Looking Into Buying A Used Leaf

[pyromancy5]

I don't know where the indecision is here. If you keep cars a long time, there is no question..... Buy New. Why but a car where its best years have been enjoyed by the first owner (including the battery aging 3-4 years).

Buy new. Beat the crap out of the car until the battery goes (6-8 years?). At that point you got your first half use out of the car (80-100K miles). By that time, the new batteries will be better and cheaper, and you are then paying (investing) for the Second half of the car's life (100-200K miles)....

I hate when people complain that they will have to PAY for a new battery... They got the first battery for free (included with the car). What you pay for the second battery is for the use of the car for the 8-16 year period of the car's life. So in16 years, you paid zero in gas, oil, fluids, belts, exhaust, tune ups and drive train repairs. Where is the negative??

This. I purchased a 2014 SL with not quite 35K miles on it for 11K. Bat health at 83%. I figured I would get 5 more years out of the battery. Subtracting electricity costs from what I would have spent on gas, plus the maintenance I don't need to have done, I'm saving about 11K in 5 years. If I need to buy a new battery at that point (hope fully cheaper/ more capacity with aftermarket options by then), I'm still ahead... by a significant amount of money. I still win, and I'm not even considering the 43 hours of my time (10 minutes once a week) that I don't have to pump gas, wait for a gas pump, or drive out of my way for a gas station. In 6 months of ownership, we have only had 2 times where we decided to take the wife's ICE car because of insufficient range. The convenience of an EV with a home charger is astounding, and I love it.

I say, treat yourself to the SL, maybe even with the Bose, and start a second bank account to build a fund for your new battery. Set it up to make automatic contributions once a month for however long you plan on your battery lasting you. Then you won't have a "surprise" expense when the time comes.

 

[webb14leafs]

I don't know where the indecision is here. If you keep cars a long time, there is no question..... Buy New. Why but a car where its best years have been enjoyed by the first owner (including the battery aging 3-4 years).

Buy new. Beat the crap out of the car until the battery goes (6-8 years?). At that point you got your first half use out of the car (80-100K miles). By that time, the new batteries will be better and cheaper, and you are then paying (investing) for the Second half of the car's life (100-200K miles)....

I hate when people complain that they will have to PAY for a new battery... They got the first battery for free (included with the car). What you pay for the second battery is for the use of the car for the 8-16 year period of the car's life. So in16 years, you paid zero in gas, oil, fluids, belts, exhaust, tune ups and drive train repairs. Where is the negative??

This. I purchased a 2014 SL with not quite 35K miles on it for 11K. Bat health at 83%. I figured I would get 5 more years out of the battery. Subtracting electricity costs from what I would have spent on gas, plus the maintenance I don't need to have done, I'm saving about 11K in 5 years. If I need to buy a new battery at that point (hope fully cheaper/ more capacity with aftermarket options by then), I'm still ahead... by a significant amount of money. I still win, and I'm not even considering the 43 hours of my time (10 minutes once a week) that I don't have to pump gas, wait for a gas pump, or drive out of my way for a gas station. In 6 months of ownership, we have only had 2 times where we decided to take the wife's ICE car because of insufficient range. The convenience of an EV with a home charger is astounding, and I love it.

I say, treat yourself to the SL, maybe even with the Bose, and start a second bank account to build a fund for your new battery. Set it up to make automatic contributions once a month for however long you plan on your battery lasting you. Then you won't have a "surprise" expense when the time comes.

AND you're not even considering the price of gas going up at any time in the next 5 years. That really makes it a no-brainer.

 

[BuckMkII]

I live in Texas --- so it can get very hot here --- I believe that is a factor since you have to blast AC here to survive in the summer.

A critical factor in battery health seems to be NOT letting the car sit at high temps and 100% charge for long periods of time. It is very common for dealers to do this with cars in their inventory. Use the VIN history report (Carfax or similar) to determine how long and during which months the car was at the dealer between date of manufacture and date of first sale. In Texas, I would not buy a Leaf that was manufactured after March or April and before October unless it was sold immediately. Even a few months of summer weather on the dealer's lot would potentially set you up for problems in longevity (in my non-professional opinion). Almost nothing a "normal" user would do is as bad as this for the battery. This is more important in choosing a used Leaf than 5000 miles more or less on the ODO. If the car sat for a few months from Fall to Spring, that's probably not a big deal, although I haven't looked carefully at the temperature profiles over the year for any Texas cities.

I usually buy used cars (about five years old) then sell them off when they are getting sketchy and are only worth maybe $2000 or less. (One 1980 Datsun station wagon I had to pay to have towed away!) I expect to save over $500 per year in gas costs with my Leaf (probably more like $700-800), so if I have to junk it in 2025 due to a battery that will no longer do 20 miles per day, I will have saved more than the amount I am usually able to sell my old car for. That will at least make up for the greater "on-paper" depreciation that I expect to suffer from the Leaf. It should be a wash, and hopefully a net gain due to less mechanical repairs (we've spent well over $1000 on each of our two ICE cars in just the last couple of years for clutches, ignition parts, brakes, etc.)

In other words, I don't plan to pay for a battery replacement because the cost of not doing it is already baked into the deal.

 

[Marktm]

Out of curiosity, anyone have actual purchase price of 2011,2012, (some 2013s?) Leafs that have less than 40 ahrs and no hope for a "free" replacement - or even a subsidized replacement? Wonder what a 20 - 30 ahr Leaf would bring? Are lots "parting" these out yet to set some bottom to pricing?

Nissan has (thrown out?) the idea of recycling the cells (maybe entire battery packs) for grid stabilization or maybe could be used for the off-gridders? This could set a bottom price for the battery pack.

Just musing