The battery replacement/buyback thread.

[Deleted member 37366]

How in the world did you do that ?

As for you accounting of how much you think Nissan should pay, well, you do you. But FWIW it doesn't make sense to me.

Cost of the charging station + installation + some things the electrician needed to do to bring my house up to code. I guess the bigger issue is that I was not interested in a buyback offer at all, nor did I even realize that a buyback was still a possibility. I was just calling to try to get information about whether 40 kWh batteries were still produced.

Neither does buying a car that has a known problem, and than complaining about the problem.

Please understand: when I opened my first case in October, I was not complaining. I simply wanted some information regarding how my case might be resolved. The information they gave me was apparently wrong, and I invested more money into the car based on that information. Then Nissan did a complete reversal and I somehow got involved in a buyback process that I didn't even want to be a part of. That is what I'm upset about. The only reason I even brought up my first case to the current arbitration specialist is because I was explaining why I was rejecting her offer, which I wasn't even interested in in the first place.

It seams to me, you expected to buy very cheap, have Nissan put a new battery in and get an almost new car for close to nothing.

Well, yes. I did expect that they would honor their warranty. I don't think that this is unreasonable.

Great if it works out, nothing wrong with that, but you took a big gamble and lost.
The previous owner, wasn't willing to wait, and it seam neither are you. The big difference is they bought the car without the known problem, you did not.

Again, I have absolutely no problem with waiting. In fact, that is what I prefer to do. That is perfectly fine with me. I am just frustrated with how poor Nissan's communication has been with this matter, and that it took three cases to get any sort of answer to my question beyond just "trust the dealership."

Nissan is willing to cover your loss on the car, and kick in $1000 for the wall unit, but not for rewiring your house. For someone who took a big gamble and lost, you still could make out well if you take their last offer. It seams to me you are set on gambling again that by refusing their offer, they will sweeten it more. Your track record on gambling with this car isn't good, and I wouldn't take that bet.

I mean, we'll see what happens. Your assumption that I am set on gambling for a higher offer is wrong. I definitely do not expect that I will get a better offer in the future. If anything it will probably be lower since Nissan might take off more money for usage. But if there is a possibility that I might eventually receive a new battery, I would prefer to continue waiting. I don't mind at all continuing to wait. My frustration is with Nissan's inability to make up their mind about whether or not I might receive a battery.

 

[cornbinder89]

You didn't communicate that clearly in your previous post. By all means if you willing to wait it out for a new battery, then more power to your wheel, as they say.
Be advised, though that they may not be able to provide you one. The reasons for the buy-back is because they can't provide them in a reasonable time frame.
I think your three choices are 1) wait however long it take to get a battery or 2) take their last buy back offer and move on, or 3) invest in a battery you pay for.
I can see that 3 is a non starter for you.

 

[SageBrush]

I was just calling to try to get information about whether 40 kWh batteries were still produced.

As a prelude to buying a car with a defective battery.
Come on guy, we know the game

Well, yes. I did expect that they would honor their warranty.

The warranty is not what you think

Cost of the charging station + installation + some things the electrician needed to do to bring my house up to code.

You paid for a service upgrade, didn't you ? Slick salesman, your electrician

 

[derbartman]

I took my 2017 into the dealer today for the regular check up and wanted to ping them about all this warranty stuff esp since we have dropped from 12 to 9 bars in our 2 years or so. The service tech I had was very helpful. They gave me 5 stars for each of my battery usage things (I guess like L3 charging, charging when already high, and using lots of juice and driving hard?). At the end I asked about the 8 bar warranty since I was at 9 - he was very upfront and open about all the info. He said if I dropped to 8 I just had to give them a call - they would do paperwork and pictures and lock in the time. I confirmed with him my official end of warranty being well into 2025. He agreed that there were no 30kwh batteries and that I would get a 40kwh if I hit the 8 bars 'in time'. I asked about supply and he agreed it was bad - they have a waiting list of ~15 people and some have been waiting more than a year. He also mentioned the buy back thing. All that pretty much just confirmed what I have read but showed they were not going to be weird about any of it. Lastly he said they are expecting some sort of change in supply soon - maybe a boat with some chunk - he said something about nissan making reman batteries - IDK but he implied some breaking news/availability might be soon. This leads me to imagine that if nissan isnt going 100% buy back then they very well could have a new 40kwh source/supply by next year and maybe this wont be a long wait for me ( assuming I hit 8 bars)

Does anyone know the algo for the bars? I have leaf spy - be interesting to know how close or far I am from 8..

