Fun 'adventure' ends in success

Following everyone's advice I ran down to North End Motors on Thursday, signed the docs, and paid for my new Leaf! They deal with registration, so I went back to work to wait for everything to get processed. Meanwhile my Leaf hung out in the lot attached to their L2 charger.

Around 4 I got a call asking me to show up at 7pm. "Sure thing," I said. I got a Lyft down and we went out to the car. I brought a new battery for the fob since I knew they wouldn't change it as promised. We swapped it in and the car recognized it from more than 1 inch away from the dash, so I was satisfied that all was well.

We hopped in and ... 20% charge - 18 miles range. "Uhhh...." The salesman unplugged and replugged it, and all 3 charge LEDs flashed along with a beep in a 3-pulse sequence. I didn't know what it meant so I figured it was charging. We waited 5 minutes and then checked the charge again. No change. I looked in the manual and found that it indicated that the connector wasn't hooked up correctly. It wasn't rocket science, though... I tried unhooking and reconnecting and got the same result. I found a post here that said it was probably because of the button on their connector.

Well, either the charger was broken or the car was. We pulled around to the maintenance bay and plugged in the L1 charger - success. The single charging LED started its slow blink.

We decided we'd let it charge overnight and they'd drive it to my house in the morning, so my salesman drove me home. This morning my Leaf showed up at 11am with 40 miles remaining (dealer's 22 highway miles away). I drove it back to work, then came back home later on and brought my wife to a doctor's appointment, picked up a prescription on the way to bring her back home, and headed back to work. That was enough driving to confirm that I'd made a great decision. Not only do I feel better that I'm driving an electric, but the ride is just so pleasant - so quiet and smooth. And I know nice driving cars - I have a Boxster Spyder, too. But for the right kind of driving the Leaf is absolutely the perfect choice. I can't wait to start my new job with its longer commute now!

If I were you I would avoid that dealership in the future. Additionally, I'd lodge a formal complaint with Nissan North America about your experience with them.
What did you buy? And for how much?
I have a feeling that you may not have shopped around.
Good luck.

I thought it went smoothly - the connector had just gotten damaged a couple days before when they tried to disconnect it from a different Leaf on their lot with ice on the button. (I saw them try to disconnect it when I first visited my car on Saturday)

I'm very pleased with the purchase - this is a used car dealer that buys lots of cars at auction and deals with a fair number of Leafs.

Mine is a 2015 just off a 2 year lease with 12,000 miles and a near-new battery. I picked it up for $10500 before tax/fees. I feel like I got a great deal - it's a like-new car for half the price!

Congrats! That's a good looking Leaf! And that sounds like a good price, too.

The charge light sequence you describe means the car has a charge timer set, and it isn't the time it was set to charge during. I suggest you go in and deactivate all charge timers. Failing that, make a habit of pushing the Timer Override button on the left side button panel when you plug in to charge. It has a picture of a clock on it, and the word "Off" if I remember correctly.

LeftieBiker said:

The charge light sequence you describe means the car has a charge timer set, and it isn't the time it was set to charge during. I suggest you go in and deactivate all charge times. Failing that, make a habit of pushing the Timer Override button on the left side button panel when you plug in to charge. It has a picture of a clock on it, and the word "Off" if I remember correctly.

Click to expand...

Leftie is correct. Your Leaf has a charging timer set.
Easily fixed when you read the manual.

It wasn't the charge timer - I left out that the reason I had to pick it up so late was that the salesman noticed it hadn't charged and he said that it had been on the timer after the detailers finished with it and plugged it back in. We tried cancelling the timer, but to no avail. Then by process of elimination we determined it was the plug because the other car also wouldn't charge on it, and my car DID charge on its L1 charger a minute later.

I may not have described what it was doing clearly. It was exhibiting the behavior on CH-28:

"When the normal charge connector is connected incorrectly

All of the indicator lights, 1 to 3, will flash and beep will sound three times within 30 seconds when the charge connector is connected incorrectly to the normal charge port."

The thread I found that suggested it could be the button was: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=15573