Author Topic: Buying a Nissan Leaf  (Read 73910 times)

forummm

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #150 on: April 25, 2016, 10:27:30 AM »
Very helpful. Thanks for posting.

I saw on the Leaf forum that people there had identified a particular jack (maybe a Prius jack?) that worked well for the Leaf and could be bought for $50 IIRC. But we have free Nissan roadside now so I haven't gotten one yet.

Buttons Kaluhiokalani

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #151 on: August 29, 2016, 05:08:52 PM »
Used 2011 Leaf near me for $6k, but 70k miles and only 8 out of 12 battery bars (~55 miles).  I only do 25 miles a day, but for value, should I look elsewhere?

daverobev

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #152 on: August 29, 2016, 06:28:10 PM »
Used 2011 Leaf near me for $6k, but 70k miles and only 8 out of 12 battery bars (~55 miles).  I only do 25 miles a day, but for value, should I look elsewhere?

http://www.autotrader.com/car-news/2013-nissan-leaf-gets-new-battery-warranty-201645

Shame, it's almost in warranty but alas.. not.

New batt would be $5500+ http://www.edmunds.com/car-news/nissan-prices-leaf-battery-replacement-at-5500.html

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #153 on: August 29, 2016, 06:42:20 PM »
Used 2011 Leaf near me for $6k, but 70k miles and only 8 out of 12 battery bars (~55 miles).  I only do 25 miles a day, but for value, should I look elsewhere?

http://www.autotrader.com/car-news/2013-nissan-leaf-gets-new-battery-warranty-201645

Shame, it's almost in warranty but alas.. not.

New batt would be $5500+ http://www.edmunds.com/car-news/nissan-prices-leaf-battery-replacement-at-5500.html

Have you looked into re-built batteries? I replaced our Prius battery last year (admittedly, probably smaller than a Leaf battery) at 1/3 the cost of new. Came with an 18-month warranty.

Syonyk

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #154 on: August 29, 2016, 08:48:41 PM »
The Leaf batteries are a good bit larger/more expensive to replace.  You can do it, but it's not as easy as a Prius or Insight pack.

A 4 bar down one will probably be fine for a while longer at 25 miles, but... eh.  That's a good bit of capacity loss.

The dealership should be able to replace the battery for $5500-ish (plus labor), but that really adds to the price and you'd be better off buying one with a better battery at that point.

Buttons Kaluhiokalani

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #155 on: August 29, 2016, 10:24:16 PM »
Thanks for the replies.  Seeing as how a 10+ bar 2013 goes for $8-$10k I think I'll pass on this 8 bar car.  I asked them when it went below 9 bars and they said at 61,500 miles, so they just missed out on a free battery replacement.

myhotrs

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #156 on: August 29, 2016, 10:28:06 PM »
Just look for a car with new warranty batt. I see them in ads all the time by the dash picture not anywhere in the description. I figure a lot of used car dealers don't get electrics. I see these in LA for $8-10k with brand new batts.

CBnCO

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #157 on: August 30, 2016, 01:51:47 PM »
What about battery replacement costs?
All cars wear out eventually.  In a normal gasoline car you can expect an engine and/or transmission rebuild about every 200k miles.  In a Nissan Leaf the lithium-ion battery slowly degrades over time, losing capacity and thus reducing the driving range, until you're down to about 70% of the original range after 120k miles.  If 58 miles in a day isn't enough for you then you have to replace the battery, which Nissan currently charges $5,500 to do.  This means that while you're only spending 2.8 cents/mile for electricity, you're technically spending 4.5 cents/mile on the eventual battery replacement cost.  This is at least double the cost/mile of a typical car's engine/tranny rebuild cost, but it's also totally optional and will never leave you stranded with a thrown rod or blown head gasket.  As the battery ages, the range slowly decreases and you can decide to replace it or not as your needs and finances dictate.

I saw the $5,500 and that scares me a bit..I am wondering if 6-7 years from now you expect this to be any cheaper than now?

