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BrainDonor said:
Hello everyone. I just caught up with reading this thread since I have not been monitoring it for a few months. Yesterday was an eventful day - the LEAF turned over 40K miles and we also lost the 4th bar! For reference, the 3rd bar was lost in May at 34.5K miles. I have the LEAF Stat app and the battery health section shows a SOH of 65.25% capacity and 43.23 Ahr.

The lease expires at the end of November and we'll have about 5K in miles overage, which translates to a $750 penalty. I'm also looking at about $400 to fix a dent in the back and will need to get at least 2 new tires in the front. Then there's the $300 early termination fee. So it will probably cost us $750+$400+$250+$300=$1,700 at lease end.

I have not checked with the dealer yet to see what our options are. I'd prefer to lease a MY2015 with (much) lower monthly payments. However, due to the extra costs at the end of our lease, I'm beginning to think whether it would be worth buying the current LEAF if Nissan replaces the battery with the more heat resistant ones.

Any thoughts before I contact the dealer?
I've been looking into this. If you buy or lease another Nissan they will waive the lease termination fee and up to $500 of "excess" wear. I'm considering taking advantage of this in the hopes the $500 will cover the tires that are getting thin. Note that the lease termination fee (can't remember if it is $300 or $395) applies at the end of the lease too, it isn't an "early termination" fee. They confirmed as long as you make the remaining payments you can turn the car in early. You can get the inspection now, that will tell you how much they plan to ding you for on the condition, then have about 60 days after you return the lease or buy another one. Of course most people can't live without a car, or at least think they can't, so they will want to get the new one at the time they turn the old one in.

I think the overall best play from a financial standpoint is to buy a new Sentra in the Orlando area. That gets you out of the lease obligations and into a cheap car that you can drive as far as you want, spill coffee on the seats, drive on bald tires and bang into shopping carts to your heart's content. Payments on that would be about $380/mo for three years and you own it.

Another option is it buy another leaf. Buying a 2015 base model with the incentives looks like about $680/mo, then factor out about $200/mo for the federal tax credit, leaves you at $480/mo, similar to what we were paying, but at the end of three years you own it, rather than having to start all over again and having to put new tires on a car you are giving back to Nissan.

So buying a Sentra or buying a Leaf works out about the same for the first three years, the extra $100/mo on the Leaf is about what the Sentra would cost in gas over electric. If the new lizard battery holds enough capacity to keep doing what you need for a few years after the $100 or so monthly gas savings could move you into the win column. Costly mystery repairs on the Leaf become the wild card then.

Leasing a leaf again looks the cheapest per month thing to do in the short run. If you can negotiate the loyalty cash and VPP or whatever to cover the down payment and inception nonsense, maybe get into another one for around $200/mo, but this prolongs the indentured servitude to Nissan with everything that comes with leasing.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
On a purchase should sales tax be computed on the amount before or after the $3500 NMAC cash and $1000 LEAF loyalty is deducted?
the answer still is the tax shouldn't be computed until AFTER you agree upon a FINAL price
 
FL Senate Bill 864, filed by FL Senator Darren Soto, D-Orlando on 2/12/15, would exempt electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles from the FL sales tax effective July 1, 2015. Suggest the people on this forum start tracking and making others aware of the bill. That would be amazing if it passed and was signed into law.

Here's the link to the bill:
http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2015/0864/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's the applicable language:
Electric and hydrogen vehicles.—The sale of an electric vehicle or a hydrogen vehicle is exempt from the tax imposed by this chapter. As used in this paragraph, the term “electric vehicle” means a motor vehicle that is powered solely by electricity produced by rechargeable storage batteries, and the term “hydrogen vehicle” means a motor vehicle that is powered solely by hydrogen used in a fuel cell or an internal combustion engine. This paragraph expires June 30, 2020.

Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2015


Email Sen. Soto thanking him and offering support for SB864 by clicking this link and selecting the Email this Senator button on the left.
http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Too bad it only applies to exclusively battery-powered cars. Excludes the Volt from the mix.

The LEAF is a terrible choice, given the rapid battery degradation, but I'm sure wealthy Tesla buyers would love the tax break.

Perhaps it might help Bolt sales, if GM decides to sell the car in Florida.
 
My Battery Capacity finally dropped to 8 bars after 34 months and 25K miles. My commute is 25 miles round trip so I waited over a month before taking it to the dealer. Bill Siedle Nissan swapped my battery pack with a brand new battery pack for Zero dollars out of my pocket. They gave me a Nissan Versa as a free loaner while my LEAF was in the shop.

It was Bill Siedles first battery swap so of course it took longer than expected. They sent the battery report to Nissan the very first day but it took a couple of weeks for Nissan to approve the battery swap and ship the new pack to the dealer.

The dealer also had to order a bracket to make the 2015 battery pack fit into a 2012 LEAF. I had read about how this bracket had to be ordered separately but I forgot about it by the time I dropped off my car.

It took over a week after the batteries were installed for my car to communicate with the new battery pack. This was right around Christmas and New Years so all the Nissan techs who knew how to fix this problem were on vacation!

