I just had an interesting conversation with a representative from Capstone, the law firm handing the case against Nissan. A lot of the confusion, he explained, is that most of us don't know the whole timeline of the case. The settlement was actually reached in September 2012. In December 2012, he says that Nissan announced that due to the suit they would be issuing a revised/new capacity warranty. It took them 6 months, but they finally mailed out the new EV Battery Capacity Warranty in June 2013. Although the letter doesn't mention it at all, the warranty was directly tied to the settlement reached in the class action suit. (We were *supposed* to know this because of the December letter/notice). The court ordered the notices to go out to all Leaf owners in July/August 2013. To many of us, who know nothing of class action suits, it appeared that the suit was just beginning, or at least a settlement was about to be reached, but that was not at all the case. The case was already settled, and we just had to decide if we wanted to stay as part of the class.
My misunderstanding was mostly due to some "bad verbiage", as he put it, that said the warranty from the settlement was "the same" as the one Nissan mailed me. I took "the same" as meaning "equal to, or equivalent", but in this case what they meant to say was that the warranty you would receive from the settlement WAS IN FACT the new Nissan EV Battery Capacity Warranty. :shock: So, by opting out, I was rejecting the new warranty, and keeping my options open for a future lawsuit.
That was certainly never the case, as I was happy with the new warranty, so I had no desire to sue them, and I was looking forward to a fresh start with Nissan next year when I lose my 4th bar and get a new battery.
I do still have one glimmer of hope, although the opt-out/opt-in process is closed: he offered to write to Nissan and explain my misunderstanding. He said that if both parties agree to it, they may allow me to opt back in.
I'll keep you posted if I hear anything.