A true NEV is misnamed-- it does not get you around your neighborhood. It's nothing more than a nice golf cart.
"Neighborhood" is a word that implies those places close to home. Nearby places like the grocery store or the soccer field or my kids' school. For most people a true NEV will not work in those places. I'm thinking of my friend in Phoenix, and how the local grocery store requires a mile or two down a 50-mph surface street; illegal and unsafe in an NEV. Or picking up my kids in sub-zero temperatures; totally impractical and/or unsafe. But the Leaf does all of those things.
The Leaf can get me to work and back, to pick up my kids after school, to the grocery store, and to the movies. It is perfectly sized for Helena, Montana (Population 30,000 plus surroundings).
In other words, it gets me around my neighborhood. No, I can't leave my neighborhood and drive to other nearby cities like Great Falls or Missoula, but that's not the purpose of a 1st generation Leaf. Its purpose is to get me around my neighborhood.
