Capacity Loss on 2011-2012 LEAFs

[theaveng]

Not a chance I would be part of this kind of a lawsuit. Make way for the greed monsters. Nissan made it really clear that the range would vary and the sticker on the window said 73 miles range. Anyone who bought the car without reading the window sticker is a fool.

A "fool"? And you're a naive' person. The Leaf I testdrove had the EPA sticker but also had a much-larger paper from Nissan that read 96-110 miles range. So YES Nissan is clearly trying to mislead purchasers with that statement.

 

[mwalsh]

2: The only people that win in class action lawsuits (or any for that matter) are the lawyers. IANAL, so I will not participate in any class action.

I've gotten close to 1000 dollars from class-action lawsuits. $25 from the CD/record Company cartel case, $85 from the paypal case, and 800 from the Equinox MLM class-action case.

I'm getting $4500 (in an unrelated suit) as a named plaintiff, as are the other 7 named plaintiffs, after two years of back and forth in court. The class members who aren't named are getting $10 each. The lawyers are getting $3.5 million. I wouldn't peruse legal action like this again. The only plus side of it for me is that the company we sued is going to have to change the way they do business, which was very important to me personally.

 

[JPVLeaf]

An anonymous LEAF Owner in San Diego (too closely associated with the industry to identify) has reported 1 bar loss at 29,000 miles.

Another non-MNL Leaf owner in Inland Empire, CA lost his first bar on 9/26/12 at 14500 mi. after 11 mos of ownership. No indications he ever attempted to 'baby' the battery. Yet to call in for his case no.

 

[TickTock]

2: The only people that win in class action lawsuits (or any for that matter) are the lawyers. IANAL, so I will not participate in any class action.

I've gotten close to 1000 dollars from class-action lawsuits. $25 from the CD/record Company cartel case, $85 from the paypal case, and 800 from the Equinox MLM class-action case.

I'm getting $4500 (in an unrelated suit) as a named plaintiff, as are the other 7 named plaintiffs, after two years of back and forth in court. The class members who aren't named are getting $10 each. The lawyers are getting $3.5 million. I wouldn't peruse legal action like this again. The only plus side of it for me is that the company we sued is going to have to change the way they do business, which was very important to me personally.

Wow. How many un-named class members are there. > 1M ?

 

[mwalsh]

Wow. How many un-named class members are there. > 1M ?

Don't know. And thinking about it a while, it may be $20 they're getting, not $10. But the general point I was trying to make was that the lawyers have made out the best. Followed by people who haven't actually been injured by the company's business practices yet (by virtue of the fact said company now has to change it's ways). And then the named plaintiffs, who may have been made whole financially but really haven't gotten the satisfaction a larger and more punitive settlement would have brought.

Though, giving the class members a bit more consideration...like theaveng, they may consider getting $10 or $20 out of the blue, for doing little more than filling out a form accepting the settlement, to be pretty darn cool!

 

[stanley]

All of these "awards" get passed on to the consumer making the product more expensive, while the lawyers make a fortune. There is something wrong with this system

 

[TonyWilliams]

All of these "awards" get passed on to the consumer making the product more expensive, while the lawyers make a fortune. There is something wrong with this system

The system has evolved because companies like Nissan engage in deceptive practices. If 7500 hundred miles is the norm in Phoenix, I'd like to see how many 7500 mile leases that Nissan Financial sold there.

If 7500 miles were true, or they had a shred of evidence to back that up (except saying the opposite; Phoenix folks drive longer distances at higher speeds, as Mark Perry recently said), then Nissan would have freely included that in the PILES of disclaimers and ass covering in the sales contract.

But, they didn't. All is "normal" only when we understand that all is not normal at Nissan. Rather than fix any of these issues, even while buying back two cars, they double and triple down on the rhetoric (per very recent news release).

So, what recourse does a consumer have? If you're not one of the few whose car they will buy back, you don't have much choice. Just "charge more"? I won't be involved in any lawsuit, but I understand why folks would.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i was a member of a class action suit against my previous employer and i opted in by deleting the email when i received it instead of reading it.

i received about $400 while the 3 named plantiffs received "about" 20-40,000. (nda at play here but was close friends with one who hinted)

this was among about 1000 people. have no idea what the lawyers got but guessing they made bank on it. usually it will be a single legal firm that gets a third of the judgment so

3 plantiffs is about 120 K plus 400,000 K for the others means the lawyers got a few hundred thou. not bad for a case that was settled by arbitration in less than 6 months

 

[Stoaty]

The system has evolved because companies like Nissan engage in deceptive practices. If 7500 hundred miles is the norm in Phoenix, I'd like to see how many 7500 mile leases that Nissan Financial sold there.

