Nissan Leaf

My favorite car I've ever had. It's zippy, casual, and fun; driving it feels a little like being in a cartoon. We have a 2015 model with a fairly limited range, and man it's such a drag when I have to use the "real" car and feel that dumb gas engine revving up and down.

I'm not a car guy at all, but I do care about my carbon footprint. We got by as a one car family for years, relying heavily on bicycles and public transportation, and using car2go or uber to fill in the gaps. When that became impractical, we decided to go electric for our second car. After a ton of research, we narrowed in on the 2015 Nissan Leaf. We didn't want to pay for a new car, and the 2015 battery upgrade made this a good option for our lifestyle. I was able to find a good selection of Leafs for sale online, so I geeked out and built a massive spreadsheet. I found that carvana had by far the best selection. We kept an eye on inventory for a couple of months and then grabbed one with low milage for a good price.

This has turned out to be a great fit for us. It wouldn't work as our only car, but it compliments our old mazda perfectly. We still use the mazda for long road trips, which we take frequently, but the leaf handles most of our day-to-day driving. The battery claims to have an 80-mile range, but we can't really go beyond 60. That's usually plenty for us, though. For fun, I've been keeping track of our milage since we bought the leaf. 60% of our total miles have been electric. On months without road trips, we're typically over 80%.