2011 and 2012 Leaf buyers get $1,000 loyalty cash to buy another Nissan

Own a Leaf? Nissan would like to keep buyers of its all-electric car it in the proverbial family by offering a $1,000 loyalty discount towards other Nissan vehicles, even those dirty, nasty gas-powered ones.

In fact, Nissan is making the loyalty case offer available to anyone who lives in the household of a 2011 or 2012 Leaf owner (we're wondering how folks will stretch the definition of "household" to work that system). Nissan must be aware that some families like to hedge their bets and complement their EV with a gas-powered car; will $1,000 be enough to make it more likely they will choose a Nissan?

The loyalty program will be offered through the end of next year, and Nissan will be contacting Leaf owners starting next month as a reminder that there is a loyalty discount.

In January, Nissan cut the price of its 2013 Leaf by $6,400 to a base of $28,800. Through February, Nissan's US vehicle sales were down three percent, compared to last year, down to 180,555 units. Leaf sales, though, were up 13 percent in 2013 compared to the same time in 2012.

Courtesy of  autoblog.com

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NYC Taxi of Tomorrow Takes to Manhattan Streets for Milestone Evaluation

Maintenance Tip of the Week

As strange as this question sounds, this is a common and long-standing practice among many motorists who consider an occasional tank of premium a special treatment that will help their engines last longer.

The basis for this assumption is that a tank of higher octane gasoline, maybe because it costs more, will somehow reduce engine wear. The assumption is fundamentally incorrect, though an occasional tank of premium may help an engine in other ways.

An engine's design, which includes such factors as its combustion ratio and its operating temperature, is related to something called an octane rating. Usually, we think of an octane rating as something that applies only to gasoline, but the engine itself has such a rating that represents the minimum octane level that the engine requires for proper operation.

An engine needs a minimum level of octane to avoid ping, which is caused by uncontrolled combustion of fuel inside the cylinders. Excessive ping can severely damage the engine. The octane rating on the gasoline is a measure of its anti-knock or anti-ping properties.

If your car does not ping on regular, then there is no reason to seek a higher-octane gasoline. The anti-knock level of the regular in this case is adequate for the engine.

But as a car gets older, depending on how the car has been driven and cared for, it may need a higher-octane gasoline anytime between four and six years. That's because carbon deposits inside the cylinders raise the combustion ratio, which in turn raises the engine's octane rating. You may notice that your car operated fine on regular fuel when it was new, but pings on regular as it gets older. So, the higher-octane fuel is not something to pamper a new car with but rather help keep an older car running properly.

In addition, premium gasoline has some other selling points. Most premium gasolines have a higher-quality additive package put in at the refinery. The actual additives in a particular brand of gasoline are generally not disclosed by refiners. But usually they include detergents and other solvents that keep the carburetor and rest of the fuel system clean.

Courtesy of affinityfcu.org

Self-driving Nissan Leaf controlled from iPad

"Siri, drive me home."

Okay, so it's not quite that simple (yet) but Oxford University is testing out a driverless version of the Nissan Leaf electric car using technology controlled from an Apple iPad on the dashboard. The car is guided by a low-cost navigation system that gauges its surroundings through small cameras and lasers discreetly built into the body of the car and does not rely on GPS. The iPad flashes up a prompt offering the driver the option of taking over a portion of the route. Touching the screen can switch back to "auto drive" where the robot system takes over.

The system is currently being tested at Begbroke Science Park, near Oxford. The next stage of the research will work on enabling the new robotic system to understand complex traffic flows and to make decisions on the best routes to take, said Dr. Ingmar Posner, who is co-leading the project.

It's estimated that the current prototype navigation systems costs around 5,000 pounds (about $7,625 US) but, "Long-term, our goal is to produce a system costing around 100 (pounds) [$151 US]," said Professor Paul Newman, the other co-leader.

Speaking of driverless Nissan Leafs, you can view another video showing a prototype of a self-parking Leaf here. A right-hand Nissan backs itself at a 90-degree angle into a striped parking car so it can be wirelessly recharged. Drivers might soon be able to do quite a lot from the driver's seat of the Leaf without ever having to steer.

Courtesy of autoblog.com

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