I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf • Hacker News Board

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#561

Post by eloisant » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:17 PM UTC

germinalphrase wrote: post #551

sandworm101 wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which is nothing compared to regular parking Such advantages will disappear as EVs become more common. Lots of stuff, like super-fast home charging stations or EV using HOV lanes, cannot scale as EVs become a majority. Enjoy the special treatment while it lasts.

Why wouldn’t fast home charging scale? Presumably, homeowners are doing their own installations.

It's about cheaper parking for EV.

It exists now as an incentive to buy EVs, but as EV become more popular it's bound to disappear.

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#562

Post by zzzeek » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:18 PM UTC

> CarlinKit 5.0 Wireless CarPlay/Android Auto adapter because the Leaf only supports wired CarPlay by default

OMG this may have just saved my life that this is a thing

though it looks like there are ones with much better reviews

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#563

Post by b112 » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:18 PM UTC

arccy wrote: post #546

b112 wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Look at the downvotes. Yet almost every parking lot is privately owned, and many cities have even sold management of street parking to private companies. Do people seriously think that these companies want to charge more, for environmental reasons? Of course not. They care only for profit. https://news.wttw.com/2025/05/21/final-tally-chicago-taxpaye... The parent says that the reason the price is high, is becaus…

the city decides things like street parking, minimum parking space requirements, or if you can put up a parking lot, thus deciding the total amount of available space. actual operation of the parking spaces can be offloaded to private entities. if less space is allocated, it becomes more expensive (scarcity), driving down car use. this is an easy case of pricing in environment and external impacts.

Yes, that can happen. Then another city council gets in, and wants more parking.

The post I replied to said "The whole point of charging for parking" was to force people to, essentially, drive less. This is saying it's the only reason people charge for parking. Clearly not so.

And there is artificial scarcity too. I've seen cities where one company owned almost all the parking lots. In that situation, they controlled pricing entirely.

I've seen a lot more of "doing it for profit", including the city doing it for profit, than for environmental reasons.

That's doesn't mean I support this position or not. Describing reality as it stands is important, one cannot effect change one way or the other, without understanding what is.

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#564

Post by masklinn » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:19 PM UTC

danielheath wrote: post #537

masklinn wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re not talking about high current anything, we’re talking about standard mains electricity.

By “high” I mean plugs rated for 240v16A, which is higher than normal Australian sockets (usually 8A).

In most of Europe high current would be 32A, 16A is generally the standard (though I know Switzerland uses 10A and I believe UK plugs are rated for 13).

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#565

Post by tossandthrow » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:21 PM UTC

kortilla wrote: post #555

tossandthrow wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a strawman - but we can play. You should be proud, but you should also lobby for better spend of the tax money. Regardless, a well functioning nation should target some level of equality. This does not necesarrily happen through taxes, but taxes have just shown to be incredibly effective. Regardless of your status, you still suffer from high inequality. If you are poor it is self explanatory. But even rich pe…

>But even rich people need to shield them from ceo killers, use incredibly bad infrastructure, etc. CEO killers are not a result of inequality. The only recent example of a CEO killer was a result of being the head of a health insurance company and the motivation was not his comp. Bad infrastructure is also not a good example. That’s just a result of gov choices on spending. At least in the US, pulling levers on taxi…

Infrastructure was an example of a common good that rich and poor people use alike - not something that necessarily is fixed with equality.

Thinking about taxes in terms of producing revenue completely misses the point. Taxes in this context is a tool for increasing equality.

As for the ceo killings, if not the US increases equality, we will likely only see more of that behavior going forward.

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#566

Post by hedora » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:22 PM UTC

klardotsh wrote: post #234

lagniappe wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and they're an absolute -nightmare- to maintain.... even with that being the case i still want one because russ hannaman had a point- everyone loves a car with doors that open like this \[]/ not like this =[]=

My 2017 i3 REX is just fine. It needs new tires before winter hits, an alignment (it gets knocked way out really easily, especially if you've ever taken it on a less than perfect road. Washington State has many such roads), and I should probably proactively do an oil change on the REX. Oh, and drivers seat heater has a short so doesn't work (the fix from BMW would be prohibitively expensive, but I may try a DIY re-wi…

I haven’t had the alignment problem and our roads are probably worse than yours. Potholes, gravel, dirt, mountain switchbacks, etc.

I found that America’s Tires charges $200 less per set than the dealership, but I get steering wheel vibration at around 75-80mph. With dealership install, there’s no vibration up till the electronic limiter hits at 93mph. I’m not sure if handling the same and sounding the same at 65 and 93 mph is a feature or a bug though. :-)

This is the only car that they couldn’t align + balance prop Our local mechanic gets the balance to work up to about 85mph. Maybe have the dealership fix the alignment?

We know some people with an old leaf. On certain points in their commute the ADAS emergency brakes every single day. It’s particularly bad if someone is tailgating them as they approach that spot, though it can’t be good for the tires either.

Used i3’s are going for way under $17K these days, fwiw. I was actually shopping for a used leaf, and ended up with an i3.

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#567

Post by j1elo » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:23 PM UTC

epolanski wrote: post #536

octo888 wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is usually ~€16/h Holy HELL that is crazy. I thought £5/hr in London was crazy.

It's more of an incentive to walk, take public transport, and free cities as much as possible of cars.

Isn't it also a way to keep outsiders out? If 30 mins by car becomes 1h30 by train+bus combinations, lots of people are effectively pushed out of even wanting to go to the city centre for meeting friends or having a family walk around.

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#568

Post by vel0city » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:24 PM UTC

schmookeeg wrote: post #385

barbazoo wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source?

I have a dryer outlet that caught fire charging our little i3. I'm not sure why GP said "some countries" -- I'm in the US. The heat warped the plastic just enough to bridge one leg of the power socket to ground. It got pretty melty before the house breaker stopped things. The torched outlet was installed specifically to charge prior homeowner's EV and was only 3 years old. I moved to an EV-rated 50A outlet which can…

What was the specific connector for that "dryer outlet"? Was it an L6-30 30A receptacle that was constantly getting nearly 30A of load, or a cheaply made 14-50 outlet?

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#569

Post by ec109685 » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:35 PM UTC

Car dealerships are so useless. Imagine making a profit but offering this level of service:

> Range Anxiety: Yes, it's overblown, but no, it's not non-existent. The day I bought my used EV, the dealership (which doesn't sell many EVs, even new) didn't have a 'Level 3' DC fast charger—and they had only charged it to about 16%. Letting it top off at L2 while I was dealing with finance, we got to 23%. I wasn't quite sure I'd make it home off the lot! Luckily I did, with 12 miles of range remaining.

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#570

Post by germinalphrase » Sat, Sep 06, 2025, 2:36 PM UTC

eloisant wrote: post #561

germinalphrase wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn’t fast home charging scale? Presumably, homeowners are doing their own installations.

It's about cheaper parking for EV. It exists now as an incentive to buy EVs, but as EV become more popular it's bound to disappear.

Yes - I misread the parent comment. Didn’t realize they were referring to subsidized installation of home chargers.