Looking at the 2014 Leaf SV

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

WhyNotEV

Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2017
Messages
12
Hello,

I am shopping for a used Leaf in Vancouver, Canada. Several dealerships here import lease returns from the US and "sort of" pass on the more or less reasonable prices to us Canadians.
The car I am considering at the moment seems alright - 2014 Leaf SV Premium with around 27K miles and 12 bars. Took it out for a brief test drive and it's as fun as any other Leaf.
I am extremely partial to light interiors and they seem to be hard to come by, so I'm not ticked off by the price (CAD$19,000.00 all in).
I do have a couple of concerns though:
1. The tires on this car are completely bald (Bridgestone Ecopia if I remember correctly) - how is it possible with such low mileage, or have the tires been swapped before the car was put up for sale here? The dealer doesn't know and offered to sell me new tires at their cost.
This brings me to a second concern:
2. If the tires have been swapped, what else could have been done to this car along the way - BMS reset? Anything else I should pay attention to?

I looked under the hood to check for leaks (one of the cars I looked at before seemed to have a small coolant leak, and the price wasn't right, so I passed on that one) - none to be found. Everything else seems peachy.

So, what do you think? Should I scrutinize further and do the whole LeafSpy dance and the 25% depletion road test to figure out if BMS had been messed with?

Thanks!
 
Re: tires, see my reply at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=501944#p501944. What you're seeing isn't implausible on the stock tires.
 
cwerdna said:
Re: tires, see my reply at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=501944#p501944. What you're seeing isn't implausible on the stock tires.
Thanks, that eases my worry a little bit.


Also, I forgot to mention that the brake pad wear on the Leaf I'm considering is about 60-70% on front, and 50-60% on rear (although may be the other way around, my salesman can't remember). Is this too much wear for this car? I can't imagine anyone swapping brake pads though lol.
 
It's up to you of course, but I saved over $5000 by importing my Leaf from the US rather than buying from Westwood Honda. Battery warranty is valid if you import, costs to import are minimal. The savings aren't as good as they used to be, despite the rising $CA, but still worthwhile. Having said that, if you are taking advantage of the ScrapIt program, then it's not really worth importing.

Here are a few Leafs in inventory at Edmonds Nissan in WA for your reference:

http://www.campbellnissanofedmonds.com/used-cars/detail/Used-2014-Nissan-LEAF-4dr-HB-SL-w-Quick-Charge/965/1N4AZ0CP9EC340763

http://www.campbellnissanofedmonds.com/used-cars/detail/Used-2014-Nissan-LEAF-4dr-HB-SL-w-Premium-Package/965/1N4AZ0CP5EC333843

http://www.campbellnissanofedmonds.com/used-cars/detail/Used-2014-Nissan-LEAF-4dr-HB-SV-w-Quick-Charge/965/1N4AZ0CP7EC339837

http://www.campbellnissanofedmonds.com/used-cars/detail/Used-2015-Nissan-LEAF-4dr-HB-SV-w-Premium-and-Quick-Charge/965/1N4AZ0CP3FC305881

Note that the SL Premium doesn't have a white interior - it's leather. Also, it doesn't have QC.

I purchased my Leaf from Paramount Motors NW as Edmonds Nissan is kind of pricey. Unfortunately, it seems that Paramount Motors is going away from selling Leafs, as they only have two remaining in stock and haven't brought in any new ones for quite awhile. I think they focus mostly on luxury EVs.

To get a good sense of the potential savings, have a look here:

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/cars+under+13000/Nissan/Leaf/Bellingham+WA-98225?zip=98225&startYear=2013&numRecords=25&sortBy=derivedpriceASC&maxPrice=13000&firstRecord=0&endYear=2015&modelCodeList=LEAF&makeCodeList=NISSAN&searchRadius=100&trimCodeList=LEAF%7CSV

There's so much more inventory in WA and therefore more leverage for you as a buyer to find a good deal.
 
These two looks perfect for you:

https://goo.gl/iYmQNU (2013 Nissan Leaf SV, white interior, LED + QC package)

https://goo.gl/BnNiqz (2014 Nissan Leaf SV, white interior, LED + QC package, Premium package)

Here are the respective original sales stickers:

http://cpo.nissanusa.com/nna/?1N4AZ0CP2DC413390

http://cpo.nissanusa.com/nna/?1N4AZ0CP4EC340220

Both have QC, which is super nice for longer trips (free L3 at Empire stadium, Squamish, Whistler to name a few - charge to 80% in under 30 mins), and both spent their lives in Washington - super important for battery health.
 
Thanks, alozzy, will think about importing myself. I'd, of course, like to expend the minimum effort and still get exactly what I want, haha.
 
Bald tires and especially worn brake pads on a Leaf sure sound like the previous owner was a speed demon who both cornered quite fast and didn't plan ahead for stop lights. Now if the battery was degraded a few bars it might explain the pads being worn as a degraded battery has much less regen than a good battery. Personally, I'd avoid that Leaf and look for one that wasn't driven like you stole it :lol:
 
Back
Top