Don't put the Focus in the rental fleet before customers

[scottw]

I was one of the first 8,000 to put my deposit down for a Leaf. I later cancelled when Nissan said it was going into rental fleets before they filled all the customer orders. I was in a non-rollout area so "My place in history" with Nissan meant nothing. Anyone who put their reservation in from a rollout area jumped the line on delivery as did the rental fleet.

I am already talking with dealers in Chicago to see if they will sell to me. I have 2 that responded back saying they will. I also have found a person in Chicago to use their address. So depending on how Ford does the roll out I am hopeful that I can get one and trailer it home.

My big rush to get the car is not to be the first, but I am one of the people who gets a car and drives it until it dies. I have 3 kids so a total of 5 cars now. The car I worry about is a 1993 Corolla with 364,000 miles on it and I have issued a DNR (Do Not Repair) order on it.

The part I hate the most is not know when I can get the vehicle. I want to get in line early to avoid having to buy a car for 3 or 4 months if the Corolla does die. I don't want to get it on December 31 where in my state I would have to pay a large personal property tax that I could avoid if I did not get it until January 1.

 

[evluv]

Serious? I didn't know Nissan did that - I thought the whole point of the pre-registration was to reserve a spot in line... that sucks!

I hope Ford is smarter when they roll out the Focus Electric... I know Nissan has lost some buyers because of the way they've done things.

Sidenote: I had an old Corolla for years, it was one of the best cars I ever owned! Even after I slid it into a pole and later drove into a ditch it still ran without any troubles!

 

[sjfotos]

scottw, yup, all good points.

I am nursing a 1994 Lexus with 280,000 miles. I will go for the first EV I can get....and the LEAF may be a long way from Pennsylvania....

 

[GreenRPMs]

What I do not get is whats the point of limiting these electric vehicles to such small release quantities. Ford seems to be doing the same thing with the Focus EV. With all the government money pumped into these electric car releases its hard to understand why there are so many delays and problems. I sure hope Ford ramps up production on the Focus EV and capitalizes on Nissan's mistakes. It has to be o frustrating when you want to buy a 40k car and have to wait a year + to get it. Electric cars still seem quit far off from going mainstream just yet. Crossing my fingers the Ford Focus Electric changes the face of the entire electric car market.

 

[redEV]

The OP goes all the way back to Feb' 2011 !! Things change fairly quickly with EV's and later in '12 as well as into '13 we should see even more changes ... in any case, I too was an 'original' reservation holder for a new LEAF (which went back to April of 2010) and took delivery of my LEAF on 12/23/11 (or about 18 months later) in Chicago. Now in May of '12 you can just about walk in and almost buy one or wait a few months for option/color choice -- if you check some dealers they may even sell you their demo LEAF at a discount (my Nissan dealer in Elgin, IL has both a '11 and a '12 that you could take delivery on today). You also can get a Volt and the bankrupt Th!nk has a Chicago area dealer with a few cars so some are available now --- still no FFE but they should be here in Chicago late summer or fall (although that could still change).

I'm not sure about rental fleet FFE's but can say that the first few went to Google; if that particular area of the country has the support infrastructure, etc. already in place I don't blame the mfg. for limited supply --- the Nissan dealers needed to be trained on the car as well as put chargers in etc. so it takes time ... just like I'm sure Ford is doing now.

I'm waiting on now the Ford C-Max crossover that should be showing up as both a hybrid and plug-in hybrid (the Energi) and now I hear that Mitsubishi will have a plug-in Outlander -- the FFE, Mitsu 'i' and LEAF are all limited range pure BEV's but the car I need to replace will be our trip/utility vehicle so will need to wait a bit more ...

 

[Jay]

5 cars? Thats quite the personal fleet you have. You must have a big driveway. I currently own a Honda Civic, although I want to get a Ford Focus Electric. The civic gets good milage and runs great, but it's not really the kind of car I want to drive as it does not represent me, as well as the Focus Electric being even better at not needing gas.

Being here in the Ford Focus Electric Forum doesn't help me from controlling my anticipation at owning a Ford Focus Electric.