car would not charge

Day 1 - took car from dealer drove 69 miles plugged in blue light on dash and green plug in inst cluster flashing
saw the dash display go from 8 miles to 13 - left the car viewed on iphone miles up to 41 miles then iphone displayed "unplugged"
car had zero charge would not come out of neutral
Day 2 -had the car towed by nissan
Day 5 - dealer said magnet on inverter beard was broken "never saw this before but don't worry"
they have the car and my stopped payment check
should i take the car? if so what should i ask for?
CA has lemon law - 3 times for same issue and mfg buys it back
nissan rep unhelpful - "too bad u had a problem never seen it before but it's fixed now"

The lemon law says they get three tries, but you stopped the check before they even tried once. Why? Did they do or say something to make you doubt them? Take the car, and keep all the documentation just in case you DO need the lemon law.

You stopped payment on a car that you purchased? Good luck with that... I hope the dealer doesn't sue you.

There is a Lemon Law in California, but stopping payment on your purchase check probably isn't going to get you much satisfaction.

You own the car. The is no cooling off period in California.

I'd recommend finding a lawyer at this point. You don't have a car problem, but you may have a legal one.

took the car at 9pm friday problem occurred 4pm Sat.

I stopped payment because an electric car sold with a defective charging system would appear to be poor techology/poor quality control and I don't want to be on a first name basis with the service manager. I thought Nissan would not sell junk. My friends could not understand how I could buy a car the first year it came out- who wants the problems. I guess they were correct.

I would rather get an attorney and fight the fight then end up down at the dealership wasting my time because the car broke down (again). I guess this car is for techies who like the "idea" and are willing to fight with the technology. I like to drive a car not understand why it doesn't work.

You are right Drawson, the Leaf is not for you.. Did the car actually get titled to you?

drawson said:

I would rather get an attorney and fight the fight then end up down at the dealership wasting my time because the car broke down (again).

Click to expand...

Fight away. You will lose and still have the car. I suspect that will cost you a lot more money than letting the dealer do the warranty work (at least once, maybe twice, then the third time, ..... then, follow the lemon law).

Best wishes and good luck with your soon to be VERY expensive slightly used car,

Tony

I suggest that you read the California Auto Purchase and Lemon laws. What you did is illegal and you can not only be sued for the cost of the car, but their legal fees and damages as well. It is also a misdemeanor that could subject you to both arrest and a fine. Better make good on the check right away or lawyer up because you will need it and you will ultimately lose.

Proof that there can be both bad dealers and, in this case, a bad customer...

drawson said:

I would rather get an attorney and fight the fight then end up down at the dealership wasting my time because the car broke down (again).

Click to expand...

and dont talk about it online, if you are headed to court.

drawson said:

magnet on inverter beard was broken

Click to expand...

Since I believed the inverter in the Leaf is solid state and the "magnet" kind of pointed to a moving parts in the inverter, I decided to google "magnetic inverter" but the first two links pointed to some Spider Man web site :lol: . Was that just dealer talk? Maybe an electrical engineer can shed some light.

camasleaf said:

drawson said:

magnet on inverter beard was broken

Click to expand...

Since I believed the inverter in the Leaf is solid state and the "magnet" kind of pointed to a moving parts in the inverter, I decided to google "magnetic inverter" but the first two links pointed to some Spider Man web site :lol: . Was that just dealer talk? Maybe an electrical engineer can shed some light.

Click to expand...

There are no "Magnets" in the Inverter, and besides, the dealer is not authorized to do work inside the inverter, only to replace it as a unit. On top of this, the inverter has nothing to do with charging. The charger does have ferrite magnetics, but no "magnet" per se. Broken magnetics would definitely shut the charger down, but why was the dealer inside there anyway?

-Phil

There has only has been one other charger issue I know of. The LEAF has proven to be as reliable as any other car if not more. You should have had it fixed under warranty rather than canceling your check which is a foolish and hot headed maneuver. You had protections and rights under the law and now you are just another one of those over reactive customers that believes they don't have to pay for a minor inconvenience.

Delivery Date: 19 Oct 2011
Leaf Number: 5643

Ya, that'll be hard to trace back to you.

I think an overeaction has happened to say the least. You are not the first person in the world to have a problem with a new car. Nissan, in my experience has been really good with customers after the sale. Worse case, they give you a car off of the lot to drive for free while they fix your Leaf. It might be an inconvenience but what in life isn't? Keep the car you will love it. Aloha

Hey guys-----I think this guy may be a TROLL, eh? :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

I have had 3 failures to charge so far (10,000 miles/5 months). To this day no idea what happened. There were yellow warning icons and no blinking blue lights. What I do now is I always look if the blues are blinking everytime I pass by the car.

Otherwise, car is extremely reliable. And one needs a bit of patience with a new car. They're not all created equal. And of course it's all new tech and we are the guinea pigs. But at what price! 12.5 thousand off the list. Can't go wrong there! I've had only one replacement so far -- the passenger visor would not hold the sun shield, it woud drop down half-way. They replaced it and washed my car too at North Bay Nissan.