 

[wrldsgrtstmiracle]

I can see why you’d say that. Several things to clarify:

1. I never mentioned paying an extra penny. I think most used cars are certified pre-owned, at least those from dealerships.

2. I didn’t buy any extended warranty and if you have to, that sounds like a rip off, but necessary. Large purchases need some type of security against time. In consideration to the total cost of the car, a few more dollars to save on a lot of headache, makes sense. At any rate, the warranty I have was automatically added to my vehicle, and I think it is the default manufacturer’s warranty. All this said, I’m not sure if they did charge me, but a quick google search confirms it’s free.


I wouldn’t go as far to say don’t get a certified pre-owned vehicle , especially if you need a car and it’s one of the only things available. Bad example. Even if it weren’t, there is nothing inherently wrong with certified pre-owned. I think the dealerships we work with are a majority of the time scum, but not everyone working within them are. Some will sell you cars that thankfully are a lot better maintained than mine was seemingly not, and actually certified!

Truth be told, some of this falls on me. It was my first car and first car buying experience. I did a rudimentary look around and accepted their paperwork and servicing records. If I brought a mechanic or at least brought an ODB, understood it a bit better, and took the various warning signs of the dealer being a nightmare (a lot of pressure to sign, not wanting me to work with my credit union, bluffing saying there were other buyers when it sat for 6 months, showing me battery health in black and white and not bothering to bring a tech in to explain, etc.). These are the red flags to lookout for and looking back they knew were pushing something garbage on me

So again, to anyone reading in the future, feel free to get a certified pre-owned vehicle. Just make sure to get the warranty and extend it if possible. This is true for any vehicle.

Update:

I initially got rejected for the buyback Dec 18th 2023. The rep was a complete ass. He lied about calling me, emailing me, and being in contact with the dealer several times. I know because I remained in close contact with the dealer the entire step of the way. I actually had the dealer send an email to him with me CC’d calling him on his bullshit. He didn’t respond so I called corporate to complain and he FINALLY actually called me to say he was rejecting my claim.

I called Nissan afterwards and complained about his poor behavior and what I went through and asked to speak with a higher up and report him. On Dec 21st received an email from that higher up saying she’d re-open my case. We spoke about what was going on and she said she’d get back to me the 27th.

She called the 28th and I sent her my purchase agreement, original mileage statement, and the battery statement I received when the car was purchased. She said she’d get back to me.

Jan 2nd I got an email in which Nissan offered me $2000:
“
NNA Arbitration Department does not have an Extended Warranty that would run longer than the vehicle’s current EV warranty. NNA is in the position to offer $2,000.00 in monetary compensation for inconvenience due to the vehicle’s days down for service/repairs. A s we discussed, this check would be payable and sent to the registered owner.

Please let me know if you accept this offer. If not, please provide a counter offer.
“

So I replied
“
I appreciate NNA’s offer of $2,000.00 in compensation. However, after speaking with the service department at *local dealership*, I understand that the required part for my vehicle will take an additional 5-7 months to arrive, followed by potentially a month for installation. This means that, in total, my car would have been unavailable for approximately 9-10 months since it was towed to the service shop in November 2023.

Given the significant duration of this service period, the initial offer does not fully compensate for the inconvenience and the financial impact of being without a vehicle for nearly a year, including ongoing insurance and car loan payments.

Therefore, I propose two alternative solutions for your consideration:

1. Nissan repurchases the vehicle for the original purchase price of $28,500 USD. This figure takes into account the extended period of unavailability and includes the down payment of $1,500. Nissan would thereafter retain the vehicle.

2. Alternatively, a compensation of $19,500 to pay off the remainder of the car loan, after which Nissan would still be able to retain the vehicle.

I believe these options provide a fair resolution, reflecting both the inconvenience and financial burden I have experienced due to the extended service period. I am open to further discussion on these proposals to reach a mutually agreeable solution.
“

I didn’t hear back until yesterday. I got an email saying they reconsidered everything and are willing to extend me the repurchase. I got a call today during which they said they’d offer me up to the purchase price (meaning all my past monthly payments would be included). The rep said they’d need a week to go over numbers and get the sale info and etc and I’d get a real number sometime next week!

Never take no for an answer and just keep calling

 

[Nords]

Aaaaaand... we’re done with the warranty buyback of our 2017 Nissan Leaf.

Morley’s representative signed over the car and gave us a cashier’s check for $12,949.95.

But it wasn’t that easy.