Syonyk

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #158 on: August 30, 2016, 06:22:09 PM »
Probably not. Nissan wants to sell new cars, not replaced battery packs.

Burghardt

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #159 on: August 31, 2016, 12:25:50 PM »
Sounds like a lot of fancy electronics to mess with (disconnect).

Any idea how much of that short range is due to battery being drained by the various devices hooked up?

ysette9

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #160 on: August 31, 2016, 01:37:08 PM »
This is an intriguing thread for me because I am one of the VW TDI owners who will have to part with my beloved Golf at some point and so am thinking of what I will get instead. I love the idea of electric cars and everything that Tesla has done to make them a sexy option in the minds of people who would not otherwise consider them. A friend has a Leaf and really likes it.
HOWEVER, the major stumbling block in my mind is that I love driving a manual transmission and don't want to give it up for anything (so far). Whenever I'm stuck in an automatic I get bored, lose focus, and generally find that I am not as engaged in driving because I don't like it. Most Americans love their automatics for reasons beyond me, so I can't get any decent input on this account. Is giving up a manual transmission worth it to go to electric? Is the car fun to drive?

forummm

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #161 on: August 31, 2016, 01:50:00 PM »
I saw the $5,500 and that scares me a bit..I am wondering if 6-7 years from now you expect this to be any cheaper than now?

Definitely. Costs are dropping by 8-10% per year. And are getting smaller and lighter too. Even if Nissan didn't want to sell you a battery, someone else will. EVs are going to take over the market in a decade or two. Pretty much all the manufacturers will offer one within the next ~5 years.

Syonyk

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #162 on: August 31, 2016, 02:48:11 PM »
Definitely. Costs are dropping by 8-10% per year. And are getting smaller and lighter too. Even if Nissan didn't want to sell you a battery, someone else will. EVs are going to take over the market in a decade or two. Pretty much all the manufacturers will offer one within the next ~5 years.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody is offering aftermarket Leaf packs right now, and I haven't seen any work done on reverse engineering their BMS boards.

Asserting that "someone will sell you a Leaf battery" - and that it will be cheaper, smaller, and lighter - is not backed by evidence right now.

I say this as someone who generates a non-trivial percent of my income doing battery pack rebuilds for older electric bikes.  There's simply not much going on in that space that I can see.

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #163 on: August 31, 2016, 03:00:35 PM »
Definitely. Costs are dropping by 8-10% per year. And are getting smaller and lighter too. Even if Nissan didn't want to sell you a battery, someone else will. EVs are going to take over the market in a decade or two. Pretty much all the manufacturers will offer one within the next ~5 years.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody is offering aftermarket Leaf packs right now.

Hybrid Industries offers a Leaf replacement battery with double the capacity (48kWh) for $6500. It's the only aftermarket battery pack that I'm aware of, but I'd be shocked if prices don't go down and additional manufacturers don't come on board. There's not much to wear out on an electric car besides the battery, and there's already a lot of Leafs on the road, so there will be a market for quite some time.

hollyluja

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #164 on: August 31, 2016, 03:48:23 PM »
I saw the $5,500 and that scares me a bit..I am wondering if 6-7 years from now you expect this to be any cheaper than now?

My friend's Prius was quoted at $5500 battery replacement when he bought it 10 years ago.  The price has halved several times since then, and he still hasn't had to replace the battery.  I expect the Leaf will do something similar.

Syonyk

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #165 on: August 31, 2016, 03:54:11 PM »
Looks legit... or something.

http://hybridindustries.webs.com/

Though I don't think they're doing anything other than adding cells to the existing car.  It looks like they're using stock Leaf cells and just stacking another layer of them, then feeding through the charger.  I'm not convinced it's a core pack replacement.

