Is Nissan likely to lower buy-out prices on leased cars?

[TomT]

And therein lies the fly in the ointment. Unless there are some dramatic improvements in the Leaf by the time my lease is up, I will be buying someone elses EV, not another Leaf.

they'd probably rather take a huge loss on the old cars with the expectation of selling us more new ones.

 

[Herm]

So there IS a precedent, based on what you're saying. Interesting...

Yes, it looks like Nissan will be forced to do this, but what happens next to lease terms with such a poor residual?

 

[edatoakrun]

...Unless the $7500 federal credit evaporates before my lease is up, it's a certainty now that Nissan will take a massive loss on my car. Whether they offer residual at thousands off the $21k buy-out, or they don’t and take it in and then auction it (in which case they’ll still get thousands less than $21k), I’ll never be buying it out.

Nissan will not "take a massive loss" on your LEAF.

It sounds like you negotiated an above-market price for your LEAF in the first place, and so you will have an above market residual at the end of your lease.

If you pay too much for any car, you are better off Leasing, obviously.

The lease residual on my 2011 SL was just under $16,000, and I bought it out in March of 2012 when it became apparent that I had little or no risk of the LEAF not meeting my needs for many years to come, and the residual price insurance had little value.

The fact that Nissan has cut new LEAF prices even faster than I expected when I purchased last year, does mean I probably will only about break even on the residual a year from now, but still will have saved ~$1,000 on the lease interest over those 2+ years.

But the much higher LEAF sales that will come from the 2013 price cut will probably improve LEAF resale values in the long term, as the more LEAFs there are on the road, the more widely accessible will be LEAF aftermarket support, and the fast charging stations, which will improve LEAF (and other BEV model) ownership experience, making used BEVs like the LEAF more desirably purchases in the future.

And since I probably will keep my LEAF many more years, I expect many more years of satisfaction with both the driving experience, and the low total cost of ownership, based on the relatively high (as compared to any ICEV, Hybrid, PHEV, or "compliance" BEV) resale value it will have, if and when I ever do sell it.

 

[braineo]

time to set up a Leaf owner database to keep track of vin numbers and battery / usage history?