As our Leaf quickly approaches bar 8 out of warranty, we're interested in replacing our battery in our 2011 Leaf in the next few months and thought we would look into Nissan's Battery Replacement Program as to be prepared as it were.
After a few phone calls to Nissan's EV Customer Service Group and a visit with our service manager at the local dealership we found out that Nissan will finance the battery replacement through NMAC, but the maximum allocation is $5,500. Our dealership estimated the total cost at $6,400 or so; hence, we're looking at a "down payment" of 900 or so and some change and then payments of roughly $100 for 60 months.
We like the car a lot and find it to be a game changer in the automotive world, however, why would we lay out a grand or so when we could easily parley that same "down payment" into a new LEAF? I get that we'll have a "new car" in many respects after the battery is replaced, however, with the BOLT coming out and the new VOLT just sort of wonder what Nissan was thinking. The financing does not cover the total cost of replacement, so I don't see a lot of folks doing this. Seems to me, though, that this is precisely what the car is about in many ways, recycling, re using, etc
The other question is-- at one hundred dollars a month for 60 months, do we really want to be driving a car around for 10 years?
After a few phone calls to Nissan's EV Customer Service Group and a visit with our service manager at the local dealership we found out that Nissan will finance the battery replacement through NMAC, but the maximum allocation is $5,500. Our dealership estimated the total cost at $6,400 or so; hence, we're looking at a "down payment" of 900 or so and some change and then payments of roughly $100 for 60 months.
We like the car a lot and find it to be a game changer in the automotive world, however, why would we lay out a grand or so when we could easily parley that same "down payment" into a new LEAF? I get that we'll have a "new car" in many respects after the battery is replaced, however, with the BOLT coming out and the new VOLT just sort of wonder what Nissan was thinking. The financing does not cover the total cost of replacement, so I don't see a lot of folks doing this. Seems to me, though, that this is precisely what the car is about in many ways, recycling, re using, etc
The other question is-- at one hundred dollars a month for 60 months, do we really want to be driving a car around for 10 years?