at no cost at all the Nissan dealerships and many city parking spaces...we will keep you posted on actual costs!

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