Returning a leased Leaf after 3 weeks

I am not happy with the range of the Leaf; I drive about 60 miles on the freeway once/week and have to stop to charge at least once. I feel I was misled about this, also about needing to drive < 60 mi/hr to save the charge, using cruise control, also not using heat or radio. I like the car but am getting this info from other owners as we wait our turns to charge our cars (the salesperson did not give me any of this info before I leased). This is a great car for driving around town or as a second car. I do not want the anxiety of wondering if I'll make it home or where the next charging station is, & how much extra time it will take before I'm home. Has anyone tried returning their leased car, and how did it work, do you have any tips for me?

Well, since you signature shows delivery two months from now (3/1/17), you should have plenty of time to change your mind.

If you leased an SV or SL you should have enough range for your trip. You may be panicking because the dashboard is telling you that you have a bit less range than you really have. If you leased a 24kwh S then you may indeed have a problem. The only good news in that case is that you can use the radio!

Sounds like a poor match for you. Can you return it with minimal penalty?

But before you do... download the https://www.plugshare.com/ app: and tap into a world of chargers you never knew about.
I have range concerns with the Leaf also: it's just too stressful to drive much outside of town. In down it's a great car.
There's no way I can ever take a 60mph freeway trip: my effective range is about 35 miles. Getting "Leaf Spy" can help
a bit with a more realistic semi-automated range calculation.

Something's wrong with this picture.
I didn't even have an "effective range" of 35 miles when my Leaf was a 4 bar loser: no way "new" Leafs are that bad!
Note: if they aren't "new", please update profile/signature as such. Model year and location make a big difference.

If the OP wants help w/range, please answer http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=275421#p275421. I suspect they're leaving a whole lot of unused capacity on the table and/or they can still take steps to mitigate the anxiety.

Never heard of people returning within weeks or months. OP will likely eat it VERY badly due to Leaf's poor resale value. Or, they might be able to get someone to takeover the lease. Unfortunately, NMAC's crap policies mean that the OP will still be on the hook, if the person who takes over is a deadbeat and doesn't pay.

Speed on the freeway will zap your battery capacity. Try driving the speed limit if you want range.

cwerdna said:

If the OP wants help w/range, please answer http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=275421#p275421. I suspect they're leaving a whole lot of unused capacity on the table and/or they can still take steps to mitigate the anxiety.

Never heard of people returning within weeks or months. OP will likely eat it VERY badly due to Leaf's poor resale value. Or, they might be able to get someone to takeover the lease. Unfortunately, NMAC's crap policies mean that the OP will still be on the hook, if the person who takes over is a deadbeat and doesn't pay.

Click to expand...

There was this guy from Chicago back in late 2011 - early 2012:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=357&p=160691#p160691

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=357&p=163317#p163317

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=357&p=166281#p166281

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=357&p=168416#p168416

who got rid of his LEAF after about 4 weeks (Dec. 21st to Jan. 23rd.) and bought a Volt instead. One winter night trip with his wife and kids in the car was enough to convince him that the range in real world conditions (using heat/defrost, on snow) was simply too limited for him to put up with.

^^^
I don't know that guy's situation since I didn't know of his story until now but there was not the healthy (w/low prices due to low resale value) market for Leafs until they started coming off lease.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=20293 was an example thread on early lease termination. OP, should consult their lease contract on what their options are and what they'd owe in each case. I don't have the bandwidth to write on this further as I'm getting on a plane Wednesday afternoon to go to CES.

I don't think the situation will be pretty: either lease takeover w/the stupid policy where the OP is still responsible or the OP will take a huge bath OR OP actually makes serious attempts to make the Leaf work for them, which may include possibly not leaving a lot of unused capacity on the table, preheating, driving slower, using Leaf Spy, etc.

More threads can be found by Googling and Binging for queries like these:
site:mynissanleaf.com early termination lease

Surely there is more to be told about what is happening here. I have a 24 kWh Leaf which I have owned and driven for 3 years. On it's worst day, I can easily drive over 60 miles in freeway conditions. I think we need more information about this specific vehicle (battery, year, model, condition issues), location, driving conditions, anything unusual about the route, etc.

And yes, the penalty for an early lease return like this will surely be ugly. The real question, though, is whether there is actually something wrong with the vehicle. This account of it's performance is not making sense to me.

I think they are talking 60 miles each way.

I just purchased a used 2013 Leaf missing one capacity bar, and I live in a fairly hilly area so I'll never get the rated energy economy, and even so I managed to get a 60 mile range. So, getting less than that in a new car is indeed quite bad. That being said, at least in this used model if I had to do a 60 mile drive from end to end it would be cutting it close (probably could make it by dropping down to 55 mph).

I feel for the OP, as buying the car and finding out it doesn't meet your requirements must be pretty rough. Hopefully in the next year or so all electric cars will have 150-200 mile range, which will solve most of these issues.

This thread looks like another drive by shooting :lol:

Didn't see an answer OPs question regarding tips for getting out of a lease after three weeks though... bring a very large check and lubrication? Assuming his credit is solid the dealer can also roll the negative into a new lease or purchase, I'm sure they could put him into a very nice Versa base model for only $30k.

Likely he just isn't aware car dealers don't have a liberal return policy like Macy's.

LTLFTcomposite said:

This thread looks like another drive by shooting :lol:

Didn't see an answer OPs question regarding tips for getting out of a lease after three weeks though... bring a very large check and lubrication? Assuming his credit is solid the dealer can also roll the negative into a new lease or purchase, I'm sure they could put him into a very nice Versa base model for only $30k.

Likely he just isn't aware car dealers don't have a liberal return policy like Macy's.

Click to expand...

Yeah. OP hasn't returned. Currently, per http://www.mynissanleaf.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=20377:
"Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 11:57 am
Last active: Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:14 pm"

I wonder what's going on w/them. I don't think it's worth spending any more time on this thread until they return.