My Leaf replaces...

[MYSPARKY]

You will not belive this... My 2012 Nissan Leaf replaced a 2005 Cadillac Deville DHS 159,000 with on it. I owned this car since new..

 

[Viktor]

Thought about keeping it as a third car for the winter but Leaf was so great, that I finally sold my 07 Lexus GX470 :shock:

 

[mortisier]

1992 Blue Isuzu trooper 18 mpg. WoW

 

[redLEAF]

1992 Blue Isuzu trooper 18 mpg. WoW

somewhat rare ... I previously owned an '85 and then '86 Trooper II (they dropped the II later on); yours was a gen II that got the bigger engine but lower mileage; I managed low 20's MPG but it was a bit of a slug and the last one the cylinder head warped so dumped it and went to minivan's for awhile. They were great in snow though!

 

[CO2Free]

I will be driving a new '13 LEAF (in about 2 weeks) in place of a '11 Mazda 2. The car I am actually trading in is a 2006 heavily modified Dodge Magnum SRT8. I absolutely loved this car, but I only had to drive 10 miles round trip when I bought her. Now I have a 65 mi round trip commute and even though my 2 gets good mpg, I really want to match my driving with my environmental activism - I've been conflicted about this for a while, but justified the incredible power of the SRT with the shortness of my old commute. Fortunately, I can plug in at work so the LEAF should be perfect - and the times I stepped on the accelerator in the LEAF that I test drove showed me that if you don't need the range on a particular day, you can still have some fun in this little car! After changing jobs, I only drove the SRT once in a while to keep the battery from completely discharging, and I can't justify keeping it just for that. My wife will use the 2 for daily errands to save fuel and I will use it for the few times I need a longer range vehicle.

Can't wait for my new 0 emission wheels!!!

 

[mortisier]

1992 Blue Isuzu trooper 18 mpg. WoW

somewhat rare ... I previously owned an '85 and then '86 Trooper II (they dropped the II later on); yours was a gen II that got the bigger engine but lower mileage; I managed low 20's MPG but it was a bit of a slug and the last one the cylinder head warped so dumped it and went to minivan's for awhile. They were great in snow though!

Thats why I bought it for the snow! with two sets of chains it was un-stopable in the mountains

 

[Redsparky]

New to the forum,

Parked a 2003 Lexus GX470.
The Leaf cannot replace its functionality.

One and only leaf, will not have another! The savings are minimal over a high mileage gas car in the long run, since I like to keep my cars for ten years or more.

 

[CO2Free]

The savings are minimal over a high mileage gas car in the long run, since I like to keep my cars for ten years or more.

Although I respect your opinion and decision, I have to point out that the longer you hold on to a LEAF the greater your savings will inherently be. So citing the long length of time that you keep your cars actually works against your point.

 

[GRA]

The savings are minimal over a high mileage gas car in the long run, since I like to keep my cars for ten years or more.

Although I respect your opinion and decision, I have to point out that the longer you hold on to a LEAF the greater your savings will inherently be. So citing the long length of time that you keep your cars actually works against your point.

A Leaf kept that long will need at least one battery replacement, possibly two or more.

For a more optimistic assessment, one that ignores battery replacement costs and uses a yearly mileage well above the U.S. average, there's this from RMI via Insideevs.com:

http://insideevs.com/putting-the-20000-2013-nissan-leaf-into-perspective-in-terms-of-payback-period/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[CO2Free]

A Leaf kept that long will need at least one battery replacement, possibly two or more.

Good point.

 

[MrIanB]

New to the forum,

Parked a 2003 Lexus GX470.
The Leaf cannot replace its functionality.

One and only leaf, will not have another! The savings are minimal over a high mileage gas car in the long run, since I like to keep my cars for ten years or more.

Sorry you feel this way. Is this buyers remorse or did you not do your research before buying Leaf?

What were your expectations from the Leaf?

Ian B

 

[ev007]

2012 Golf R and 2012 Leaf SL. With more charging stations in my area and the ability to rent a car for free for 10 days from Nissan now, I don't need to keep an ICE on the side. Even if it was super fun to drive and did get good gas mileage.

 

[dgpcolorado]

2012 Golf R and 2012 Leaf SL. With more charging stations in my area and the ability to rent a car for free for 10 days from Nissan now, I don't need to keep an ICE on the side. Even if it was super fun to drive and did get good gas mileage.

What's that about renting a car from Nissan for free? Some sort of special deal you got with your purchase?

 

[bowthom]

Hello,
My leaf replaced a 1995 Toyota Tercel that I was going to convert to electric. Officially though, going electric allowed me to park my G2500 GMC van (12.5 mpg). Energy savings have been huge.

 

[WetEV]

...keep my cars for ten years or more.

A Leaf kept that long will need at least one battery replacement, possibly two or more.