Exactly. The value of class action lawsuits isn't to get money for customers, it is to reign in companies that engage in deceptive practices. While I am sure there are plenty of bogus class action lawsuits, on the whole they serve a useful function for the consumer. If companies are worried about these kinds of lawsuits, they are a lot more likely to be careful with their claims and business practices. It appears in Nissans case they weren't sufficiently worried, although we won't know that for sure until we see the outcome of the class action lawsuit.

PS Since I haven't personally been injured by Nissans practices, I will opt out of any class action lawsuit. However, I can understand how others might feel differently.

 

[dreamer]

Sad to be a new member of the 1 bar lost club - at only 3900 miles and 4.4 months. Battery was checked at dealer -"normal" - and capacity gauge reset to 12 bars.

Has anyone seen the two New York Times articles? - 2 in 2 days - on this troubled topic.
This in the business section:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/09/28/business/28reuters-nissan-leaf.html?emc=eta1&_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And this in Wheels today:
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/nissan-aims-to-improve-communication-with-leaf-owners/?emc=eta1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doesn't look good for the great majority of us - apparently there is nothing wrong with the cars or the batteries - it's just the drivers.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Sad to be a new member of the 1 bar lost club - at only 3900 miles and 4.4 months. Battery was checked at dealer -"normal" - and capacity gauge reset to 12 bars.

Has anyone seen the two New York Times articles? - 2 in 2 days - on this troubled topic.
This in the business section:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/09/28/business/28reuters-nissan-leaf.html?emc=eta1&_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And this in Wheels today:
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/nissan-aims-to-improve-communication-with-leaf-owners/?emc=eta1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doesn't look good for the great majority of us - apparently there is nothing wrong with the cars or the batteries - it's just the drivers.

i see the article reiterates the "10 years, 30%" statement

 

[jspearman]

Sad to be a new member of the 1 bar lost club - at only 3900 miles and 4.4 months. Battery was checked at dealer -"normal" - and capacity gauge reset to 12 bars.

Has anyone seen the two New York Times articles? - 2 in 2 days - on this troubled topic.
This in the business section:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/09/28/business/28reuters-nissan-leaf.html?emc=eta1&_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And this in Wheels today:
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/nissan-aims-to-improve-communication-with-leaf-owners/?emc=eta1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doesn't look good for the great majority of us - apparently there is nothing wrong with the cars or the batteries - it's just the drivers.

All 450 of us are irresponsible people who drive our cars more than 7,500 miles/year. While I would love to have a house in on a lake in Michigan for the summer, and only winter here to cut down on my miles, that's not really an option, unless Nissan wants to buy me a cabin. Maybe that's the solution. Nissan builds a resort for all the affected owners.

 

[Stoaty]

Latest overall stats from the Wiki:

"Even though there have been 105 documented cases of battery capacity loss of one or more bars (as of 9/29/2012), only 50 capacity loss cases have been reported to Nissan to our knowledge. The geographic breakdown of these cases is: Arizona - 52, Texas - 23, California - 26, Hong Kong - 1, Spain - 1, Unknown - 2. The breakdown by number of capacity bars lost is: one bar - 68, two bars - 26, three bars - 9, four bars - 2. Based on the approximately 450 Leafs sold in Arizona as of September 22, 2012, at least 11.5% of Arizona Leafs have lost a capacity bar. Since only cases reported on the forum are included in this calculation, the real number is likely to be much higher."

For those of you updating the Wiki for capacity loss, please remember to change the overall stats each time you do, and not just the specific bar loss table:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Battery_Capacity_Loss#Real_World_Battery_Capacity_Losses" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also, there are two entries (Kristy Bryant - 3 bars and Josh Bryant - 2 bars) that don't have entries in the earlier tables. I haven't added an entry to the earlier tables for those people, as I don't know when they lost their earlier bars. As a consequence, the total of 105 cases is currently 2 larger than the number of one bar losers. If vrwl or anyone else wants to add those dummy entries, or has a better idea how to handle this, let me know.

 

[GerryAZ]

If Nissan truly believes the Leaf is not suitable for our freeway speeds and typical annual mileage in Arizona, they did not tell the people programming the navigation system and their dealers. After the 7500 annual mileage and high speed comments came out, I noticed a couple of interesting things about my car:

I rarely use the routing function, but I looked up a couple of unfamiliar addresses recently and set them as destinations. In both cases, the navigation system kept directing me toward freeways even though the closest routes were on major surface streets. The system kept asking me to turn toward the freeways until I was almost to my destination (20 miles).