This post is an update on my 11 December post back here:
https://mynissanleaf.com/threads/the-battery-replacement-buyback-thread.34237/page-15#post-637498
When we arrived at our local Nissan dealer for our 9 AM appointment (just before 9 AM), one of the service reps recognized me. (We get along great, but this recognition indicates that you’re spending too much time at the dealer.) He asked how we were doing and we explained why we were there. Nissan’s service department doesn’t handle the buybacks, but 10 minutes later they’d finally located the Morley rep.

Morley (a third-party contractor to Nissan North America) doesn’t actually have a Morley employee on Oahu. I guess that means they’ve hired a fourth-party contractor? She greeted us and then grumped about having to drive 45 minutes from her Waimanalo home to our local Nissan dealer to do 1-2 buyback appointments per day. I was not feeling the empathy.

She wanted to review the process. However the dealer is rebuilding the showroom, and their construction noise was unbearable. The Morley rep tried to talk over the noise, and I’m hard of hearing. I finally stopped her and asked her to finish the conversation at our car (at the other end of the lot). We walked, she talked, and we finished her review.

We handed over the key fobs and she started her checklist. She confirmed that we’d included the 120v L1 charging cable, the owner’s manuals, and both key fobs. She operated the entire dashboard and all of the doors. When she saw the dented fender, she immediately said “Does Nissan know about this? Oh, I don’t think we can complete this buyback today.”

I interpreted this as a negotiating tactic (as well as possibly slandering our integrity) and I got emphatically grumpy myself. We’d spent two months getting to this meetup. We’d shown all of the photos to Nissan’s Warranty team as requested, and they’d deducted $1472.80 in their buyback offer for “Usage.” We knew that the photos had been turned over to Morley because they asked for an extra image. Yet after this bureaucracy, it was clear that the Morley rep still felt uncomfortable with the buyback.

We wasted another 30 minutes in the noisy parking lot while she took more photos with her phone and called Morley for approval. (It was Friday afternoon on the east coast.) Maybe Morley called Nissan, too, but they finally called her back. She was reassured that she’d done her due diligence and she could hand over the check.

We completed the transaction by giving a power of attorney to Nissan to handle the title. (Presumably they’ll decide whether to demolish the car to cannibalize the battery cells, or to re-issue a salvage title, or to resell it overseas in “as is” condition.) She made a copy of our driver’s licenses.

When she handed over the cashier’s check, it had been printed by Nissan North America-- on 19 December, an entire month ago. Of course Nissan understood that the Leaf had a damaged fender, but that detail never got down to the person who was supposed to hand over the check.

15 minutes later we deposited the check at our credit union and canceled the car’s insurance.

I also e-mailed the Better Business Bureau that we’d completed the warranty buyback and were ready to close our consumer complaint.

I went back through my records. The car first dropped its battery capacity to eight bars in November 2022. We filed the warranty claim on 8 December 2022. Nissan handed out the claim number yet never gave the dealer any updates during the next 11 months. We filed our consumer complaint with Nissan (and the BBB) on 15 November 2023 and received the buyback check on 19 January 2024.

 

[ebeighe]

Buyback completed.
Here's a synopsis: 2017 Leaf S dropped it's fourth bar Sept 2023. Took to dealer and got warrantee approved (it took them -- the dealer, not Nissan -- 3 days, which was an annoyance).
Called Nissan Consumer right away and got a case assigned.
They (humorously?) told me on Oct 9, 2023 that a new(?or whatever) battery would be available Feb 24, 2024.
Called Nissan in Late Nov and suggested that they should probably offer me a buyback.
Within a day or two i had a letter of intent to buy back, and requested the usual documentation (bill of sale, pictures, etc).
In less than two weeks i had an offer. I made one counterproposal, and within a few more days they came up with the offer which I accepted Dec 14th (pasted below).

In my case i was the original owner, and bought the car outright (no loan). It had about 40K miles on it.

A Morely rep called me on the phone the 2nd week of January to schedule the turn over.
The turn-in was with Morely rep at my local dealership 1/16 went smoothly. My impression is they are not very picky. E.g. i had a couple of cracked wheel covers. I asked him afterward about what happens if there is something notable wrong (or e.g. a missing 120V charger): he said he takes a picture and sends it somewhere, and they (whoever "they" are) have never killed a deal, they just eat it. (the check is already made out, so there's no obvious way to deduct money from the price).

I'm still confused/troubled about other's reports of things taking MUCH longer; also confused about how they (Nissan) calculates usage, as some others have reported MUCH higher deductions for usage. Nissan would do well for themselves by being more consistent.