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #166 on: September 01, 2016, 06:20:54 AM »
Looks legit... or something.

http://hybridindustries.webs.com/

Though I don't think they're doing anything other than adding cells to the existing car.  It looks like they're using stock Leaf cells and just stacking another layer of them, then feeding through the charger.  I'm not convinced it's a core pack replacement.

Yeah, shitty website. The company that I bought my re-built Prius battery from had a shitty website, too, but they also had good reviews and a good warranty. I have no idea what the quality of Hybrid Industries' product is, but you mentioned you weren't aware of anyone making aftermarket batteries, so there you go.

Syonyk

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #167 on: September 01, 2016, 07:52:39 AM »
I'm not sure what they're going. It looks like using standard Leaf batteries to create a secondary pack. That's not the same as producing aftermarket batteries.

MasterStache

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #168 on: November 08, 2016, 12:20:29 PM »
Resurrecting this 2 month old thread. It looks like used Leaf prices just keep dropping. I've seen 2015 Leafs selling for less than 10K these days. Carvana has a constant flow of them and they mostly seem like good deals. Crazy!!!

dandarc

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #169 on: November 08, 2016, 01:29:19 PM »
Yeah, the market for Leaf's isn't so strong.  You really have to have a full grasp on your driving habits or the range seems like a huge limitation.  Not too many people really think through whether the range is adequate or not.

So opportunity for those who can get past "I can't use this vehicle for a road trip" to save some money.  My personal holdup is I already have a decently efficient vehicle with a lot of life left in it - the payback, even on a used one, isn't fast enough for me.  That and I live in North-Florida.  Would have to have car delivered from a more populous area which adds some cost.

MasterStache

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #170 on: November 08, 2016, 03:17:42 PM »
Yeah, the market for Leaf's isn't so strong.  You really have to have a full grasp on your driving habits or the range seems like a huge limitation.  Not too many people really think through whether the range is adequate or not.

So opportunity for those who can get past "I can't use this vehicle for a road trip" to save some money.  My personal holdup is I already have a decently efficient vehicle with a lot of life left in it - the payback, even on a used one, isn't fast enough for me.  That and I live in North-Florida.  Would have to have car delivered from a more populous area which adds some cost.

I think the new and improved range of the 2016 models has really reduced the value of previous models.

Syonyk

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #171 on: November 08, 2016, 03:44:57 PM »
And the Model 3 coming out should shove used prices down a good bit more.

They're sub-9k now and dropping fast.

sol

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #172 on: November 08, 2016, 03:58:17 PM »
And yet, the cart I bought in the post that started this thread has never left me stranded despite only getting 84 miles on a full charge.  And I only charge it to 80% full, most days, because even ~65 miles is significantly more than I drive in a typical day.  Like good mustachians, we live close to work.

But we're a two car family.  I don't think we could get by with 84 miles of range 100% of the time, but we still have the old SUV for road trips and family camping vacations.

Unless you're a single car household, even "short" range EVs make a ton of sense for virtually everyone.  Also, they're way more fun to drive.  I have no regrets about my purchase.

MasterStache

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #173 on: November 08, 2016, 04:10:49 PM »
And yet, the cart I bought in the post that started this thread has never left me stranded despite only getting 84 miles on a full charge.  And I only charge it to 80% full, most days, because even ~65 miles is significantly more than I drive in a typical day.  Like good mustachians, we live close to work.

But we're a two car family.  I don't think we could get by with 84 miles of range 100% of the time, but we still have the old SUV for road trips and family camping vacations.

Unless you're a single car household, even "short" range EVs make a ton of sense for virtually everyone.  Also, they're way more fun to drive.  I have no regrets about my purchase.

I am constantly waffling back and forth. And prices keep coming down. I've crunched the numbers so many times, payback would take several years replacing my fuel efficient Civic. But as you stated earlier in your post Sol, it's not necessarily strictly about money. A lot of it is trying to be more of a good steward to the environment.

