My son Eric and his wife Jessica stopped by to visit us for lunch on their way to Las Vegas for an anniversary weekend. Naturally, they wanted to see my Leaf, since I had been praising its virtues to them ever since taking delivery. I gave them the royal tour of its features and functions, and then we piled in so that they could test drive it.

Eric drove it down to Route 91 so that he could feel its power at highway speed. He then turned into the main entrance of our Kayenta subdivision to switch places with Jess’, who drove it back to our home along the neighborhood streets. I had them use my camera to video each other from the rear seat, and you can watch their test drives by clicking on these links:

Test drive with my son…

…and his Hon’

As you’ll hear in the conversations, I gave one erroneous answer to their questions. I said that the horsepower was 130, but in reality it is 110 in the Leaf. I wasn’t sure why that larger number was on the tip of my tongue, but later I remembered that this was the horsepower I had most recently looked up and reported for the Ford Focus EV. Last in, first out. Oops.

Like most people who have never driven an electric vehicle before, Eric and Jess’ were impressed that it was such a “real car,” yet so very quiet, smooth, solid, and responsive. They both had that characteristic “EV grin” on their faces. My youngest was thus the first of his siblings to drive the Leaf, and his tale of the experience will likely whet his sisters’ appetite to someday take their turn behind the wheel.