Is there a Leaf specific warranty

leafdriving said:

baustin said:

leafdriving said:

Please don't buy the warranty. You're only getting 2 years out of it. Any problems that you have will show up in the first 3 years and it will already be covered by the standard warranty. Trust me. You traction battery is covered even longer. And if something were to happen in years 3-5 just go to a reputable local mechanic. Yes, a leaf is an electric vehicle but most of the systems are like a traditional car. I doubt that whatever it is will cost you $1800. Also, the dealers do not do quality work. I've taken my cars in for recalls (only way I will take my cars to the dealer) recently and one car they overfilled the brake fluid and on the other they left two bolts loose on the actuator they replaced. The local guy who's been working on cars for years will take better care of your car when working on it.

Sure, there is a chance something major could happen after your standard warranty ends but your odds are really low. But again, most possible repairs will not cost you $1800. During years 5-8 more things will need repairs but that's why they don't offer a warranty during that period.
If everything I wrote still scares you then please buy the warranty. This is just my two cents.

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I see this as poor advice all around. Read the forums. Non-Warranty repairs on the Leaf can be anywhere from $500 to $3500, and possibly more. Yes, the extended warranty is expensive reassurance, and the majority of Leafs may never have any issues, but some of them will. Many of the Leaf major component repairs also require use of the Consult Tool, which is expensive and not purchased by many shops that are not Nissan Dealers. Other than the warranty replacement of the traction battery, my Leaf has been trouble-free, so far. I wasn't willing to take the gamble, so I bought an extended warranty just before the factory warranty expired. I paid around $1800 for a 96 month/96,000 mile/$0 deductible plan.

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I see this as poor advice all around. Read the forums. Non-Warranty repairs on the Leaf can be anywhere from $500 to $3500, and possibly more.

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Yes, I read the forums. And you know what most people do on forums? They talk about problems. Most people don't join forums and when they do they rarely write about how great everything is.

Yes, the extended warranty is expensive reassurance, and the majority of Leafs may never have any issues, but some of them will.

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You're right that the extended warranty is expensive reassurance. It's no different from car insurance. You're probably fine with 300k coverage but 500k coverage makes you feel a little better. Just like insurance companies, the dealers know that the majority of people won't use the extended warranty. Everyone knows this is how they make money.

Other than the warranty replacement of the traction battery, my Leaf has been trouble-free, so far.

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You said it yourself.

I wasn't willing to take the gamble, so I bought an extended warranty just before the factory warranty expired. I paid around $1800 for a 96 month/96,000 mile/$0 deductible plan.

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Unlike you, the OP is adding only 2 years. Just as you said everything has been fine with your '13 until now- this is how long they would be paying $1800 for.

If you're the kinda person who thinks only the dealer can perform a $120 "full synthetic oil change + 1,376 point inspection" on your car then please buy the warranty. Seriously, why does the finance manager lick his lips when presenting you the extended warranty?

You're probably thinking that I'm a jerk who missed the point but please don't justify your purchase. If you think a car, even an "all-electric car with complex systems," requires a warranty, then maybe you shouldn't buy that car.

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These are decisions everyone has to make based on their specific circumstances. I bought a discounted plan from Jim Bone Nissan. My local dealer even did the required inspection, at no additional charge, while doing some other warranty service. They wanted $2500 for a 5 year/75,000 mile/$100 deductible plan. I don't know if my Leaf will ever have any issues, but I have 5 years of worry-free driving from when the factory warranty expired. I'll keep driving after that, until the traction battery gives out, or the car breaks and I can't afford to fix it.

I do use a local shop for service on my diesel truck, which has about 140,000 miles on it, and for our other vehicles. However, I would not trust my Leaf to anyone but a dealer, except for the most basic of maintenance. I had to go out in the shop (local facility) and supervise the replacement of the 12v battery on my Leaf, because it was an EV and they were not comfortable doing it, since it was their first one.

I share my experience to help others make their own decisions. I don't need to justify my purchase. It was a calculated gamble that I was willing to spend the money on, that others are not so willing to do. If I was not able to get the discounted $0 deductible plan from the other Nissan dealer, I would not have bought it, since it would have been $2500 for only two more years of coverage.

SageBrush said:

baustin said:

I see this as poor advice all around. Read the forums. Non-Warranty repairs on the Leaf can be anywhere from $500 to $3500, and possibly more. Yes, the extended warranty is expensive reassurance, and the majority of Leafs may never have any issues, but some of them will. Many of the Leaf major component repairs also require use of the Consult Tool, which is expensive and not purchased by many shops that are not Nissan Dealers. Other than the warranty replacement of the traction battery, my Leaf has been trouble-free, so far. I wasn't willing to take the gamble, so I bought an extended warranty just before the factory warranty expired. I paid around $1800 for a 96 month/96,000 mile/$0 deductible plan.

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You were not willing to gamble on a major repair, but you *were* willing to gamble that your $1800 (or whatever the cost of warranty) would have value.

You are gambling either way; the question here is whether you know how to compute odds.

I think most of us know from casual arithmetic that product warranties are a killer deal ... for the warranty company. That people buy them anyway is typically due to inability to pay for a repair out of pocket. The rest is just rationalization and muddled nonsense phrases like "peace of mind."

