2013 SV - thoughts?

[dragonmanagement]

Hello all,

Looking to buy used 2013 SV at $9K from private seller. Here are the LeafSpy data.






Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?

This is my first EV purchase, so I'm trying to be more circumspect than I normally would be when purchasing a car.

Best as I can tell, this looks like a pretty good deal, especially given its use in the Upper Midwest (US).

Thanks in advance for your help. Cheers.

[alozzy]

The LeafSpy stats look decent, you're unlikely to find much better. I think the price is fair too, although prices vary depending in which market you are buying. Interesting that it's never had a QC, does it have a CHADEMO port? Guessing not...

The VIN # looks weird, they usually start with 1N4. Too bad, as the trick to get the original sales sticker is handy for seeing the original location it was sold in and what options it had:

viewtopic.php?t=23716

You should check when it was made (door pillar), as you want a LEAF that has the better battery chemistry (anytime from April 2013 onwards has the improved chemistry).

Also, you're probably going to need to buy a new 12V battery, that voltage is pretty low.

[cwerdna]

The LeafSpy stats look decent, you're unlikely to find much better. I think the price is fair too, although prices vary depending in which market you are buying. Interesting that it's never had a QC, does it have a CHADEMO port? Guessing not...

The VIN # looks weird, they usually start with 1N4. Too bad, as the trick to get the original sales sticker is handy for seeing the original location it was sold in and what options it had:

viewtopic.php?t=23716

That isn't the VIN. The 230SM... is the battery serial number. See viewtopic.php?p=521772#p521772. If Obscure VIN is turned off, Leaf Spy Pro for Android started showing the VIN and battery serial # in the same field, w/them alternating back/forth every few seconds.

As for that window sticker trick, IIRC, it doesn't work on my current '13 Leaf but did work on the '13 Leaf I returned at lease end.

[SageBrush]

The LeafSpy looks really good for a 2013 model, although I do not know why the Odometer reading is zero.
If you have log info that goes back a couple of months that shows a steady Ahr capacity it would be reassuring that no reset monkey business had taken place.

Any chance this car has a new battery ? That would be most welcome news if true although odd if the seller did not say so.

[cwerdna]

Odometer can be 0 and numerous other values can be invalid of if the car's not in READY mode. Gotta wait several seconds after putting the car in READY mode (green car with arrows) w/the green box in the lower right w/the numbers changing/cycling.

[LeftieBiker]

If the reading wasn't done correctly, it should be repeated. No chance it's an early build 2013 if the SOH is really 91%, unless it's a replacement pack. Speaking of which, there is a local early build 2013 for sale at a local dealership here, with 12 bars showing. I'd like to think it has a Lizard pack, but the odometer reading is also 15k miles lower than my VIN search result...

[silverone]

These LeafSpy numbers are consistent with a later model 2013 living its life in Michigan based on my experience. The bad part about buying a Leaf in Winter is that you' can't really be sure how close the battery is to losing it's first bar, since LeafSpy numbers are inflated some in colder temperatures. My 2013 that has hovered around 91-93 SOH in March got down as low as 87 last summer. The year before, the readings were normally around 96 and sometimes went over 100 during warmups from extreme cold snaps. I fully expect to lose my first bar sometime this summer, but expect to have over 55,000 miles when it happens.

I think you can get a couple years of service from this battery as long as you're not expecting 50+ mile range in winter. With the cheaper battery options on the way, the utility of older Leafs should improve and used prices will continue to stabilize.

[kubben]

I just traded in my 2013 Leaf for a new 2018 leaf. My 2013 had 84,000 and still had full battery capacity. I had never heard of leaf spy it would have been interesting to to see how close it was to loosing a bar of capacity.

[WetEV]

I just traded in my 2013 Leaf for a new 2018 leaf. My 2013 had 84,000 and still had full battery capacity. I had never heard of leaf spy it would have been interesting to to see how close it was to loosing a bar of capacity.

Where are you located? Please put in your profile, so we don't need to guess. Climate has a lot to do with battery life, range, etc.

What was the manufacturing date of the 2013? Later ones had better battery life.

Welcome to the forum.

[BuckMkII]

I paid the same price for a 2013 SV with 5% lower SOH at the beginning of last summer, so assuming those battery stats are real (i.e. not the result of a partially-recalculated BMS reset), I would say that is an excellent buy!

Ideally, you would do a long test drive (>10% of the battery capacity) and use the trip stats to back-calculate the total battery capacity. That should be able to rule out a serious BMS reset.