Nissan won't replace my battery under warranty !!!

I bought a used 2012 SL with 36,000 miles and 9 battery bars in June of 2016 in Los Angeles, with the battery replacement warranty expiring on October 10, 2016. I was driving to LAX for a business trip on October 3rd when the battery went to 8 bars, so I took it to Cerritos Nissan and asked them to document it for the free battery replacement. They told me I have to make an appointment for them to test the battery for free replacement, but I told them I’m catching a flight at LAX for business trip overseas and won’t be back until October 24, and they said there’s nothing they can do. When I took the car back to the dealer on October 25th, they said the battery warranty had expired, and I have to go directly to Nissan North American to open a case for battery replacement out of warranty. I contacted Nissan North America and explained to them what had happened, and they said they won’t replace my battery under the warranty because it was brought to the dealer after the warranty had expired. I then asked if they can give me a battery at a discount, like 50% off, but they refused. I also tried BBB but no luck there either. The Nissan dealer told me the battery will cost $6500 + $1500 for tax and installation, putting the battery replacement cost at $8000! I owned 2 Nissan prior to my Leaf, a 300 ZX and a Q45 after that, I can’t believe this is how Nissan treats their loyal customers.

When I saw news on the web this June that Nissan Japan has a Leaf refurbish battery replacement program at $2500, I contact Nissan North America again inquiring if US will have similar program, but they said no. They also told me the battery replacement for a new pack has increase to $8000, not including tax and installation! Thanks Nissan, now I have a Leaf that only goes 40 miles per charge in city driving, and a $1000 trade in value, and you want $8000 for battery, thanks but no thanks. This is the last Nissan I will ever own in my life!

You almost played the game right. I'm surprised you did not have enough sense to leave your car with the dealer and grab a ride-share to the airport. Those last couple dollars of greed were your undoing.

And yes, Nissan sucks.

Rental cars are cheaper than a battery. So is a taxi. YOU made a mistake.

Yes I agree the warranty should have a prorated period, but it does not. You knew the rules and ignored them.

That was two years ago.... are you still driving a Nissan?

The greedy become the needy.

There is no evidence of "greed" here. Why do you, um, gentlemen think that if the car had been left the dealership would have documented the bar loss in time? The best approach here would have been to offer the dealership $300 to take 15 minutes on the spot and just photograph the dash and document the loss in writing. Or take a later flight and find another dealership...

LeftieBiker said:

There is no evidence of "greed" here. Why do you, um, gentlemen think that if the car had been left the dealership would have documented the bar loss in time? The best approach here would have been to offer the dealership $300 to take 15 minutes on the spot and just photograph the dash and document the loss in writing. Or take a later flight and find another dealership...

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Because if he had turned the car in on the day of his flight it would have been officially reported in time for the warranty to take effect. Even if no appreciable action was taken for xxx days the turned over date is what would matter here.

Because if he had turned the car in on the day of his flight it would have been officially reported in time for the warranty to take effect. Even if no appreciable action was taken for xxx days the turned over date is what would matter here.

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I assume you mean "checked the car in." Maybe - if the dealership hadn't decided to wait until they had a slow day to actually do the documentation. Anyway, my main point is that what you folks are referring to as "greed" is at worst "being cheap." Greed is when you try to accumulate more wealth no matter what the cost or consequences, while "cheap" is just an often excessive effort to retain all of the wealth you already have. What you folks are doing is calling the wrong schoolyard epithet. ;-)

Sorry to hear about the OP's troubles but...

smkettner said:

Rental cars are cheaper than a battery. So is a taxi. YOU made a mistake.

Yes I agree the warranty should have a prorated period, but it does not. You knew the rules and ignored them.

That was two years ago.... are you still driving a Nissan?

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Agree with all of the above.

The thread has an incorrect title. It should read something like "Nissan won't replace my out of warranty battery for free!"

Let this thread and few others similar to it be a cautionary tale. For anyone who may be close to expiration of the 5 year/60K capacity warranty, MAKE SURE you know the original in-service date and when the 5 years is up. Set repeating calendar reminders for yourself (I use Google Calendar) with multiple notification forms (e.g. email + regular notification) so that you get nagged regularly leading up to the end date. Make sure you don't miss it by a single day or mile!

It may be wise to do the same for the 3 year/36K basic warranty and 5 year/60K EV system/powertrain warranty, as a reminder to get anything outstanding addressed before warranty expiration.

I do the above when I know I need to contact a company about canceling something otherwise I'll pay a higher fee for subscription (e.g. SiriusXM radio) and for many other important events/to-do items.

