The new Nissan Leaf. Another vehicle I got to look around during my time at the 2018 Denver Autoshow. My first impressions of it are expressed down below.
Disclaimer: This is the written version of my recorded thoughts (as the voice recorder I use didn’t just have the MP3 file). More “first impressions” will be coming and will be written out. Moving onto my thoughts on the 2018 Nissan Leaf…
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Subjectively speaking: The Styling is better than the previous Leaf.
I was never a big fan of how the old Leaf looked. Truthfully, I thought it was following too closely in the Prius’s (Prii?) footsteps. Just an annoyingly environmentally looking vehicular blob. No inspiration or intrigue. Just another electric vehicle existing in the space around it. Like an emo kid in a sea of other kids at a high-school… and it’s range added to my disdain for the vehicle. Nissan has fixed one (of the two) issues regarding the Leaf with this new version, however. One out of Two ain’t all that bad… right? Right… let’s just get it into it.
It no longer looks wide-eyed fully disinterested in the things around it. This new Leaf has a far more focused look on its face. It’s saying “I’m going to save the planet doggone it!” Rather than “OK… guess I’ll be saving the planet or whatever.”
To me, this is an improvement. While I still hesitate to think it stands completely out from the crowd, it’s definitely more appealing.
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It has Nissan’s favorite styling feature: The Floating C-Pillar.
Like most current Nissans, it has the floating C-Pillar. Outside of the GT-R and 370Z, tell me what current Nissan doesn’t have this design feature? The new Altima has it, the Murano has it, this new Leaf has it, and the Maxima (barely) has it. There are (currently) a few models that don’t have it, yet I’d give it a 75 percent chance of the floating C-Pillar appearing on future models (this includes new models and new versions of existing ones).
Honestly, I’m kinda tired of it. There are some instances where it works well though. This is one of the better instances.
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the article, see you in the next post.
All Photo Credit: Nissan.