Concern: 'New 2012' in 2016

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Scotty T
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Concern: 'New 2012' in 2016

Post by Scotty T »

We're looking at taking the plunge on one of the handful of new (150-190 km on clock, complied last year it seems) Leafs that have popped up on Carsales. After reading this thread I'll get hold of Leafspy and the ODB2 scan tool.

There are a few good second handers but we're looking at a 3 year lease with the view of trading up when more long range cars come on the market. This will be our only car, we'll hire an ICE or swap with a mate (who will have at least one new ICE on lease over the next few years) for longer trips, which happen 2-6 times a year over the past few years.

At not a whole lot more than a DIY with new parts at today's prices, my conversion is on hold until I have that sort of spare coin and the time to spend on that.
KiegKhan
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Concern: 'New 2012' in 2016

Post by KiegKhan »

That sounds like a good plan. If the vehicle was first registered recently then your 5yr battery warranty would have started then, I wondered if that was one reason the dealers were not interested to drop their prices and move this stock because they know there is greater chance of battery swap under warranty. In any case, if you lost 4 bars in the next 3 years you SHOULD be eligible for a new battery, worth checking with Nissan. Your range would go from about 120km to maybe 70km, so only you know if you could live with that limited range.
I've had my Leaf about 9 months and the SoH (as reported by Leaf Spy) has dropped from 85% to 81%. It dropped from 85% to 83% quite quickly which had me thinking the BMS had been fooled. I took it for a service and the SoH went up to 90% (but 11 SoH indicators did not change, still one bar missing) and then it dropped to 81% over the next week, which sort of pissed me off because after the service I was 2% worse off and the service definitely had this impact (I log these stats every day). It has been at 81% for about 4-6 months, and just dropping to 80% this week. So I guess it looks like it could lose 2% or 3% SoH per year if this trend is accurate. I plan on 100km of range. I get just over 10km per 10% SoC, and that is driving at 100Km/h.
For around town it is great, and I love it, basically never do more than about 60km per day. But Australia has no charging infrastructure to speak of, so unless you live in a capital city (or maybe near Perth and their great electric highway) where there are a few CHAdeMo chargers near where you want to go, or slow chargers where you know you can let the car sit for a couple hours, it really makes anything more than 100km a bit of a challenge. I have plugged my EVSE into caravan parks to get a top up on longer journeys, but waiting 1-2 hrs for the top up is a big downer on the trip.
Good luck.
Leaf'n the ICE age behind
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Scotty T
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Concern: 'New 2012' in 2016

Post by Scotty T »

Thanks for the info, we're yet to visit the dealer but I will be trying to talk them down as far as possible, and definitely making sure the warranty terms are confirmed.

The Canberra dealer site lists 8 available, all seem to be black, there only appears to be one red one left in the country as 'new'. I'm reckoning that there are ~7 black ones sitting at Nissan because I can't see the local Canberra dealer actually having 8 on hand. I hate black cars, depending how much we can talk the price down, based on what I know about battery degradation, I'm thinking of getting it wrapped in bright green :)

I have an 18 km each way commute and it is about 1/3rd each 60, 80 and 100km/h.

We have a 4.6 Kw solar system, and I have the possibility of charging for short periods at work as we have two Leafs here and while either one is out I am allowed to use the chargers. They are not CHAdeMo but they are faster than the normal plug in one. Hopefully with enough top ups during any week I'll only need one charge overnight and one on the weekend mostly from the solar.

We might do a trip using caravan parks or whatever we can plug into, maybe even carry a generator, and just take our time and enjoy the different places we otherwise would not hang about in. It's a much easier option just to leave it with my mate and take his vehicle if we have limited time like a long weekend.
nuggetgalore
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Concern: 'New 2012' in 2016

Post by nuggetgalore »

KiegKhan wrote: Here's a funny story.
So I take a look on CarSales.com and see a few Leaf's in my area, look like low mileage demo models. So contact one of them. Blow me down, it is the same dealer who just told me there were none left!!
Now I don't mind if they told me $26k was too low and they could do one for X, but to basically lie, they just lost my business.
At the end of the day I got a 2nd hand Leaf for a bit more than $25k, so I'm reasonably happy.
Nissan looks like they still have a few 4yr old Leaf's to move.
When I started to look at anything EV /PHEV I experienced exactly the same as KiegKhan.
What was unbelievable both from Mitsubishi and Nissan was the lack of knowledge the sales people had.
Also the absolute refusal to give any sort of warranty on the battery,
I even offered a premium just to try them out.
Now driving this privately bought 2010 iMiEV, paid top price because I knew of no other iMiEV was for sale .Batt as expected not as new but still happy overall.
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Concern: 'New 2012' in 2016

Post by nuggetgalore »

Scotty T wrote: Thanks for the info, we're yet to visit the dealer but I will be trying to talk them down as far as possible, and definitely making sure the warranty terms are confirmed.
I would be very interested to hear from you what sort of battery warranty dealers in Canberra offer (in writing!!)
The blokes I talked to in Mel referred me to the general car warranty but point blank refused to entertain any degradation guarantee.
KiegKhan
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Concern: 'New 2012' in 2016

Post by KiegKhan »

I'm sure you will love the Leaf. So long as you understand the range and the fact it will have some battery degradation over time.
There will be a registration information for the car, so you can see the date of registration. That is when the warranty period starts. Battery warranty is a Nissan warranty not a dealer warranty, so regardless what the dealer thinks, it is Nissan who honours the warranty. Over seas there are many cited cases of the battery being replaced, some where the warranty was just expired and the battery was not replaced. It is untested in Australia to my knowledge, but if you review the best practice for battery management I am pretty confident it will not be an issue anyway.
Good Luck.
Leaf'n the ICE age behind
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