Back in 2004 I bought my first Prius. The technology was new and unproven. Like Reg I wondered about insuring the inverter with a warranty against the $6,000 repair cost. I decided to take a wait and see approach, and when few repairs occurred in the community by the time the OEM warranty was set to lapse I discarded the idea of buying insurance. The following years were most instructive: used inverters could be bought for a few hundred dollars off Ebay because the demand was so low. As it turns out, a later generation Prius *did* develop a relatively widespread inverter failure rate, but Toyota responded with a 15 yr/unlimited warranty for all affected owners.

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Yes, I know that extended warranties are money-makers for the companies that sell them. I don't have time to chase down parts and do my own repairs, if that became a necessity. To me, the $1800 for five years of worry-free driving from when the factory warranty expired, was an acceptable expense, versus the potential of a $2000+ repair for a major component failure. By the time the warranty runs out, the car will likely be needing another traction battery. Then it will be time for a new set of calculations and decisions.

Everyone needs to make their own decisions, based on their particular circumstances. I'm just sharing my experience. Maybe the fact that I have had no issues, so far, will convince someone to skip the warranty, and it might push someone else to search for a discounted warranty from another Nissan dealer (if they're still available).

baustin said:

SageBrush said:

To me, the $1800 for five years of worry-free driving from when the factory warranty expired, was an acceptable expense, versus the potential of a $2000+ repair for a major component failure.

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Think about that for a moment. You break even if the odds of a major component failure is 90% or greater.

In a car that *might* travel 60k miles in those years.
That affects a component that does not carry a longer warranty anyway.

As I said before, warranties attract people who are cash strapped and live paycheck to paycheck.

baustin said:

SageBrush said:

To me, the $1800 for five years of worry-free driving from when the factory warranty expired, was an acceptable expense, versus the potential of a $2000+ repair for a major component failure.

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Think about that for a moment. You break even if the odds of a major component failure is 90% or greater.

In a car that *might* travel 60k miles in those years.
That affects a component that does not carry a longer warranty anyway.

As I said before, warranties attract people who are cash strapped and live paycheck to paycheck. Some marketing genius realized that folding the cost of the warranty into the monthly payment will sell.
This is also why these discussions are a waste of time. A person in that position holds their nose and buys the warranty.

SageBrush said:

baustin said:

SageBrush said:

To me, the $1800 for five years of worry-free driving from when the factory warranty expired, was an acceptable expense, versus the potential of a $2000+ repair for a major component failure.

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Think about that for a moment. You break even if the odds of a major component failure is 90% or greater.

In a car that *might* travel 60k miles in those years.
That affects a component that does not carry a longer warranty anyway.

As I said before, warranties attract people who are cash strapped and live paycheck to paycheck.

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You have an obvious bias against extended warranties, and the people who buy them. You know nothing about me, but have determined that I am cash-strapped and live paycheck to paycheck because I bought one. You must have a hard time finding and keeping friends, if you treat them anything like you treat people on these forums.

baustin said:

You know nothing about me, but have determined that I am cash-strapped and live paycheck to paycheck because I bought one.

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If this was the case, I would have said: warranties *only* attract those who live paycheck to paycheck.
That was not my intent; there are always exceptions, though uncommon.

As for you, I have no idea. I wasn't even thinking of you when I posted. If however I was gambling about you I would give good odds that you live paycheck to paycheck. Don't take it personally; it is just a matter of odds. Just like the warranties themselves. Incidentally, the next largest, though smaller, group are the arithmetically challenged. That group tends to overlap the paycheck to paycheck crowd.

By the way, here is the litmus test of the person pushed to buy the warranty due to being cash strapped: if a person buys the warranty when it is folded into the loan but would not buy the warranty if they had to come up with the cash out of pocket.

Here is another litmus test, albeit a little subtle: Suggest to a person considering a warranty at the time the car is being bought to instead put aside 1/36th of the warranty cost every month into an account, and decide towards the end of the new car warranty period whether to purchase the warranty. It makes a lot of sense: 3 years of information is added to the decision, and interest is accrued along the way. I'll tell you from long experience on car forums that the people who buy warranties very rarely take this route. I'll leave it to you to figure out why.

Fantastic discussion folks! +1 to all. I’ve always been on the fence on warranties, and this discussion had given me much to consider. As we all can appreciate, an EV isn’t your typical car so extra consideration was what I was looking for. I got that from you all, thank you.

What we’ve decided is that we will set aside about $45 a month for 36 months (the term of the factory warranty) in a TFSA. What we’ll have once the factory warranty expires is about $1600 plus interest (the cost of the extended warranty.

I think this is a good, happy middle-ground that serves our peace of mind, while at the same time preparing for any costly repairs. The added bonus, of course, will be that if we have no major repairs the money continues to earn small, but meaningful interest.

What was also interesting that came out of this was that there was, in fact, an EV specific warranty that was cheaper than the standard. So anyone who reads this and have never purchased an EV, dig deeper into your dealer’s warranty and insist on an EV warranty - it should also cost less.

Thank you again to all who posted. It was very helpful.

Are you talking about the Gold Preferred warranty? That isn't EV-specific, it just includes EV components.

Deltaflyer21 said:

I think this is a good, happy middle-ground that serves our peace of mind, while at the same time preparing for any costly repairs. The added bonus, of course, will be that if we have no major repairs the money continues to earn small, but meaningful interest.

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Smart, rational move.

But better than your summary: if no major repairs you pocket the sum + interest.