Mr. "NISSANSUCKS" is a shill agitator. On his first post he is fostering "HATE" against Nissan.

Also, if the warrantee was up in Oct, 2016. He is late with his complaint.. This sounds like the alleged allegations of "Dr. Ford" 40 years too late

this guy needs to not troll these sites...

I don't understand why the OP waited 2 years to post this.

LeftieBiker said:

There is no evidence of "greed" here. Why do you, um, gentlemen think that if the car had been left the dealership would have documented the bar loss in time? The best approach here would have been to offer the dealership $300 to take 15 minutes on the spot and just photograph the dash and document the loss in writing. Or take a later flight and find another dealership...

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Greedy because at a low cost they could have made arrangements to fulfill their end of the contract but couldn't be bothered. Instead, they expect Nissan to enrich them out of an abundance of goodwill. For what? Buying a used car clearly in hopes of exploiting a $6000 freebie? How crazy would Nissan have to be to consider rewarding that as "customer loyalty"?

And now they have the gall to clutch their pearls and whine about their 40-mile car that's exactly what they paid for. They played a game trying to get something for free, but lost because their greed prevented them from cashing in.

Anyway, this first-time post is a story about a 2-year-old complaint with unlikely confluence of sad circumstances and attempts to weave it in with recent news about refurbished batteries in Japan and increased replacement cost here... It's all too cute and contrived.

LeftieBiker said:

Because if he had turned the car in on the day of his flight it would have been officially reported in time for the warranty to take effect. Even if no appreciable action was taken for xxx days the turned over date is what would matter here.

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I assume you mean "checked the car in." Maybe - if the dealership hadn't decided to wait until they had a slow day to actually do the documentation. Anyway, my main point is that what you folks are referring to as "greed" is at worst "being cheap." Greed is when you try to accumulate more wealth no matter what the cost or consequences, while "cheap" is just an often excessive effort to retain all of the wealth you already have. What you folks are doing is calling the wrong schoolyard epithet. ;-)

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The date that would have mattered would have been the date that the owner left the car with the dealer, not the actual date the dealer did the work. The owner would have walked off with paperwork showing his complaint (only 8 bars) and both the date and the odometer reading as proof. By not leaving it, however, he made it impossible to meet the terms of the warranty. I agree with others, someone has an ax to grind and this story is not entirely credible. The whole "gotta catch a plane" thing sounds like a lame (and not well thought out) excuse to explain why he was a couple weeks late getting the car in.

I fully expect the OP will never come back and follow up his post.

The date that would have mattered would have been the date that the owner left the car with the dealer, not the actual date the dealer did the work.

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IF the dealer wrote the car up, then maybe that would have been the case. OTOH, Nissan could have claimed that the loss has to be documented with the Consult hardware before the warranty expires, not just 'admission' paperwork. In any event, having people essentially shout "YOU'RE GREEDY!!!" is indeed a great way to prevent the poster from returning here.

LeftieBiker said:

The date that would have mattered would have been the date that the owner left the car with the dealer, not the actual date the dealer did the work.

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IF the dealer wrote the car up, then maybe that would have been the case. OTOH, Nissan could have claimed that the loss has to be documented with the Consult hardware before the warranty expires, not just 'admission' paperwork. In any event, having people essentially shout "YOU'RE GREEDY!!!" is indeed a great way to prevent the poster from returning here.

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Of course they would have written it up. The problem was that he wanted them to write it up, THEN let him take it to the airport. Greedy isn't the right word, more like "penny wise and pound foolish." In fact, not leaving the car is so foolish that I find it almost impossible to believe that's how it actually went down.

davewill said:

The problem was that he wanted them to write it up, THEN let him take it to the airport. Greedy isn't the right word, more like "penny wise and pound foolish." In fact, not leaving the car is so foolish that I find it almost impossible to believe that's how it actually went down.

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Your skepticism is only because you know that Nissan will take any legal (?) way out to avoid honoring a warranty.
A normal company would have accepted the dealership documentation that the car showed 8 bars before the warranty lapsed and not use the date the car was brought in for the confirmatory testing. I'm not sure how arbitrage would have ruled two years ago. In OP's shoes I would seek arbitration today.

