These are the techniques I am using to Select the Best Used Leaf I can .
1. Get the Car Fax. You'll need to know:
Area the car is from.
Service history - who and where
Number of Owners
Lease or Not ?
Date car was sold (titled) This is the start date of your warranties..
Damage History
2. Get the Leaf Spy Pro app for Android ( few bucks on google play)
Use it with any blue tooth capable Android Device. Samsung Tab has a nice big display.. but a $40 phone works too.
Get an OBDII elf.. .and plug it in at the used car lot.. and check the battery ! a few bucks on amazon.
3. Know what Battery Capacity Bars are and What they Mean ( on this website)
12 bars is prime.. but leaf spy will give you a clue how much longer it will last
4. Know the Warranties.
3 year - 36,000 mile bumper to bumper
5 year - 60,000 mile battery capacity loss below 9 bars / 70% capacity you get the Free Newest Battery.
Don't take the 100,000 mile warranty claim of the seller.. this is for defects only. nobody collects on this.
Do the math using the first sale date.. to figure how much warranty you are buying.. if any.
A Nissan Certified warranty is smoke and worthless.. It has no provisions for Electric Cars. Read it. It took me a week to get it.
Use Nissan official website or the owner's manual.
5. Check the Tires ! The ecocrapia tires are flimsy and short lived. Find out how much they cost.
Has the dealer put on some plain vanilla tires that are NOT low rolling resistance tires? This will cost you range.
Get credit for the proper tires.. or see if the dealer will make new proper tires part of the deal.
Research tire options... see this website.
6. Heat is the enemy of your battery. Cars from Cool Climates have batterys that live much longer. SF, Seattle, prime.
Fresno, Texas, L.A... skip 'em. Lot;s of QC's can be a red flag. Check to see if the charger is set to stop at 80%. That's a good thing.
For me this means light colored cars are more desirable than dark ones. Much more.
If you win the battery lotto.. ( you battery goes below 9 bar capacity inside of 5 years..you will get the newer better Lizard Battery
that comes with the 2015 models.
7. Lease return cars can show up from anywhere.. and do. Check the carfax. Where you buy it means nothing !
8. Has the dealer been keeping the car at 100% charge or in the red charge zone ? This is a battery killer.\
between 20 and 80 is ideal.
9. Decide if Quick Charge is something you have to have.
10. Decide if the 6.6 kw charger is something you have to have ( 8 hours on 240v or 4 hours ?)
If you will charge away from home much.. and want to get going again the same day.. this matter.
Some wont care. Planning is the essence of EV use and flying. Think about it now.
How will this change if your range is reduced by 20 or 3 miles over time ?
11. S models lack heat pumps, perhaps the faster charger, perhaps QC. Get what you need.
12. Realize that Leaf Spy and a Garmin GPS , and Chargepoint Maps are better than the fancy stuff in the nav package
but the built in stuff is handy and clean.
13. Leaf Spy can tell you if somebody has re-set the charge capacity bars fraudulently. This does sometimes happen ?
14. Is freeway use better or worse than local driving ? Neither, it is how it charged and the batt temps that matter.
... This is all I have been able to glean from my research.. much of what folks think is "best " is either subjective opinion or individual choice... but the stuff above is pretty objective and quantifiable....
1. Get the Car Fax. You'll need to know:
Area the car is from.
Service history - who and where
Number of Owners
Lease or Not ?
Date car was sold (titled) This is the start date of your warranties..
Damage History
2. Get the Leaf Spy Pro app for Android ( few bucks on google play)
Use it with any blue tooth capable Android Device. Samsung Tab has a nice big display.. but a $40 phone works too.
Get an OBDII elf.. .and plug it in at the used car lot.. and check the battery ! a few bucks on amazon.
3. Know what Battery Capacity Bars are and What they Mean ( on this website)
12 bars is prime.. but leaf spy will give you a clue how much longer it will last
4. Know the Warranties.
3 year - 36,000 mile bumper to bumper
5 year - 60,000 mile battery capacity loss below 9 bars / 70% capacity you get the Free Newest Battery.
Don't take the 100,000 mile warranty claim of the seller.. this is for defects only. nobody collects on this.
Do the math using the first sale date.. to figure how much warranty you are buying.. if any.
A Nissan Certified warranty is smoke and worthless.. It has no provisions for Electric Cars. Read it. It took me a week to get it.
Use Nissan official website or the owner's manual.
5. Check the Tires ! The ecocrapia tires are flimsy and short lived. Find out how much they cost.
Has the dealer put on some plain vanilla tires that are NOT low rolling resistance tires? This will cost you range.
Get credit for the proper tires.. or see if the dealer will make new proper tires part of the deal.
Research tire options... see this website.
6. Heat is the enemy of your battery. Cars from Cool Climates have batterys that live much longer. SF, Seattle, prime.
Fresno, Texas, L.A... skip 'em. Lot;s of QC's can be a red flag. Check to see if the charger is set to stop at 80%. That's a good thing.
For me this means light colored cars are more desirable than dark ones. Much more.
If you win the battery lotto.. ( you battery goes below 9 bar capacity inside of 5 years..you will get the newer better Lizard Battery
that comes with the 2015 models.
7. Lease return cars can show up from anywhere.. and do. Check the carfax. Where you buy it means nothing !
8. Has the dealer been keeping the car at 100% charge or in the red charge zone ? This is a battery killer.\
between 20 and 80 is ideal.
9. Decide if Quick Charge is something you have to have.
10. Decide if the 6.6 kw charger is something you have to have ( 8 hours on 240v or 4 hours ?)
If you will charge away from home much.. and want to get going again the same day.. this matter.
Some wont care. Planning is the essence of EV use and flying. Think about it now.
How will this change if your range is reduced by 20 or 3 miles over time ?
11. S models lack heat pumps, perhaps the faster charger, perhaps QC. Get what you need.
12. Realize that Leaf Spy and a Garmin GPS , and Chargepoint Maps are better than the fancy stuff in the nav package
but the built in stuff is handy and clean.
13. Leaf Spy can tell you if somebody has re-set the charge capacity bars fraudulently. This does sometimes happen ?
14. Is freeway use better or worse than local driving ? Neither, it is how it charged and the batt temps that matter.
... This is all I have been able to glean from my research.. much of what folks think is "best " is either subjective opinion or individual choice... but the stuff above is pretty objective and quantifiable....