MasterStache

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #174 on: April 19, 2017, 01:21:35 PM »
Sol, can you grace us with any updates on the Leaf now that it's been over a year? 

chubbybunny

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #175 on: April 20, 2017, 07:12:26 AM »
I bought my '14 leaf in 2015.  Have yet to be stranded.  Except for 2-3 days a week it is garage kept, so the battery hasn't seen any degradation. I do charge mine to 100%, but only because I am lazy and just plug it in at night.  85 miles is still the range I can expect.  On a really busy day we might drive as far as 60 miles (DH's commute, gymnastics and a trip to the vet all in one day.)

I have pushed the mileage limit a few times, driving 35 miles to a desination with a charger.  I might charge anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours on level 2 and I have no trouble going home.  It always makes me nervous that I won't be able to find a working charger, but that has yet to actually happen.

Only thing on mine that I'm having trouble with is tires.  The first year I kept forgetting to rotate them (no oil change!) I'm on my second set now and they are starting to get worn already.  Not happy about them only lasting 20,000 miles.  I am going to get an alignment and see if that helps. 

PathtoFIRE

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #176 on: April 20, 2017, 07:40:06 AM »
Yeah, without oil changes, it's a little harder to remember to have the tires rotated. I had to take my 2015 Leaf in to the dealer last month to switch out the telematics and do a little recall work, and I asked them to rotate the tires, which would have been the only service that I would be paying for. When I go to pick up the car, they tell me they didn't rotate them because they didn't need to! Argh, guess I'll get it down in 6 months when it's time to do the annual battery check.

shuffler

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #177 on: April 20, 2017, 03:31:42 PM »
I do charge mine to 100%, but only because I am lazy and just plug it in at night.
You can set the default to do an 80% charge.  That's what I do.  Just plug it in whenever I feel "low", and it's gentler on the battery that way.

slugline

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #178 on: April 21, 2017, 11:03:34 AM »
Only thing on mine that I'm having trouble with is tires.  The first year I kept forgetting to rotate them (no oil change!) I'm on my second set now and they are starting to get worn already.  Not happy about them only lasting 20,000 miles.  I am going to get an alignment and see if that helps.

Are they wearing unevenly? What brand/model tires?

sol

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #179 on: April 21, 2017, 02:33:31 PM »
Sol, can you grace us with any updates on the Leaf now that it's been over a year?

Over the first year of ownership we drove the leaf for 57% of our car miles (8414 out of 14730 total), which is a lower utilization rate than I was expecting since we sometimes don't drive the SUV for weeks or months at a time.  It's the long summer road trips that made up most of the other 43% in only a few days of driving.

At $2.50 per gallon and 17mpg, vs 7.41 cents per kWh and 3.8 miles/kWh (ignoring any free public charging and including 15% power overages in our lvl1 charger), displacing those miles from the SUV to the Leaf saved us $1,048 in total transportation costs (gas costs minus power costs). 

The SUV gas costs 14.7 cents per mile, the Leaf electricity costs 2.2 cents per mile.

Basically, the leaf costs US about $25 to drive 700 miles, each month.  It saves us about $100/mo in gas, for a net profit of about $75/mo.  We have short commutes, though, and you "save" more if you have to drive more.  We save less by becoming more efficient, because we already drive so little (except for summer vacations).

We had zero maintenance costs for the leaf in the first year.  The SUV cost us about $300 in maintenance last year, to pass emissions and get oil changes.  In previous years, the SUV had averaged closer to $800/yr in maintenance (tires, water pump, radiator, timing belt, batteries, new headlight, wiper blades, fluids...)  It seems likely that our SUV maintenance costs we're lower primarily because we drove it less.

We paid an extra $150 to register the leaf this year, though, because my state has started imposing extra registration taxes on EVs that gasoline powered cars don't have to pay. 


chubbybunny

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #180 on: April 24, 2017, 06:43:32 AM »
Thanks to the explosive sales of the leaf here in Georgia, they switched from a $5,000 tax credit to a $200 surcharge on our yearly tag renewal.  The extra surcharge is a bit of a kick in the rear, but it's still less than what we were paying in gasoline taxes.  We figured out for our family we are saving about $65/month vs. driving a prius.