Oh? Doesn't that depend on where you live? Two in Phoenix, AZ, perhaps. But what about, say Philadelphia, PA, with expected battery life near ten years? Might you decide to sell the car rather than putting in a new battery someplace around 10 years? Or Bellingham, WA, not needing a battery for 14 years? This is based on the battery aging model:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Battery_Capacity_Loss#Battery_Aging_Model" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[GRA]

...keep my cars for ten years or more.

A Leaf kept that long will need at least one battery replacement, possibly two or more.

Oh? Doesn't that depend on where you live? Two in Phoenix, AZ, perhaps. But what about, say Philadelphia, PA, with expected battery life near ten years? Might you decide to sell the car rather than putting in a new battery someplace around 10 years? Or Bellingham, WA, not needing a battery for 14 years? This is based on the battery aging model:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Battery_Capacity_Loss#Battery_Aging_Model" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sure, we can look at the extremes and find somewhere that it won't be an issue. Maybe you live in the PNW and your daily mileage need is so limited that 10 years of degradation won't inconvenience you. But taking the U.S. as a whole, there is no way the average Leaf battery is going to make 10 years of usable life, and selling the car is going to be problematic. You've got to find someone who's willing to take a car that you probably no longer find useful, with a battery that's going to suffer an increasing rate of degradation owing to deeper discharges to go the same distance. I expect the value of a 10-year old Leaf w/original battery to be minimal. Maybe there will be a substantial market for severely range-limited cars for new teenage drivers by then; ISTM more likely they'll be in self-driving cars so they can text/tweet away without endangering anyone else.

 

[WetEV]

A Leaf kept that long will need at least one battery replacement, possibly two or more.

Oh? Doesn't that depend on where you live? Two in Phoenix, AZ, perhaps. But what about, say Philadelphia, PA, with expected battery life near ten years? Might you decide to sell the car rather than putting in a new battery someplace around 10 years? Or Bellingham, WA, not needing a battery for 14 years? This is based on the battery aging model:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Battery_Capacity_Loss#Battery_Aging_Model" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sure, we can look at the extremes and find somewhere that it won't be an issue. Maybe you live in the PNW and your daily mileage need is so limited that 10 years of degradation won't inconvenience you.

Philadelphia isn't in the PNW, last I checked. While I am in the PNW and am while I am somewhat unlikely to be facing the same commute in 10 years, a 70% battery is what I planned on, and what I would suggest most people plan on.

But taking the U.S. as a whole, there is no way the average Leaf battery is going to make 10 years of usable life, and selling the car is going to be problematic. You've got to find someone who's willing to take a car that you probably no longer find useful, with a battery that's going to suffer an increasing rate of degradation owing to deeper discharges to go the same distance. I expect the value of a 10-year old Leaf w/original battery to be minimal.

I don't know what the market for used Leafs will look like in 10 years. A bear case would be to agree with you. A bull case might be gasoline at $16/gallon and rising with a "greenhouse tax" being a large part of that. Yes, I know a carbon tax seemed unlikely at best in 2013, but the loss of Miami and other coastal cities after the collapse of WAIS in 2019 made it a sure thing. With most new cars being small, expensive, and having small batteries, a used Leaf with with 70% batteries or better might look very, very nice to a lot of potential buyers.

So what to plan on? I don't think it matters much, in the overall scheme of things. While there would be some market for used Leafs with 70% batteries or even less, I'm not sure what the market price would be. A problem I'll worry about in about 9 years or so. Not today.

Edit: Fixed quoting.

 

[RonDawg]

2012 Golf R and 2012 Leaf SL. With more charging stations in my area and the ability to rent a car for free for 10 days from Nissan now, I don't need to keep an ICE on the side. Even if it was super fun to drive and did get good gas mileage.

What's that about renting a car from Nissan for free? Some sort of special deal you got with your purchase?

I got the same deal with my Leaf. I have yet to use it though.

 

[RonDawg]

New to the forum,

Parked a 2003 Lexus GX470.
The Leaf cannot replace its functionality.

One and only leaf, will not have another! The savings are minimal over a high mileage gas car in the long run, since I like to keep my cars for ten years or more.

Did you do the numbers before you bought the car?

At current gas prices in my area, my savings over not having to pay for fuel is a bit greater than the lease payment on my Leaf. If gas goes up another 50 cents/gallon (and I believe it will by summer) my savings will also include the electricity used to charge my Leaf.

 

[supra410]

1999 Lexus gs 300. While I am keeping the gs. The Leaf serves as our putting around car & my commuter. with fuel costs averaging over $300 a month, I thought I'd have some fun. Did I need a leaf? Not really, but hey it's a very neat toy. Plus I live in Oklahoma where a leaf sighting is about as rare as the Chupa Cabra. I tend to pay off cars and keep them.