I got my LEAF back exactly one month after dropping it off :roll:. My LEAFDD meter showed 100.16% Health and 276 GIDS after my first full charge. It has now been over a month on my new batteries and Health has dropped to 94.90% but I still get 278~274 Max GIDS. I am charging to 100% just like on the old pack but this time I charge up the batteries every night.

Thank you Nissan. It feels great to be back to full capacity. The car still drives like new after 3 years :D .

Although I never had an issue with the LEAF range to begin with, I do hope the next LEAF delivers on the 200+ miles promise.
 
I spoke to JupiterLeaf a couple weeks ago, and his battery had just dropped to 8 bars that weekend. His lease runs out in March, so he was unsure what he wanted to do about it. He would like to hold out for a 2016 Volt. IIRC, they gave him a buyout of $11,000, so I suggested that he insist they install a new pack now, buy the car for $11,000, and then sell it with the new pack when he is ready to buy a Volt later. My thinking is that he may actually make money, since it will have a brand new 2015 Lizard battery pack.
My pack is now at 75% with 33,000 miles, so I have quite a way to go yet. I'm trying to drive it at every opportunity, instead of falling back on the ultra-reliable Prius, but I have to charge to 100% almost every day now.
 
Yes, my Leaf's battery capacity dropped to 8 bars around January 28th at approximately 31,250 miles. I knew capacity was declining because I had been having increasing trouble for several months making the 52 miles round-trip from home to work, often using US 1 instead of I-95 (slower speed), opening a window instead of enjoying the AC, and occasionally recharging briefly at Wallace Nissan in Stuart. Nevertheless, 8 bars was quite a shock because the gauge still showed 9 bars when I had the car inspected and serviced just a week before.

My initial reaction was to merely return the car when my lease expires on March 8th and continue looking for an alternative EV to lease for the next 2-3 years, even though Nissan had sent me an offer to reduce the lease-end-buyout by $5,000. However, Keydiver happened to call January 30th and ask about my Leaf's battery capacity because we were the #1 and #2 Leafs sold or leased by Wallace Nissan in December, 2011, and he knew about my daily I-95 commute. He reminded me about the Nissan warranty replacement program for main battery assemblies showing less than 9 bars capacity.

The following Monday, I called Wallace Nissan and asserted a warranty claim. On February 9th, I took the car in to be tested. A half-day of tests and telephone calls between the dealer and Nissan corporate confirmed the situation and my entitlement to a replacement main battery assembly. I also met with a salesperson who discovered when she called NMAC to confirm the lease-end-buyout reduction offer that the amount had been increased on February 1st to $6,000!

Two days ago, I left my Leaf at Wallace Nissan and was given a loaner to use. Today, I had my car returned to me with a new main battery assembly installed at no cost to me whatsoever. It was beautiful seeing 12 bars of capacity and over 100 miles estimated range again. I did see the replacement battery assembly before installation and it looked new, so I believe that I've gotten the 2015 "lizard" battery assembly and not a refurbished older model. Wallace Nissan tried to confirm that would be what they'd receive to install, but said they were unable to get anyone to assure them it would be "new."

My compliments to Joe Dayton, Service Manager for Wallace Nissan, for his efforts throughout this process. This was their first replacement, so I don't begrudge them taking 3 days to be sure they did it right. He was cordial and informative at all times. He definitely helped make the whole experience be as painless as possible.

And finally, tomorrow I will accept Nissan's latest lease-end-buyout offer and purchase my Leaf. As Spike09 said about his Leaf a week ago, "the car still drives like new after 3 years." With the new tires I had installed 8 months ago (Ecopias again, from Costco) and the recent detailing I had done to prepare for the end-of-lease inspection (which never happened), the car almost feels new again, too.
 
JupiterLEAF said:
Yes, my Leaf's battery capacity dropped to 8 bars around January 28th at approximately 31,250 miles. I knew capacity was declining because I had been having increasing trouble for several months making the 52 miles round-trip from home to work, often using US 1 instead of I-95 (slower speed), opening a window instead of enjoying the AC, and occasionally recharging briefly at Wallace Nissan in Stuart. Nevertheless, 8 bars was quite a shock because the gauge still showed 9 bars when I had the car inspected and serviced just a week before.

My initial reaction was to merely return the car when my lease expires on March 8th and continue looking for an alternative EV to lease for the next 2-3 years, even though Nissan had sent me an offer to reduce the lease-end-buyout by $5,000. However, Keydiver happened to call January 30th and ask about my Leaf's battery capacity because we were the #1 and #2 Leafs sold or leased by Wallace Nissan in December, 2011, and he knew about my daily I-95 commute. He reminded me about the Nissan warranty replacement program for main battery assemblies showing less than 9 bars capacity.

The following Monday, I called Wallace Nissan and asserted a warranty claim. On February 9th, I took the car in to be tested. A half-day of tests and telephone calls between the dealer and Nissan corporate confirmed the situation and my entitlement to a replacement main battery assembly. I also met with a salesperson who discovered when she called NMAC to confirm the lease-end-buyout reduction offer that the amount had been increased on February 1st to $6,000!