Pizzabrewer

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #181 on: August 25, 2018, 07:52:11 AM »
How have the prices and availability of the 2012 Leafs changed in the 2.5 years since this thread started?  My commute is 7 miles R/T which I usually do twice per day. Throw in a side trip or 2 to the bank or drug store and my maximum daily mileage is 25 miles. So a cheap, battery-degraded Leaf would seem perfect.

For some reason my area has very few at any model year. What are others seeing around the country?

Panly

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #182 on: August 26, 2018, 09:35:48 AM »

unbelievable how dirt cheap vehicles & energy are over there.

A 2012 Leaf with 30K miles costs in Germany >$13500
 electricity retails for 30cent$/kWh or more. 

petrol is today 6,25$/gallon

 however,  second hand Leaf's could still make sense, but the numbers are quite different. 

BicycleB

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #183 on: August 26, 2018, 09:59:28 AM »
@sol, how has your Leaf been lately?

Any maintenance costs to date? Is it still saving you money? How's the battery? Do you still like it? Any other thoughts?


sol

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #184 on: August 26, 2018, 10:20:26 AM »
@sol, how has your Leaf been lately?

Any maintenance costs to date? Is it still saving you money? How's the battery? Do you still like it? Any other thoughts?

I've posted about it in other threads a little bit.  Approaching 60k miles, and the only maintenance it's needed was air in the tires.  I should have them rotated, but haven't bothered yet.

The financial savings have not changed.  Our cost per kWh for electricity have gone down a little bit, which saves us money on the car but costs us money on the solar panel surplus sale back to the grid.  The battery bars have not budged, still at the same displayed capacity as when I bought it.  That may be due to living in a cool garage or just good luck, but either way I haven't had any battery degradation issues in my local climate.  We typically charge to 80% every night, and run it down to about 30-40% with daily driving.

I've picked up a few door dings, and it's full of kid detritus like cheerios and lost homework assignments.  But the interior cleans up really well with a carpet shampooer, and my kids like washing it in the summers so it stays pretty clean on the outside.  I still think it looks better than half of the newer cars in the road.  I'm not terribly impressed with the blah styling of the new generation leaf, but that's just a matter of personal taste.

All of the techno features still work great, like Bluetooth calling and the gps map and the heated seats.  By virtue of being small and zippy it is a very easy car to drive.  My oldest kid is 15 and will be learning to drive on it in a few months. 

Eludia

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #185 on: August 26, 2018, 10:54:28 AM »
For those concerned about batteries and their life span, Nissan is now offering to install "remanufactured batteries" which are essentially as good as new ones for $2850.  I think they are recycling old battery packs and replacing bad cells to produce these.  This is for the older Leaf models.

We have a 2013, which is down to 75-78 miles on 100% charge so we've considered it as my wife drives 55 miles round trip daily.   But we haven't pulled the trigger yet. 

inline five

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #186 on: August 26, 2018, 11:46:57 PM »
For those concerned about batteries and their life span, Nissan is now offering to install "remanufactured batteries" which are essentially as good as new ones for $2850.  I think they are recycling old battery packs and replacing bad cells to produce these.  This is for the older Leaf models.

We have a 2013, which is down to 75-78 miles on 100% charge so we've considered it as my wife drives 55 miles round trip daily.   But we haven't pulled the trigger yet.
A reman is no where near "essentially as good as new ones". It's a used battery with the dead modules replaced.

If you needed tires on your car and put four used tires on that barely passed inspection, is that essentially like having four new tires? No of course not.

sol

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #187 on: March 04, 2019, 09:25:54 AM »
Last Saturday was the three year anniversary of our Leaf purchase, so it's time for an update.

In those three years, we have driven Ruby (her name is Ruby) 26,891 miles and saved $3351.53.

