Hello again everyone and welcome to another edition of the Meet your Dealership series, my seventh installment. "
Seventh?" you ask, when so far there is but
one other? Okay, you caught me. My apologies go to the other 5 dealerships who's photos are waiting for a story but now I'd like to present a more current tale.
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It was Friday, 18 November. I started out making good mileage in my
Nissan LEAF on my way to work. I'd used 4 bars and my LEAF was reporting over 50 miles (80 km) remaining range on my car, more than enough to see me home again. However, to get to work I have to cross the
Potomac River and on that 34°F (1°C) day as I reached the far side of the bridge my car's range dropped by half to 26 mi (42 km) and only 3 bars — not enough to get home! I can only guess that despite my
hypermiling with no heater, no heated seats and no heated steering wheel, the car must have activated the heater beyond my control in order to heat the
traction batteries.
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Even though it's well know that the estimated range of the LEAF is quite inaccurate, the 3 bars remaining pretty much proved I needed a boost to get home. Since my job site has no policy against charging an electric car on site, yet chooses to enforce a no charging policy, I had to make other arrangements to get home. Knowing my car could probably make it to
Tyson's Corner, I decided to give Priority Nissan/Mazda a call to see if I could us their
Aerovironment EVSE. So I phoned up and left a message with the service department and the Service Manager, Gary, called me back and told me it was a-okay! Thank you so much Gary!
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So I left work around 15:30 and made it to Priority around 16:15, about 15 minutes earlier than expected. There I met Gary and showed him my LEAF. We chatted a bit about how fun it was to drive and then he showed me to their one public AeroVironment EVSE, which they have behind the dealership. They have a second EVSE for the Service department which I didn't see. We immediately plugged in and after a moment of confusion I pressed the charge now button and we got the electrons flowing!
I thanked Gary for his help and proceeded to the dealer showroom to get some reading done for my
Loudoun County Writers meetup on Saturday. The folks at Priority were kind enough to let me borrow one of their desks and do my reading though I was very happy whenever one of them came up and asked me how I enjoyed my LEAF. Unfortunately, by this time Gary had left for the day which is why his image is missing.
The showroom is long and thin and on the left as you face the wall you have a selection of Mazdas and on the right and a variety of Nissans on the right.
After I finished my reading I went to find my old friend Mohamed Wadood. I first spoke to Mohamed over the summer when I was trying to compile a
dealer reservation list to help customers find dealerships opened LEAF quotas. Mohamed agreed then that Priority Nissan would
not sell the LEAF for above MSRP and would
not include any surprise options when buying the car.
Mohamed has worked hard to keep Priority Nissan/Mazda clean, spotless and honest. He stands by Rosanthal's Fair Price guarantee. Mohamed is well-versed in the nuances of leasing and promises a 62% residual.
He's achieved the Platinum Elite Award and a near perfect rating. And Priority is quite honest and upfront about their $389.00 processing fee: it's printed right on the wall.
Priority may not have been the first Washington area dealership to become LEAF certified, but with folks like Mohamed they know the LEAF and are ready to bring the automotive industry into the 21
st Century.
Priority Nissan/Mazda has been in business since 1988 when it was one of Washington's main
Datsun dealerships. The current building was constructed in 1989 and has been a Tyson's Corner landmark.
Need a test drive? I didn't learn until the end of the
March Drive Electric event that Priority had a Blue LEAF for test drives on Wednesday, 16 March. None the less, I was very happy for Mohamed (telephone:
703-867-7087, email:
mohamedwadood@me.com) to show me the Grey LEAF Priority has available for anyone to take a test drive. Give Priority a call and schedule yours!
Priority Nissan/Mazda is located at:
8525 Leesburg Pike
Vienna, VA 22182
703-442-8700
Priority Nissan/Mazda, your source for the Nissan LEAF in the heart of Tyson's Corner. Welcome.