I agree with the post above: if you are gaming the system, best not to leave holes in the plan just to save a few dollars on a ride to the airport. OP's behavior strikes me as somewhere between short-sighted and arrogant but NIssan (as usual) are the real shmucks here.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for replying my post. I want to give everyone a timeline of what happened so nobody will make the same mistake as I did. The only reason it took me two years to post this is because I just saw this video on YouTube (https://youtu.be/iz2gSKl1oLg) that Nissan raised the price of Leaf replacement battery from $6500 to $8500 to reward early Leaf adopters as myself, and after owning 3 Nissans, I am fed up with how they treat their customers.

This Leaf was my first electric car and I didn't do any homework about electric cars before I bought it. I was driving a 1999 4WD Lexus RX300 that was getting 12 miles per gallon and was fed up with high gas prices, so I sold it and bought the Leaf which the owner told me was getting 65 miles per charge. Little did I know that was not realistic driving range, and I was lucky to get 55 miles without AC and with eco-mode in city driving, which was ok with my daily commute.

I took my Leaf to the dealer a month later in July 2016 for service and asked about battery replacement, they told me since my Leaf has 9 bars, it'll cost $6500 + $1000 for tax and installation. They said I can get a free battery replacement when my car hits 8 bars before my warranty expires on October 10th.

I started searching the web for Leaf battery replacement and came across this website and read many threads that early Leaf owners got free battery replacement or discounts even after their warranty had expired more than 6 months or over 1000 miles, but I was not optimistic and knew I will be lucky if I can get a free battery.

I did have a flight to China on October 3rd for an important business meeting, and that was more important to me than getting a free battery. I drove from San Diego to Norwalk that day and stopped at Nissan of San Juan Capistrano for a quick charge. 20 minutes after I left San Juan Capistrano, I noticed my battery gauge went to 8 bars. I drove to Cerritos Nissan and they told me I needed to make an appointment for a battery test, and the website to check if my Leaf was still under warranty was down. I told them I have a flight to catch and asked them if they can document the 8 bars, but they said they can't do that without checking if it's still under warranty. I knew if I stayed any longer, I will miss my flight, so I made the decision to leave the dealer and parked my car at Norwalk Metro and took the Metro to LAX. If anyone who knows LA traffic, you know it's faster to take Metro than driving or taking Uber, even though the parking at Metro costs more than Uber. When I came back from my trip, I emailed Nissan along with my airline ticket and a photo I took on 10/3 showing my battery gauge at 8 bars. They replied my email to call their customer care center. When I called, they explained to me that since no dealer documented my battery at 8 bars before the warranty expired, they can't give me the battery under warranty. I asked if I can get $1000 or $2000 discount for a replacement battery because it was so close to the warranty expiration date, they also refused. I asked the rep if he can email our conversation so I have it in writing, but he refused. I asked if I can get a copy of the taped conversation, since he said our conversation will be taped, he also said no.

If you all think I'm greedy, that's your opinion, and I'm fine with it. I accept the outcome of my mistake and I'm not here to ask you to feel sorry for me. I only posted this because I don't like how Nissan is treating their customers by raising their battery replacement from $6500 to $8500 and offering my car $1000 for trade in when I went to the dealer this summer for the 2018 model. I just want everyone who's getting a Leaf to hear my story and not make the same mistake I did. I gave my Leaf to my parents who drives less than 20 miles a day, and got a 2015 Tesla Model S for $45000 with over 220 miles of range, free super charging, and 5 years and unlimited miles on the battery warranty. Nissan simply doesn't care about customers like me and I will never own another Nissan again!

And for those who doesn't want to pay Nissan $8500 for a new battery pack, I found this company that will add a 24KWHR battery pack on top of your current Leaf for $4500.

https://hybridindustries.webs.com/

nissansucks said:

I only posted this because I don't like how Nissan is treating their customers by raising their battery replacement from $6500 to $8500...

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The original battery replacement price was subsidized. Nissan was providing the service at a loss. Ending the subsidy doesn't constitute poor treatment of customers.

And for those who doesn't want to pay Nissan $8500 for a new battery pack, I found this company that will add a 24KWHR battery pack on top of your current Leaf for $4500...

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Ahh. There it is.

nissansucks said:

I found this company that will add a 24KWHR battery pack on top of your current Leaf for $4500.

https://hybridindustries.webs.com/

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Haha.

See http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=21111&start=10 esp. my reply. I asked again about them in Feb 2018: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=518991#p518991.

Let us know how it goes with them.

No, but foisting off a defective battery on them and then not standing behind it certainly does!

Nubo said:

The original battery replacement price was subsidized. Nissan was providing the service at a loss. Ending the subsidy doesn't constitute poor treatment of customers.

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