Nissan Leaf Turns 5 Years Old

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aarond12 said:
Nice article. However, at the end, you mention the base price of the LEAF dropped to $21K. That is not correct. It's still $29K for the base LEAF S.
Here is my source for the $21k MSRP, from fueleconomy.gov:
2016%20Nissan%20Leaf%2024kWh.jpg
 
^^^
Which seems wrong.

http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/presskits/us-2016-nissan-leaf-press-kit under Pricing "tab" currently lists these as Suggested List Prices.
"S EV $ 29,010
SV EV $ 34,200
SL EV $ 36,790"
 
Yep, it appears that fueleconomy.gov has the wrong MSRP listed. Here is what I found on Nissan's site:

Fullscreen%2Bcapture%2B12122015%2B65738%2BPM.bmp.jpg

I have updated the blog and credited @aarond12 for the correction. Thanks!

A $21k base MSRP would be nice though :)
 
$29,010 minus the $7500 Federal tax credit is how the EPA came up with the $21,510 figure. However, not all buyers qualify for the full credit, so nobody should be quoting that up front.
 
RonDawg said:
$29,010 minus the $7500 Federal tax credit is how the EPA came up with the $21,510 figure. However, not all buyers qualify for the full credit, so nobody should be quoting that up front.

If you don't qualify for the full credit, you shouldn't be buying such an expensive toy. Really who doesn't pay at least that in taxes and then goes out to buy a $30K car???
 
2k1Toaster said:
RonDawg said:
$29,010 minus the $7500 Federal tax credit is how the EPA came up with the $21,510 figure. However, not all buyers qualify for the full credit, so nobody should be quoting that up front.

If you don't qualify for the full credit, you shouldn't be buying such an expensive toy. Really who doesn't pay at least that in taxes and then goes out to buy a $30K car???

How about someone who is retired and paid cash (from savings) for his or her new Leaf? My elderly father last year had less than half of that $7500 in total Federal tax liability, but can easily afford to buy a Leaf cash. I know this, because I help him with his taxes every year.

BTW $30k is hardly high-end car money nowadays. A base model Accord Hybrid (non plug in) is barely below that, and you can easily exceed that threshold in buying a fully loaded Camry. According to a USA Today article, the average new car price paid by Americans during 2015 was around $33,500: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/05/04/new-car-transaction-price-3-kbb-kelley-blue-book/26690191/
 
2k1Toaster said:
RonDawg said:
$29,010 minus the $7500 Federal tax credit is how the EPA came up with the $21,510 figure. However, not all buyers qualify for the full credit, so nobody should be quoting that up front.

If you don't qualify for the full credit, you shouldn't be buying such an expensive toy. Really who doesn't pay at least that in taxes and then goes out to buy a $30K car???

ME! That's who. Blissfully retired and saved well while working. Full disclosure, Being married with a wife who also collects a pension we are in the 15% tax bracket and WE barely qualify for full $7,500 tax credit by filing a joint return. I would not qualify for the tax credit if I filed single or separate.

In the last 15 months We bought 4 brand new cars, all cash. Actually we took out loans on all 4 cars to get maximum rebates and paid the loans off before the first payment was due.

Leaf is NOT an expensive car. In fact the 2015 leaf SL was the least expensive one we bought. Last year I bought a 2014 Ford Lariat 4x4 that had an MSRP of $57,000 which I traded in 12 months later on a $60,000 2015 Lexus RX450h Hybrid. Our current Garage houses the RX450h Hybrid and our Leaf. These are 2 great cars and they complement each other.
 
2k1Toaster said:
If you don't qualify for the full credit, you shouldn't be buying such an expensive toy. Really who doesn't pay at least that in taxes and then goes out to buy a $30K car???
Add me to the list of those who purchased the car using savings, not income. I managed to retire at age 45 many years ago, so being thrifty allowed me to pay for my "expensive toy" while living quite comfortably on a tiny income, all of it from from savings and investments.

You might want to get off that high horse and consider that others have a different way of doing things and don't need high paychecks to get by.
 
We are also retired and paid off our debts a few years ago so we don't need that high income some do. Like the others, we don't have the income to use the $7500 tax credit directly so we leased for the very first time. With our income, the Leaf fits into the budget and generates savings we can use for traveling without digging further into our savings and investments.

Maybe folks shouldn't buy a Leaf if they still have debt? Its not a great idea to use a great credit score to dig yourself a bigger hole. :roll:
 
The subject of who 'qualifies' for the Fed Tax Credit has been debated a LOT on MNL over the years; each case is different as to if one could 'afford' a LEAF or not; remember in the earliest days, these weren't being discounted at all so many early adopters started out paying full MSRP. Just like the 'average' new car going for around $33,500 now, the 'average' Fed Tax being paid was $8,548.49 (in '13) so the 'average' person could actually take advantage --- who does this describe; someone probably making a bit less than $75K per year but more than $50K (between about $50K and $75K would probably have paid at least the $7,500 in Fed Taxes; see one reference below):

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...e-american-pays-this-much-in-income-taxe.aspx

Other factors in play would also differ by state; here in IL they offered a 10% of MSRP (up to $4K) cash rebate but ONLY on purchased cars and ONLY through IL based dealers so leases were out; their rebate is no longer offered now but was for most of the earliest adopters (Nissan chose not to sell the LEAF here without the cold weather package so most of the oldest ones are going on 4 years, not 5).

So in my own case, that means a $37,250 '12 SL; less a $9K trade-in (an '06 Mazda3 GT at the time), less the $7,500 Fed Tax Credit and then less a $3,725 IL EV rebate or around $17K excluding taxes and tags (cash deal as well); not everyone is the same but this worked best for me.
 
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