Question on buying 2015 Leaf?

[Neohippy]

I'm looking at buying a 2015 Leaf. I found two 2015 SL's for sale at a local Nissan dealer both with under 200 miles on them. They are priced pretty low so I'm considering buying one. My concern is the battery since these cars are over a year old and haven't been driven. One has 145 miles on it. Does that hurt the battery for the car to being sitting that long? I can't imagine the car being charged often since it was new

 

[Jedlacks]

This is an easy and a hard question to answer. If it was sitting on a lot Maine it would not be that big a deal when compared to if it was in Phoenix. What the board may agree on is that time and heat when sitting will cause the batteries to deplete, but nobody can be sure to what extent.

I bought a '15 in May that was parked on a lot since the previous November. The numbers were low for the first month, then it spiked up during the warm GA summer. I'm not worried, because I knew what I was getting into, and I also knew that I was getting a good deal. I have since put on 1,500 to 1,800 miles a month and I will not look back.

Finally, look at the build date on the driver's side door jamb. Mid 2014 is the accepted date to possibly have the "lizard" battery, and that is understood to be a good thing.

 

[GerryAZ]

Make sure the one you buy has never been titled and/or placed into service so that you qualify for the Federal tax credit and the warranty does not expire early. Lizard battery seems to tolerate sitting on lot better than older cars so I think either one would be OK unless you are in a really hot climate. If you get a really low price and written assurance that warranty starts the day you pick it up, go for it (even in hot climate if price is super low). If you need all the range you can get, look for a 2016 with 30 kWh battery.

Gerry

 

[Neohippy]

The car is in Florida so it does get hot here. Also the car has been titled before but they are asking 16k for it with less then 200 miles and it's a SL. Seemed like a good deal. It's a second car so I'm not very concerned about range. What's warranty on the battery if it's preowned? Lastly I was under the impression the lizard battery was used in late 2013 not 2014?

 

[GerryAZ]

Nissan claims that lizard battery is used in all 2015s (USA manufactured), but we don't know if they started installing them before start of 2015 production. Warranty start date is original in service date so warranty probably started when it was first titled. Battery capacity warranty is 5 years or 60,000 miles and defect warranty is 8 years or 100,000 miles so warranty start date is critical (because time is major factor). Since car was previously titled, you probably cannot claim the Federal tax rebate.

Gerry

 

[EVforRobert]

I'm looking at buying a 2015 Leaf. I found two 2015 SL's for sale at a local Nissan dealer both with under 200 miles on them. They are priced pretty low so I'm considering buying one. My concern is the battery since these cars are over a year old and haven't been driven. One has 145 miles on it. Does that hurt the battery for the car to being sitting that long? I can't imagine the car being charged often since it was new

My car had been made 10/14 and I leased it 8/15. It sat at the factory or Northern California. I have never garaged it. See my sig for stats after 14 months.

 

[RockyNv]

I passed on both as neither had the DC Quick Charge port if your talking the Nissan Dealer in Clearwater. $15,800 asking plus their dealer fee which is almost $1,000 ($899?). The salesman kept pointing to the blank knockout for the DC port insisting that the port was behind it. I wasn't impressed with them to say the least. Did not have the solar panel either IIRC.

 

[Neohippy]

I passed on both as neither had the DC Quick Charge port if your talking the Nissan Dealer in Clearwater. $15,800 asking plus their dealer fee which is almost $1,000 ($899?). The salesman kept pointing to the blank knockout for the DC port insisting that the port was behind it. I wasn't impressed with them to say the least. Did not have the solar panel either IIRC.

They have 4 Leafs there. Two are SV's and 2 are SL's with quick charge port. The are still asking $16,999 for the SL with a $799 dealer fee. I have no intention on paying that. I wanted to see thoughts on the battery condition since it's been sitting before I waste my time negotiating a price on the car

 

[LeftieBiker]

They have 4 Leafs there. Two are SV's and 2 are SL's with quick charge port. The are still asking $16,999 for the SL with a $799 dealer fee. I have no intention on paying that. I wanted to see thoughts on the battery condition since it's been sitting before I waste my time negotiating a price on the car

These are all legally Used cars, I assume? If they don't qualify for the tax credit you can drive a much harder bargain. You need to use LeafSpy on them to determine battery SOH, Hx and AH. Without that you have no way of knowing what shape the packs are in. What years are the SVs?

