Nissan Marketing Blunder; 2017 LEAF Pricing Announced!

The long awaited announcement on the 2017 Nissan LEAF is finally here and there is no 40 kwh battery pack (at least not yet)  but there is a pretty good price cut on the S trim which as we recall now comes with 6.6 KW AC charger, DC fast charger and 30 kwh as standard.

**News Flash** Just read the specs from Nissan and the S trim while it still comes with the 30 kwh battery AND the 2016 S30 came with the charge package as standard, the 2017 S30 does not. Adding it brings its MSRP to the same as the 2016 S30 which means no change at all!

Originally, the 2016 S trim was $29010 but did not include the charge package or the extra 6 kwh. Both were later added as standard equipment in a mid year change

As you can see, SV and SL no  change at all. 

Sorry but Nissan?? What are you thinking?  Why are you advertising a price you already know you will sell ZERO cars for?  Is it really a better idea to start with a high MSRP then post ads with $5,000 Factory rebates?  

What about the people who are not EV diehards like us? (besides, diehards are either already EVing or already have decided what they are waiting for)   What about people who cruise the net just looking at the general prices not wanting to contact the dealer for "our super low prices" because every ad they see says the same thing? 

Wouldn't it be better to just cut $5000-$7,000 across the board since that is what you are selling for anyway?  Who would take a $34,000 LEAF with 120 miles of range (I have proof!) over a $40,000 Bolt with 238 miles?  People will glance at it (trust me that is how we all browse the net!) and immediately dismiss the LEAF from consideration. 

But if you put that S in at $24,000 or whatever and so on up the line. Now this seeds the thought process. Now instead of a knee jerk dismissal, they now have to break out the calculator to figure out which is the better deal. 

Now this is going to remove the wiggle room dealers have but lets be realistic. In the past month, what is the top dollar you have gotten for a LEAF?  See what I mean?

Now some people will say "not enough range at any price!" but guess what? That is not true because we ALL HAVE OUR PRICE!

I am not going to lie. I thought the same thing until I mentioned a buyout offer on my 2013 LEAF where they several thousand off the buyout price.  I didn't want to deal with the shrinking range, slight as it was, so I immediately tossed it thinking it was nothing but a sales ploy to get me into the dealership to spend money.  

Then a few days later, Someone posted on line that they received "an offer too good to be true" and as luck would have it, had a free afternoon so they decided to go to the dealership and play head games with them.  So they did and a few hours later, came home driving the newly bought LEAF!

I then realized the deal was probably real and mentioned it on line and the same people who said the range was not enough said "My LEAF's range isn't enough but at that price, I will find a way to make it work!" 

Well after hearing the same thing from several more people, I realized there was a point that even a limited range 85 mile EV was desirable if the price is right. 

So make the price right!