Details of that operating cost number:
She drives 3.8 miles per kWh, and we pay 7 cents per kWh for electricity, so she costs 2.24 cents per mile to drive.
The car she replaced got 17mpg around town where Ruby drives, and the average price of gas over the past three years was about $2.50/gallon, so our old operating costs were 14.7 cents per mile.
Subtracting the two, we've saved 12.4 cents per mile by driving Ruby instead of our old gasoline powered car.
Multiplied by the 26,891 miles we've drive, that's $3,351.53.


We paid $7700 for her three years ago, when she only had 30,756 miles.  While getting her up to her current 57,647 miles we have saved $3,351, meaning we still have $4,348 invested and would need to drive an additional 35,068 miles before she pays for herself in fuel savings.  At our current rate of driving, our Leaf will become a "free" car in 3.9 more years, having paid for herself in 61,959 miles of driving.

A comparable gasoline powered car, by contrast, would have cost us more to purchase and more to operate each year, while pumping 15.82 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere since this thread started.

I'm still happy with our purchase.  Maintenance costs are still zero, and we still have the same number of battery bars as we had the day we bought it.  No regerts.

« Last Edit: March 04, 2019, 09:57:29 AM by sol »

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #188 on: March 04, 2019, 09:57:14 AM »
Thanks for the update. My 2007 Prius is on its last legs as I squeeze every last drop of value from its fully depreciated carcass. A Leaf is super tempting, but I think I'll probably go with a Volt to appease my wife's range anxiety.

daverobev

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #189 on: March 04, 2019, 11:14:28 AM »
Most frustrating that a 2011 Leaf is $8600 or more here in the UK.

I guess the savings are more (petrol = $5.60 a US gallon).

We'll be going down the electric route... when we can.

BicycleB

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #190 on: March 04, 2019, 11:37:46 AM »
Great name! Thanks for the update.

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #191 on: March 24, 2019, 07:54:51 AM »
I've been considering the Leaf as well, just waiting for the crossover SUV to die :)

Since we're three years into your purchase, would it be a better strategy to look at a later model for someone looking to buy in 2019, if trying to replicate your experience? Say a 2015 model vs. the 2012 you bought?

I know models have changed a lot over the years, so I'm looking for the "sweet spot" if it's changed from when you made your decision...

My commute is mostly zero (work from home, drive to local properties for my real estate business, I drive my son to school (8 mi roundtrip, still trying to figure out carpool, my hours are a bit random, so hard to do!) and occasionally need to pickup friends or family at the airport. So I'd like a range of at least 70 miles. For longer trips, I am prepared to borrow or rent. It's not that frequent.

Thanks for your thoughts!

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #192 on: March 24, 2019, 10:51:09 AM »
I've been considering the Leaf as well, just waiting for the crossover SUV to die :)

Since we're three years into your purchase, would it be a better strategy to look at a later model for someone looking to buy in 2019, if trying to replicate your experience? Say a 2015 model vs. the 2012 you bought?

I know models have changed a lot over the years, so I'm looking for the "sweet spot" if it's changed from when you made your decision...

My commute is mostly zero (work from home, drive to local properties for my real estate business, I drive my son to school (8 mi roundtrip, still trying to figure out carpool, my hours are a bit random, so hard to do!) and occasionally need to pickup friends or family at the airport. So I'd like a range of at least 70 miles. For longer trips, I am prepared to borrow or rent. It's not that frequent.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I'm not really an expert on the current sweet spot, but starting in 2016 most versions got a larger 30 kWh battery, which is probably desirable. 

Many people prefer to lease, so there seems to be lots of availability of three year old cars that just came off leases. 

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #193 on: March 24, 2019, 01:14:27 PM »
Since we're three years into your purchase, would it be a better strategy to look at a later model for someone looking to buy in 2019, if trying to replicate your experience? Say a 2015 model vs. the 2012 you bought?