Hey! No oil changes! No engine warmups. Unplug and drive.

No problems at all so far. *knocks wood*

Phil

The dealer's GM reported the "magnets were cracked on the inverter board" as something he was told by Nissan. He said they replaced the board.

For the record, I waited 13 months for the Leaf, I also have a '06 Prius and two Hybrid Camery's ('07 and '09). I could not wait to get it. The fact that I could not charge it the very first day of ownership was only compounded when I called customer service on Sat at 2 pm to be told -
even though you pressed the "charge now" override button on the car and charge now on the charging station "we have found that they tend to cancel each other out." When I turned both timers off the car started to charge - I watched the mileage go up as I set the radio stations and read a section of the owners manual. I left the car with the range up from 8 miles when I started to 13 when I went into the house.

Around 7pm I noticed my iphone display had stopped changing the range number I went back to the car to see if it had become unplugged. It was not - but the charger had an orange message "not charging - check car". I started the process all over to no avail.

I then called customer service - this is where I started having a real problem - they were no longer open - closed until Monday (it was Sat). No problem, I'll move it on to the street (it was blocking other cars - maybe not he best location for the charging station) but it would not move. I had left it was at least 8 miles when I started charging, so not only did it not charge but it appeared to discharge to zero - it would not come out of neutral.

No problem, I'll call the towing section of the 800 number. They said someone there in 45 - 60 min however it took 2 hours so at 11pm they pulled up in a flatbed took the car away. On Sunday I called the dealer's sales manager who said "call customer service and tell them to deliver the car to us". I did that and got a call back say "the tow company will not do that - your dealer is closed and there is no one there to accept the car". I call the sales manager and he assured me they would accept the car, customer service call the tow company who refused." I told CS that I didn't believe this was a request, it was a demand. the car was delivered late Monday morning.

My experience was that Nissan's customer service has very nice people working there however they are not there when you need them. Three weeks later, I have now spoken with 3 different Nissan folks (they have done the dealer two-step and passed me around from person-to-person) all saying "don't worry".

The dealer I ordered from has closed (lost their lease) and the closest one is now 20 mile away - which can be over an hour at rush hour. I see myself being down there all the time - it's an electric car with a charging problem right out of the factory and Nissan have yet to deliver the first 8,000. I thought that Nissan would bend over backwards to make this car a success (that's why I was willing to buy it the first year) - my experience is they are treating problems with this car as they would on any other model - it's not any other model.

My wife has told me not to take this car - another OK but not this one. If you're married this is not a small issue. I'm trying to be a "good customer" but it is a two way street and there saying "don't worry" is not very reassuring.

No I'm not a troll but rather someone who wants to believe in the technology but not willing to be a test subject. If it's not right, I believe, Nissan should step up and take care of the problem (not fix the problem but assure their customer base that they will go the extra mile and replace a car with 69 miles on it - I thought they would be like Lexus but they are closer to GM - that's not a good thing).

I hesitated coming online with this issue. I gave them weeks to resolve it privately. But now the dealer is calling and literally begging me to take the car. It's not the dealers problem, it's the factory's problem and Nissan has not taken responsibility and I don't believe they ever will. They are trying to make their problem my problem and I'm not impressed, not happy, and now doubtful the technology works.

So, Santa Monica Nissan and you must be on the Westside somewhere...

drawson said:

The dealer I ordered from has closed (lost their lease) and the closest one is now 20 mile away.

Click to expand...

Given all the reports I've heard and seen, and being an engineer myself, failures are bound to happen on anything as complex as a modern automobile, whether electric or not. The failure your dealer found genuinely seems to be a defect in materials and sometimes cannot be helped. Obviously it passed QC, as it was charging originally. In fact, I'd be glad the defect showed up as fast as it did, rather than later on, maybe even after years of ownership.

I've had zero problems with my LEAF, and I'm a picky SOB!

Since you signed a legally binding contract with the Dealer, you are of course legally bound by it. You cannot change your mind because of a minor defect. Now if you keep having issues, you can invoke the lemon law and go from there. But one fault does not constitute a lemon, or anything to worry about. I agree that it stinks that you have to be one of the few with problems out of the gate, but they are most assuredly are rare, and Nissan does seem to be genuinely concerned and on top of things. They are sending the lead engineer and his team from Japan to meet with us "lowly customers" next month! That is unheard of from any large consumer-based company, and doubly-so from a major automaker!

I for one, am impressed with Nissan's efforts and willingness to take a monumental (maybe even ultimate) gamble with their company's future in producing the LEAF. I want to do all I can to support them, as I believe the future of the world depends on EV's as a "way out" of this energy/climate nightmare scenario we are in the middle of.

I have built and owned many EV's over many years, and I must say the LEAF is the finest overall EV I've ever had the pleasure of owning. Are there things I wish were better/different? Hell yes! But if the program doesn't succeed, there won't be future EV's to improve upon!

-Phil

Phil-

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Let me see if I can get past my wife's rejection.