Turns out my mother is interested in a Leaf as well. She will be keeping her Aztek, and had been considering getting a second car for a while and wanted something smaller and different. This is certainly different. Her work commute is 30 miles round trip half city half highway which is ideal. Her longest regular trip (once a week) is about 50 miles round trip, about 80% highway. Our longest trip is about 80 miles round trip so that will put it tight especially after a year or two of use. Luckily that is a family destination and plugging into 120V for a couple hours will give us 8-10 miles which is plenty to get home. She drives about 11-12k miles a year with her regular commute and once a week trips. That's about $130-150 per month of gas in her Aztek which gives her about 24mpg per tank. That's at least half of a Leaf lease payment. On weekdays she can go 2 days in a row without charging without fear, so she's charging about $5 a week or $20 a month.

I'm taking her to see it for the first time tomorrow night. I think she will be as impressed as I was.

Can we add a poll to this thread to take bets on whether Max will buy a car in 2013?  Odds are currently 237:1 that he won't. 

Liking it in Metallic Slate. Would prefer the SL with the nicer 17" wheels with a similar gray paint on the wheels with polished aluminum.



But that will probably run me around $4000 a year since I don't have any loyalty credit ($1000 off) Next time perhaps! Hard to justify the extra expense when the base S model does the job just fine and still has heated seats/steering wheel, smart key access and push button start and as much of a charger as I will ever need. Sucks that the wheels are steelies with covers. The base S will probably be around $2500-2800 per year though.

No need for Nav or fancy stereo (Bose!), leather would be nice, but the cloth is nice too, backup camera is available, but tied to upgraded charger for $1300 more (MSRP), no fog lights (don't care), no auto lights (that sucks, but I can deal), no cruise control (no biggie for city car), but does weigh about 50lbs less.

Careful w/ that kind of grey.  Unless you run DRLs there is a higher risk of getting swiped or hit.  That color tends to blend into the asphalt.  When people undertake visual recognition for driving, it is often a cursory glance using quick visual cues.  They don't actually look for an actual car.  I speak based on experience w/ a family members sand colored Prius.  It has no DRLs and without the lights on, people almost always make a move to slam into it.
You can do wheels on your own.  Factory wheels are a ripoff.  If I could get my cars w/ stamped steel or shipped on rollers and save the cost I would.  You can find lighter, better, cheaper wheels aftermarket and just put them on.  Then when the lease is done, you take the wheels off and use them on the next car if you planned accordingly.  Kind of surprising the Leaf has 5-lugs, must be the instant torque to justify the expense.  You could find some Konig Heliums probably that would do the trick.  I once bought a set of 4 new in matte black for $200.

I didn't know aftermarket wheels were so inexpensive. I might give that some thought. Did you buy that locally or through a catalog/website? By the way, Konig Heliums are 4 lug.

Some of them are, but it's not something that you want to get a bargain special on. Cast wheels are usually the cheap ones, and they are more likely to develop cracks or bend because the metal is more porous than a forged (usually more expensive) wheel.