I know models have changed a lot over the years, so I'm looking for the "sweet spot" if it's changed from when you made your decision...

I have not kept up with the prices for used Leafs.  When I bought mine, prices were dropping rapidly due to a flood of lease returns and upgraded newer models supplanting the older ones.  I'm sure it's location dependent, but a quick search of my local CL suggests that 2013/14 Leafs can still be had for under $8k.  The 2015/16 ones, for some reason, seem to cost more like $10k around here.

Of course, those cars are still like 70% depreciated in three years, so I wouldn't exactly complain.  The depreciation hit on used Leafs is still pretty harsh, compared to MSRP prices.

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #194 on: March 07, 2020, 03:36:00 PM »
Update here:  I bought a 2012 Leaf as it came off its three year lease basically because of this thread.  There was a minor recall, so the wife took the Leaf into the dealer to have it fixed.  Since we hadn't been to a dealer since we bought it, we thought we might as well have it serviced.  Change the brake fluid, etc. 

The service guy said the 12 volt battery was getting close to done.  Which makes sense based on age.  So we had it replaced.  Yeah, I know, we could have done it ourselves cheaper. 

He also said the main battery was at 100%.  No loss of capacity.  Here's what we do special:  Nothing.  We charge the car when it needs it, and usually to 100%.  It is a daily driver as well. 

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #195 on: March 07, 2020, 08:41:27 PM »
Update here:  I bought a 2012 Leaf as it came off its three year lease basically because of this thread.  There was a minor recall, so the wife took the Leaf into the dealer to have it fixed.  Since we hadn't been to a dealer since we bought it, we thought we might as well have it serviced.  Change the brake fluid, etc. 

The service guy said the 12 volt battery was getting close to done.  Which makes sense based on age.  So we had it replaced.  Yeah, I know, we could have done it ourselves cheaper. 

He also said the main battery was at 100%.  No loss of capacity.  Here's what we do special:  Nothing.  We charge the car when it needs it, and usually to 100%.  It is a daily driver as well.
Do you have all 12 bars?  I would check using a scanner and Leaf Spy over what a Nissan tech told you. I live in a similar climate in Portland, OR and our 2011 Leaf has lost 3 bars and 31%.  Replacement batteries are now $8500, WTF?!  I regret buying this car used for 14.5k 3.5 years ago.  The battery degradation is awful compared to every other manufacturer.  We can no longer do round trips to the airport without a topup (50 miles total).  Not sure how we will dispose of it in a couple years, but I don’t think $8500 is worth it.

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Re: Buying a Nissan Leaf
« Reply #196 on: March 07, 2020, 08:56:07 PM »
Update here:  I bought a 2012 Leaf as it came off its three year lease basically because of this thread.  There was a minor recall, so the wife took the Leaf into the dealer to have it fixed.  Since we hadn't been to a dealer since we bought it, we thought we might as well have it serviced.  Change the brake fluid, etc. 

The service guy said the 12 volt battery was getting close to done.  Which makes sense based on age.  So we had it replaced.  Yeah, I know, we could have done it ourselves cheaper. 

He also said the main battery was at 100%.  No loss of capacity.  Here's what we do special:  Nothing.  We charge the car when it needs it, and usually to 100%.  It is a daily driver as well.
Do you have all 12 bars?  I would check using a scanner and Leaf Spy over what a Nissan tech told you. I live in a similar climate in Portland, OR and our 2011 Leaf has lost 3 bars and 31%.  Replacement batteries are now $8500, WTF?!  I regret buying this car used for 14.5k 3.5 years ago.  The battery degradation is awful compared to every other manufacturer.  We can no longer do round trips to the airport without a topup (50 miles total).  Not sure how we will dispose of it in a couple years, but I don’t think $8500 is worth it.
Hopefully Nissan will offer the refabricated battery pack replacement program over here soon.
https://insideevs.com/news/337360/nissan-introduces-2850-refabricated-batteries-for-older-leaf/