Two days ago, I left my Leaf at Wallace Nissan and was given a loaner to use. Today, I had my car returned to me with a new main battery assembly installed at no cost to me whatsoever. It was beautiful seeing 12 bars of capacity and over 100 miles estimated range again. I did see the replacement battery assembly before installation and it looked new, so I believe that I've gotten the 2015 "lizard" battery assembly and not a refurbished older model. Wallace Nissan tried to confirm that would be what they'd receive to install, but said they were unable to get anyone to assure them it would be "new."

My compliments to Joe Dayton, Service Manager for Wallace Nissan, for his efforts throughout this process. This was their first replacement, so I don't begrudge them taking 3 days to be sure they did it right. He was cordial and informative at all times. He definitely helped make the whole experience be as painless as possible.

And finally, tomorrow I will accept Nissan's latest lease-end-buyout offer and purchase my Leaf. As Spike09 said about his Leaf a week ago, "the car still drives like new after 3 years." With the new tires I had installed 8 months ago (Ecopias again, from Costco) and the recent detailing I had done to prepare for the end-of-lease inspection (which never happened), the car almost feels new again, too.
Does your service invoice include the bracket needed to fit a 2015 battery into a 2012 Leaf?
 
Spike09, yes, it does. Keydiver's call led me to do some research on the Nissan warranty, through which I learned about the need for the special bracket package to retrofit a 2012 Leaf for a 2015 main battery assembly. Service Manager Joe Dayton and I spoke often about it, to be sure the whole replacement process wasn't delayed by that.
 
I'm glad to hear that you went through with the battery replacement! I'm glad that you have now plowed the way with Joe for me, as he told me that he hadn't done any battery replacements yet. But, what does your wife now think of the Leaf, and what are your longterm plans for it? :)
I still have one more hot summer to deal with the degradation. 8 bars can't come fast enough for me. :(
 
My wife thinks the Leaf is great --- for me on a daily basis and for both of us when I'm driving. However, she really dislikes it when we have to swap so I can use her ICE vehicle (a Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, which admittedly is also fun to drive).

We both think I got a good deal overall. I plan to keep the 2012 for a couple of years while monitoring EV developments like the Volt 2.0, the Bolt, an extended range LEAF, and whatever Tesla eventually manufactures to sell for less than $80k.
 
So, the buyout ended up at only $10,000? :shock: Have you ever totaled up your lease payments + down payment? I probably don't even want to think about how it compares to my cash purchase. Even after the $7500 tax credit, after 3 years my car has depreciated $24,500. :cry: It looks like leasing was the smart choice. Its nice to know though that I'll still see your Leaf around Jupiter for quite a while. :)
 
I am going to post this here instead of making a new thread, hopefully I get some good responses.

I am seriously considering getting an EV by the end of this year. The Leaf is one vehicle I am considering. It will be a lease and I drive about 6K miles/year.

How does the Leaf hold up in the heat of a south Florida summer? How well does the AC work?

Thanks!
 
shappy said:
How does the Leaf hold up in the heat of a south Florida summer? How well does the AC work?

Thanks!

The original batteries (from model years 2011 through 2014) degrade extremely fast in the heat. Easily a 20% loss in capacity within the first two years with many batteries reaching end-of-life (more than 30% loss) by the end of the third year.

It has yet to be confirmed whether the 2015 and later model batteries represent much improvement.

The AC performs very well.
 
Weatherman said:
shappy said:
How does the Leaf hold up in the heat of a south Florida summer? How well does the AC work?

Thanks!

The original batteries (from model years 2011 through 2014) degrade extremely fast in the heat. Easily a 20% loss in capacity within the first two years with many batteries reaching end-of-life (more than 30% loss) by the end of the third year.

It has yet to be confirmed whether the 2015 and later model batteries represent much improvement.

The AC performs very well.

Had my 2013 Leaf SL for 2 years and haven't lost a bar yet. Charge it to 100% every day, drive it daily, and enjoy level 3 charging when it is working. Find it to be an excellent car for FL do to how flat it is here. AC work great and like how you can turn it on before you get to the car. Charging point have expanded nicely for when you need a little more charge during the day. But really I find I don't use it much. Been charging at home from a regular wall socket.
 
I went and had a great time. Got to sit in an i8, meet a few drivers, see the cars up close and of course catch glimpse of the race. Wasn't perfect though there were only 2 narrow bridges to get across the track with huge lines to use them. At times they opened ground track crossings but in general it was a pain getting across the track for no reason. Just a few more bridges or a way to walk from the front to the fan area would have made it perfect. There inexperience putting on events like this really showed with crowd flow. That and a little too much sun were then only issues for me and my son.

Would have also been nice also to see a few more big screens or at least some boards giving the current standings. After the car change it was impossible to tell who was in what position. Anyway hope they do it next year. Was fun driving our Leaf to see Formula E. Five years ago if you said that i was going to drive an electric car to an electric car race, I would have looked at you a little strange.
 
Hello,

I recently bought a 2012 leaf with 27k miles, I was wondering if any of you (Miami area owners) were approved for the HOV decal, if so what are the benefits? Having in consideration that most of the HOV lanes are becoming "sunpass express lanes"

Thank you
 
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