 

[RockyNv]

I passed on both as neither had the DC Quick Charge port if your talking the Nissan Dealer in Clearwater. $15,800 asking plus their dealer fee which is almost $1,000 ($899?). The salesman kept pointing to the blank knockout for the DC port insisting that the port was behind it. I wasn't impressed with them to say the least. Did not have the solar panel either IIRC.

They have 4 Leafs there. Two are SV's and 2 are SL's with quick charge port. The are still asking $16,999 for the SL with a $799 dealer fee. I have no intention on paying that. I wanted to see thoughts on the battery condition since it's been sitting before I waste my time negotiating a price on the car

I went down in person after calling so they knew I was coming along with what I was looking for yet they could only produce the SV's that they alleged had the quick charge port however on inspection neither actually did. They mentioned that they had others in stock but could not show them to me because they had not been released yet and they could not find them anyways which I found odd since it appeared that they had been trying to sell most of them since July and had been dropping the prices every 2 to 4 weeks. They are undergoing construction and working out of a trailer to be fair but still highly disorganized for such a large mega dealership. Like I said I was not impressed.

The Hybrid dealership in Lutz that I ended up dealing with listened to me, went to the auction on that Tuesday and picked out a few cars with clean records just coming off lease that met my needs at my price. I ended up purchasing from him instead. A Pearl White 2014 S with cloth interior, quick charge, blue tooth and backup camera with 16,000 miles was what I ended up with at almost half what the Nissan dealer was asking and from the range I am getting it has a fairly honest 12 bars like he said it did. I am not sold on a mega bucks NAV system for an inner city car for commuting to work and wanted to keep it simple. So far the S is working out just fine for my needs.

I am still waiting on my OBDII Bluetooth adapters so I have not been able to run LeafSpy on it however the dealer I went with highly recommended I do so.

 

[Neohippy]

I passed on both as neither had the DC Quick Charge port if your talking the Nissan Dealer in Clearwater. $15,800 asking plus their dealer fee which is almost $1,000 ($899?). The salesman kept pointing to the blank knockout for the DC port insisting that the port was behind it. I wasn't impressed with them to say the least. Did not have the solar panel either IIRC.

They have 4 Leafs there. Two are SV's and 2 are SL's with quick charge port. The are still asking $16,999 for the SL with a $799 dealer fee. I have no intention on paying that. I wanted to see thoughts on the battery condition since it's been sitting before I waste my time negotiating a price on the car

I went down in person after calling so they knew I was coming along with what I was looking for yet they could only produce the SV's that they alleged had the quick charge port however on inspection neither actually did. They mentioned that they had others in stock but could not show them to me because they had not been released yet and they could not find them anyways which I found odd since it appeared that they had been trying to sell most of them since July and had been dropping the prices every 2 to 4 weeks. They are undergoing construction and working out of a trailer to be fair but still highly disorganized for such a large mega dealership. Like I said I was not impressed.

The Hybrid dealership in Lutz that I ended up dealing with listened to me, went to the auction on that Tuesday and picked out a few cars with clean records just coming off lease that met my needs at my price. I ended up purchasing from him instead. A Pearl White 2014 S with cloth interior, quick charge, blue tooth and backup camera with 16,000 miles was what I ended up with at almost half what the Nissan dealer was asking and from the range I am getting it has a fairly honest 12 bars like he said it did. I am not sold on a mega bucks NAV system for an inner city car for commuting to work and wanted to keep it simple. So far the S is working out just fine for my needs.

I am still waiting on my OBDII Bluetooth adapters so I have not been able to run LeafSpy on it however the dealer I went with highly recommended I do so.

Im going to look at Tampahybrids. I k kwnof them. My friend bought a plug in Prius from them. I'm also well aware of how shady Lokey Nissan is. Tampa Hybrids has a 2013 SL with 9k miles. It's black and I have owned so many black cars. They are so hard to keep clean and get very hot in Florida. Thanks for the advice