I have 15,500 miles and have owned my car for 15-1/2 months so I am averaging 1,000 miles per month or 12,000 miles per year. When I turned the car on this morning, I was greeted with Battery Maintenance and Air Conditioning Filter Maintenance alarms. As most here know, these items are listed as required maintenance at one year regardless of mileage. Therefore, the dealer had set those alarms expecting me to drive 15,000 miles per year (I have never changed those alarm settings).

Gerry

 

[phxsmiley]

Sad to be a new member of the 1 bar lost club - at only 3900 miles and 4.4 months. Battery was checked at dealer -"normal" - and capacity gauge reset to 12 bars.

Has anyone seen the two New York Times articles? - 2 in 2 days - on this troubled topic.
This in the business section:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/09/28/business/28reuters-nissan-leaf.html?emc=eta1&_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And this in Wheels today:
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/nissan-aims-to-improve-communication-with-leaf-owners/?emc=eta1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doesn't look good for the great majority of us - apparently there is nothing wrong with the cars or the batteries - it's just the drivers.

All 450 of us are irresponsible people who drive our cars more than 7,500 miles/year. While I would love to have a house in on a lake in Michigan for the summer, and only winter here to cut down on my miles, that's not really an option, unless Nissan wants to buy me a cabin. Maybe that's the solution. Nissan builds a resort for all the affected owners.

I think this is a disappointing stab, if we are reading this correctly? They make it sound like the issue is that the car shouldn't be driven more than 7500 miles per year, but have separated the issue from anything heat-related. They ignore the multitude of cars in other climates that are being driven just as much, but haven't lost capacity bars as fast.

Perhaps other Leaf owners in other locations can comment (in those published articles) on their experience, talking about their capacity loss.

 

[surfingslovak]

Also, there are two entries (Kristy Bryant - 3 bars and Josh Bryant - 2 bars) that don't have entries in the earlier tables. I haven't added an entry to the earlier tables for those people, as I don't know when they lost their earlier bars. As a consequence, the total of 105 cases is currently 2 larger than the number of one bar losers. If vrwl or anyone else wants to add those dummy entries, or has a better idea how to handle this, let me know.

Thank you for doing all this. I've added Josh Bryant based on a blog comment. He is the co-founder of EVbadges, and is reportedly missing 2 bars in Houston, TX. Josh did not say when the first bar disappeared.

 

[Stoaty]

Also, there are two entries (Kristy Bryant - 3 bars and Josh Bryant - 2 bars) that don't have entries in the earlier tables. I haven't added an entry to the earlier tables for those people, as I don't know when they lost their earlier bars. As a consequence, the total of 105 cases is currently 2 larger than the number of one bar losers. If vrwl or anyone else wants to add those dummy entries, or has a better idea how to handle this, let me know.

Thank you for doing all this. I've added Josh Bryant based on a blog comment. He is the co-founder of EVbadges, and is reportedly missing 2 bars in Houston, TX. Josh did not say when the first bar disappeared.

I couldn't think of a better solution, so I added dummy entries for those two people for the other bar tables. The one bar table now matches up with the total number of cases reported. I think everything is up to date now, except that over 45 people either haven't reported to Nissan or didn't let us know by giving us a case number.

 

[vegastar]

From a LEAF gathering today in Porto, Portugal, I was told from a representative of a Fast Charger manufacturer (Magnum Cap) that their LEAF with 50000km has lost a bar. They don't know exactly when the bar was lost as it was another Leaf owner from Seville, Spain, who alerted they to check the capacity bars because he also lost a bar (with around 30000km). Nissan was informed of the two events.

 

[RegGuheert]

Sad to be a new member of the 1 bar lost club - at only 3900 miles and 4.4 months.

Wow!! :shock: That is the lowest number of miles and the fastest loss of a bar that I have heard about! That may be due to the fact you purchased just before the heat of the summer.

Can you please tell us the manufacturing date of your LEAF from the driver's door pillar and some details about how it is driven and charged?

I'm very sorry about your loss of capacity!

 

[surfingslovak]

From a LEAF gathering today in Porto, Portugal, I was told from a representative of a Fast Charger manufacturer (Magnum Cap) that their LEAF with 50000km has lost a bar. They don't know exactly when the bar was lost as it was another Leaf owner from Seville, Spain, who alerted they to check the capacity bars because he also lost a bar (with around 30000km). Nissan was informed of the two events.

Thank you for the report! It looks like we might have the case from Seville covered already, I picked up something similar on Facebook. Unless it was a different owners, there is a difference of 5,000 km between the two reports.