I bought a new Bolt in late Dec for ~ $33K out the door, and expect to qualify for a $7,500 fed tax credit, We miss the Leaf, but financially I'm very happy!!

 

[Knipdlo]

Does anyone have experience with the buyback agent rejecting a handwritten bill of sale? In New York a handwritten bill of sale is acceptable for ownership transfer but Nissan is saying they need a “printed” version or a copy of the check/loan amount. My mom sold her previous car and immediately bought her leaf in cash so there’s no other documentation. The Bill of Sale has the previous (original) owner’s name and info, they could verify with their records etc.

Not really sure what to do and very frustrated.. 2017 with 51k miles.

 

[wrldsgrtstmiracle]

Does anyone have experience with the buyback agent rejecting a handwritten bill of sale? In New York a handwritten bill of sale is acceptable for ownership transfer but Nissan is saying they need a “printed” version or a copy of the check/loan amount. My mom sold her previous car and immediately bought her leaf in cash so there’s no other documentation. The Bill of Sale has the previous (original) owner’s name and info, they could verify with their records etc.

Not really sure what to do and very frustrated.. 2017 with 51k miles.

Scan it and use that…?

 

[dean]

Does anyone have experience with the buyback agent rejecting a handwritten bill of sale? In New York a handwritten bill of sale is acceptable for ownership transfer but Nissan is saying they need a “printed” version or a copy of the check/loan amount. My mom sold her previous car and immediately bought her leaf in cash so there’s no other documentation. The Bill of Sale has the previous (original) owner’s name and info, they could verify with their records etc.

Not really sure what to do and very frustrated.. 2017 with 51k miles.

If Nissan is really refusing that as a valid bill of sale, you have the previous owner's contact info, contact them and ask if they're willing to sign a new bill of sale. Ask nicely and be clear-- there's nothing wrong with the car that you're asking them to fix. (A lot of times buyers will come back years later complaining about something wrong with the car that was, in their mind, the seller's fault)

 

[mattinco]

The $15k already included the $5k from Colorado as the dealership took the credit. The other $10k was an Xcel credit that the dealership also took off the top. Still was a pretty good deal at the time though.

Great info in this thread, we're in a similar position as we bought our Leaf in May 2017 SV in CO and got the same Xcel $10K credit.

It makes sense that they'd deduct the $10K Xcel credit since I think that was a partnership with Nissan and Xcel, but I don't understand how they can deduct the $5K state tax credit, but not the $7.5K federal tax credit. We transferred the $5K state tax credit to the dealer as you did, surprising that makes a difference. If we had only known then, we wouldn't have transferred the $5K state tax credit to the dealer.

Here's the rough numbers from our purchase:

 

[ATXLeaf]

2017 Leaf with just under 20k Miles.
Got the warranty and battery replacement approved in July 2023 (8 bars).
Local dealership service advisor (who is very good) initially told me 6-9 months, called this week and she says 12-18 months and they have not seen a battery replacement come in for months.
Called customer affairs at 800-NISSAN1 yesterday and started a buy back request. I have a case # for that request and they should call me within 24-48 hours (right, we'll see) to actually start the buy-back program.
Will document here how things progress.

Started the process on Jan 10
Gave them all the info required on 1/17, BUT they said they didn't receive it and suggested to split it into 3 smaller emails, these were <6MB and were received.
Today Jan 25 got the repurchase offer and signed it immediately as the numbers made pretty much sense.
It took 15 days from initial call to final offer.

Car is in TX. and it has ~20k Miles on it, so at an approx. usage fee of ~10c/mile wasn't worth haggling over at all.

Really just glad to have this offer and now hope to get the car turned over by end of February (fingers are still crossed).

Will update post once repurchase is complete

 

[stevebyan]

They aren't an "error" they are a statement of condition! That doesn't mean they can ignore the facts. I'd try to get the Nissan zone rep involved if it is new enough to qualify

How do I get a Nissan zone rep involved? I've been talking to Nissan consumer affairs, and they (and the dealer) just shut me down with "it's gradual capacity loss, and page 9 of the warranty booklet says that's not covered". They conveniently omit the remainder of the sentence: "beyond the terms and limits specified in the LITHIUM-ION BATTERY CAPACITY COVERAGE above."

The Consumer Affairs rep says she talked to her technical support specialist, who informed her that my eight-bar battery capacity is not covered because it's due to gradual capacity loss.

 

[stevebyan]

Has anyone in the Boston area had success getting a dealer to submit a battery capacity warranty claim? if so, what dealer did you go through?

