Should I buy a 2013 Nissan Leaf SV with 12 bars?

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

schawelb

New member
Joined
May 18, 2018
Messages
3
Hi everyone, thanks in advance for any help. My wife and I are looking to purchase our first EV and after some research we've narrowed it down to a used (2013-2015) Nissan Leaf. We're on a fairly tight budget and want to spend less than $10,000 because we are already financing a vehicle we bought in 2016. I would be using the Leaf to commute up to 23 miles each way near Boulder, CO with chargers at my workplace and many others in the area. Below is a description of one car we are looking at. It might be questionable because of its age, but I wanted to get some expert opinions.

2013 NISSAN LEAF
4DR HB SV
$8,707
61,207 miles
CARFAX 1-Owner, bought and registered in Boulder, CO
12 bars remaining (which I understand to represent anywhere from 100% to ~85% battery life, which seems like plenty of range for my purposes)
Found at a Nissan dealer,

Is this a good deal?
Should I be concerned about accelerated battery depletion because of the age or high mileage?

As a side note, some of our must have features are included on this model, like cruise control, heated seats, 6.6 kwh charger, Bluetooth, heat pump, B-mode. Feel free to correct me on anything I am wrong about. Thanks again!
 
What was its build month and original in-service date?
schawelb said:
As a side note, some of our must have features are included on this model, like cruise control, heated seats, 6.6 kwh charger, Bluetooth, heat pump, B-mode.
Charge rate is measured in kW, not kWh. As for all those features, of course. Those are standard on the '13 SV trim.

Does it have the quick charge (CHAdeMO inlet) + LED headlights package? How about premium (Bose stereo + 4 camera Around View Monitor)? Either or both of those will increase its price/value.
 
Hi cwerdna, thanks for your reply and for the useful information. Build date is 9/13, bought shortly thereafter. No quick charge or LED. No Bose or 4-way camera. In fact, no backup camera either. Mostly concerned about the car's life and range being affected by its age and mileage. Thoughts?
 
schawelb said:
Hi cwerdna, thanks for your reply and for the useful information. Build date is 9/13, bought shortly thereafter. No quick charge or LED. No Bose or 4-way camera. In fact, no backup camera either. Mostly concerned about the car's life and range being affected by its age and mileage. Thoughts?

Having avoided the HOT Summer of 2013, the car should have more than 85% capacity left, but only LeafSpy can tell you for sure. If you don't need the options not present, it may be a good buy for you. Offer less because of the 'stripper' (lacking options) status. Those were the last to sell when new.
 
What you have to worry about is that the BMS was reset to hide the actual state of the battery (like in this posting: http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=14285&start=1820#p527350). That is, it might not really have 12 bars.

Just as a comparison, my 2013 SL at 31K miles has 12 bars and is at 86% capacity. It will likely lose a bar after the next winter. My summer range is just over 70mi. My winter range tops out at around 55mi. Another 2013 owner at work has over 60K miles and his battery is over 95%, so it's not impossible for this car to actually have 12 bars.

Note that range is vastly affected by your driving style. I get 4.5mi/kWh in the summer now. When I first got the car, and before I learned to chill-out my driving style, I got 3.5mi/kWh. That results in a huge difference in range. If you don't make that adjustment, you might find the real world range to not be sufficient for your needs.

As SageBrush suggests, a good test drive is best to guage the health of the battery. I think the best way to do this is with a OBD-II dongle and LeafSpyPro, and then put on as many miles as possible to really see the range of the battery.
 
Hi again, thanks for all the helpful replies. JLV, the comparisons you provided are very helpful. Goldbrick, thanks for the offer but I went ahead and bought the car after some deliberation about getting LeafSpy and the OBDII to test the car. Instead of buying these, I took the car for an extended test drive to get a feel for how quickly the remaining battery life would drop during normal use. The car appears to truly have the range that the 12 bars would suggest. The first owner seemed to have taken very good care of the car based on the nearly pristine condition of the interior and exterior. I know this is cosmetic but it's at least a good sign that the car was maintained properly. I decided to purchase the car with the understanding that I will either replace the battery when this one no longer meets my needs or trade up to a newer Leaf if I like this one. I'll post an update in a few weeks.
 
My 2013 SL still has all 12 bars and just passed 47,000 miles. I commute 25 miles each way to work, without the ability to charge at work currently. I still roll into the driveway with between 30 and 35% remaining for the day. I have, however, mastered the art of efficient driving in my leaf as to not waste energy or momentum. I don't drive over 60 and don't entertain jack rabbit starts. Neutral coasting and regen are my best friends. Love my car, sure you will love yours too.

If you can charge at work, you should be fine for quite some time.
 
I'd still suggest getting LeafSpy Pro and and ODB-II reader just so you can see and track the ongoing health of the battery.

You can go so far as to automatically let LeafSpy Pro update myevstats.com. (My 2013 is VIN 24487; because of this thread I realized that I'd forgotten to enable it again when I switched phones).
 
hackdroot said:
My 2013 SL still has all 12 bars and just passed 47,000 miles. I commute 25 miles each way to work, without the ability to charge at work currently. I still roll into the driveway with between 30 and 35% remaining for the day. I have, however, mastered the art of efficient driving in my leaf as to not waste energy or momentum. I don't drive over 60 and don't entertain jack rabbit starts. Neutral coasting and regen are my best friends. Love my car, sure you will love yours too.

If you can charge at work, you should be fine for quite some time.
1+
 
schawelb said:
Hi again, thanks for all the helpful replies. JLV, the comparisons you provided are very helpful. Goldbrick, thanks for the offer but I went ahead and bought the car after some deliberation about getting LeafSpy and the OBDII to test the car. Instead of buying these, I took the car for an extended test drive to get a feel for how quickly the remaining battery life would drop during normal use. The car appears to truly have the range that the 12 bars would suggest. The first owner seemed to have taken very good care of the car based on the nearly pristine condition of the interior and exterior. I know this is cosmetic but it's at least a good sign that the car was maintained properly. I decided to purchase the car with the understanding that I will either replace the battery when this one no longer meets my needs or trade up to a newer Leaf if I like this one. I'll post an update in a few weeks.

How is it holding now? Plan to buy also a 2013 Nissan SV. :)
 
Back
Top