Honda Insight or Nissan Leaf experience?

[Anonymous]

We need a new car. Mainly for a 45 min (each way) daily commute, but also for potential longer trips.

We love our Pilot and Accord, and have never owned a vehicle outside of Honda, But the Leaf seems nice due to being all-electric.

Can anyone comment on reliability of either one? Any input, good or bad, on either one?

Can you take the Leaf on longer trips, making planned stops to charge it?

We have never had a hybrid or electric car. How does either one handle in the snow?

If my office has a charging station, will I need to install something special at home for charging either vehicle?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I love my Leaf but it’s best for driving around town, doing errands, school pickups, short trips. I commute with it a few days/week but may not in winter, as my long commute comes close to maxing out my range (and in winter you get a little less range). We have another car for road trips. In theory you could take an EV on a road trip and charge up at points along the way but the charging takes some time, longer than gassing up a car.

I love driving it and love the convenience of charging at home. Surprisingly fun to drive, and so quiet.

[Anonymous]

You should look into the plug-in hybrids. I've heard great things about the Prius Prime. I'm looking to buy a new car in the spring and will definitely be going with some kind of hybrid. Right now my top choices are the 2019 Prius or the 2019 Rav4 Hybrid. At first I was definitely going to go with the Prius or Prius Prime, but when I saw the 2019 Rav4 hybrid is supposed to get around 40 mpg that definitely became a possibility. The Rav4 would be much nicer for the longer trips, alot more room.

[Anonymous]

My husband has a leaf and loves it. We do have a charger in the garage. For almost a year he had a 64-mile round trip commute and would plug in the leaf in a regular exterior outlet at work during the day to charge for his commute home (apparently no one questioned the extra energy consumption....?). It works great on the snow. Very low maintenance and comfortable car.

[Anonymous]

Really wanted to like and buy the Insight, even though it was in its first model year. Engine noise was just too loud for me under truly moderate acceleration.

[Anonymous]

If your commute is stop and go, a Leaf will be fine. I would be worried about 45 minutes each way of highway driving because you would be really pushing the limit of the Leaf's range and many people report much lower range in cold/hot weather and decreasing range over time.

[Anonymous]

We LOVE our new Leaf (and leased the previous version back in 2013) and highly recommend them. It's quiet, fast, and comfortable. Driving an electric car is amazing - so much more responsive than regular cars.

The range is 162 mi in summer - which has dropped down to 152 with the colder weather this week. That gets us everywhere we need to go around the DMV area. Yes highway driving takes it's toll, but we can do about 2.5 hours on the highway for a long roundtrip somewhere.

You can get a charger installed, add a 220 outlet, or just run an extension cord from the house. We haven't experienced snow/ice in the new model but our previous Leaf drove fine in the snow. That said, I'm only talking about cleared roads in the DC area - it has low friction tires so I wonder about its traction in more snow.

We have another car for road trips, as I can't bear making trips longer with kids waiting while we charge. My mom has the plug-in Prius - another good option if you want one car to drive further.