 

[brokenantler]

Has anyone had experience with a buyback on a Gen2? Our 2020 SL Plus is at the dealer awaiting a battery replacement with no ETA.

 

[macgyver33]

Has anyone else who has done the surrender for a buyback had trouble with the Morley rep taking longer to get back to them? We had our repurchase fully approved on Jan 5, Nissan AS said 2-3 weeks for Morley to setup appointment which would have been Jan 19-26. I emailed the AS Jan 25th and they said that Morley would be contacting us very soon to schedule. I assumed that would have been early last week but now it's over a week since then and nothing. Eager to get our buyback done so we don't have to pay insurance on a car that's just sitting in our driveway.

Have no contact info to directly reach out to Morley and I don't feel the Nissan AS can do much other than bug them. Anyone know if Morley have local reps in major cities or do they travel around and pickup vehicles so maybe they just aren't very close to our area yet? We live in CO in the suburbs of Denver so I would figure it wouldn't be too remote hard for them to coordinate since we have several Nissan dealers fairly close by.

 

[adavidw]

Has anyone else who has done the surrender for a buyback had trouble with the Morley rep taking longer to get back to them?

In my case (just a few weeks ago), a Morley scheduler finally called me about 5 days past the outer edge of the window I was initially told by Nissan. Whether or not there's a rep in your area at the moment, that initial contact and the scheduling comes from some central office somewhere. They're probably swamped with LEAF buybacks right now.

I missed the initial call from them, but they sent an email at the same time with a phone number to their scheduling center. I just had to call back and give them the case number.

If your Nissan rep has given you the Morley case number (or even if they haven't), you can always try to call the scheduling center and see if they can set you up. The number I was given in their original contact email is 866-780-7222.

 

[W2016L]

New 40 kwh battery installed under warranty in my Leaf this week

2016 SL with 65k miles

Timeline:

Dec 2022 - purchased used for $11k cash
April 2023 - battery health dropped to 8 bars
4/21/23 - inspected by local Nissan dealer, approved for battery replacement under warranty, battery ordered, est. 18 months
May 2023 - contacted by Nissan CA pushing buyback, eventually offered ~$8k, I declined, saying I prefer battery replacement
Sept 2023 - called and emailed local dealer asking for update, no response
Dec 2023 - sent email to Nissan corporate via main website
12/8/23 - new Nissan CA contact emails me, again pushing buyback, offers ~$6,500 (current KBB value, will not recognize my purchase price paid since I had no loan documents - says cannot use bill of sale)
Dec 2023 - Jan 25, 2024 - 23 email messages back/forth with Nissan CA contact. Not exactly a joy to deal with this person.
-- Will not provide basis/reasons for anything, such as why my bill of sale cannot be used.
-- Refuses to connect me with supervisor.
-- States there are no replacement batteries available.
1/13/24 - submitted BBB Autoline intake form
1/17/24 - received email from Nissan CA contact telling me my complaint has been received by BBB. Note that BBB was basically unresponsive/unhelpful. It was very interesting that my BBB complaint found its way directly to the specific contact at Nissan CA that was dealing with my case.
1/25/24 - send email to Jeremie Papin, President Nissan North America, copy the CA contact.
-- Very happy with my Leaf, not happy with Nissan CA
-- Assert that battery shortage is a fallacy - batteries could be diverted from new Leafs to fix old ones
-- Ask him to get me a replacement battery to fix my Leaf
1/26/24 - Receive email from CA contact saying Nissan is working to get a battery sent to my local dealer
2/4/24 - Receive a call from my local dealer saying my replacement battery has arrived
2/7/24 - New 40 kWh battery installed
2/10/24 - Send email thanking Jeremie Papin, receive auto reply error message indicating my email address has been blocked

Throughout the process, I maintained that I wanted Nissan to fix my car and that I didn't want a buyback.
Hopefully this info is helpful to others.

 

[SageBrush]

^^ When success is a bitter pill.

You spent a year of your life fighting the turkeys at Nissan corporate over a stinking battery. There is no way in h3ll I am going to put myself in a position to have to go through that.

Life is too short

 

[Dooglas]

Got my Biweekly call from the dealer. No update yet as anticipated. I wonder how long till nissan calls as I am in a loaner from the dealer. It's a 20sl plus. I am sure it's costing nissan a 1000 bucks a month to give me a loaner.

If I were you, I don't think I'd be in much of a hurry for a resolution. The status quo sounds pretty good to me.