Is My LEAF Worth Fixing

[LarryKaplan]

Seeking advice from the hive mind. I wrecked my 2012 LEAF today, rear-ended an SUV on a rain slicked road, bent her bumper and smashed up my front-end, including the bumper and charge port cover. The car drives fine, headlamps are still aligned, and the charge port itself works. I stopped carrying collision, so whatever it would cost to repair is on me. I took it to a body shop near me, referred by my insurance guy. The shop said it was at least $2000 in damage, and could be more underneath.

So the Kelly Blue Book trade in value on the car is a measly $1500 (private party sale is $3000), assuming it's in very good condition. Obviously, it makes no sense to fix it and sell it, and I am not really sure it's worth fixing it to keep it. The body shop guy said I could find a small shop that would use used parts, but that's way too sketchy for me.

The car has 70,000 miles on it, is in otherwise very good condition. The battery is an aftermarket 24 kWh with 85% SOH, 12 bars on the GOM and gets about 75 miles of range. It's amazing how much these EV's, especially LEAFs, depreciate, I assume because the technology gets outdated so quickly (my car is literally first generation and has been bypassed many times since). I'm finding that used EV's are often cheaper than comparable used ICE cars, except for Tesla's, which seem to hold their value better. I see late model used Bolts for between $10,000 and $15,000.

If I could fix the car for $1000, I'd do it. Or I could sell my battery back to the aftermarket guy who installed it, junk the car and get something else. Thoughts? Pix attached.

 

[cornbinder89]

I looks fairly minor. As to cost? IDK, but shop around. I have a local shop that is cheap and good, but slow. He'll use used parts, and will allow you to source them/pull them from your stash.
I few years ago my BIL backed into my classic Saab. "I'll pay for damages, don't file". Well, I bet you know how that turned out!
I pulled the door and brought it to the shop, No replacement panels to be had anywhere, only rusted out doors. He repaired mine and matched the paint much better than I could ever have expected even with "new" panels. Can't tell it was ever hit.
That said, it was a shop I had a relationship with, he has fixed my semi's when I had deer strikes or others ran into me.
Cost for the door repair was around $1300-$1400.
My view is don't fear "used parts", esp if they are straight and don't need repair work done before paint work.
As to "is it worth it"? that is a personal call, but don't just look at what someone might pay for it, look at what it would cost to replace with something similar.
I could be accused of being "too emotionally invested" in my stuff, I fixed a semi that someone hit and their insurance wanted to "total" then ended up selling for less than they paid to fix. I had put a lot of work into the truck, it has a rebuilt engine and rear axles, I knew it was good to go but the market was soft when I retired.

 

[Stanton]

Based on the fact that your battery pack has plenty of life left in it and the charge port works...I would fix it. Whatever it costs, it's got to be less than the cost of any (other) used EV.

 

[Drew21]

Based on your description and the pictures provided it must have been a relatively minor collision. It doesn't even look like your hood was damaged.

As mentioned above:
1) Get additional estimates, including a list of the parts they want to replace.
2) Used parts are fine if they are undamaged, especially if you're talking about something like a used bumper cover (the plastic part you see) or the charge port door or hinges vs trying to source new parts.
3) The "important" part of the bumper is the part you can't see without disassembly. The part you see is just for cosmetic purposes, and as long as it's attached you really only need to replace it if the damaged appearance bothers you. So, get an estimate to replace the internal crash structure of the bumper and see how much you could save by getting a used charge port door and bumper skin from a scrapyard, or reuse those parts if they're not too badly damaged.

 

[Jarichus]

I think I would try to fix the car with used, as in don't have to paint parts, being the battery is good. I also would consider a newer leaf with a bad battery you could put your battery into.

 

[LeafNissan1]

Doesn't look that bad, what's preventing you from just driving the car like it is without fixing it?

 

[jpmurph]

I'm with Drew21. From the pics it looks all cosmetic and minor to boot. The body shop guy was doing you a favor by telling you to go to a small shop that will find a used bumper cover (if needed).

If it were mine I would pull off the bumper cover and go at it with a heat gun. When I bought my 2013 SV the lower bumper cover had dents and tears and it was amazing to me how a plastic part can pop back into its original shape with a little heat and some force.

It depends on what you think you need. If you want it to look like new then you will have to spend some money, but if cosmetics aren't that important to you find someone that will get rid of the 2 dents and get the charge port cover to operate correctly. It will be the same car as before.

 

[LeafNissan1]

Yes, like jpmurph says, you can do a lot to make the cosmetics look better yourself if you don't want to just drive it like it is without doing anything, (as I previously posted).

As he says you can use a heat gun, which I've done without removing the bumper on another one of my cars, and greatly improve the appearance. Just be careful not to apply too much heat. Repair or replace the charge port cover and be done with it. It's a 13 year old car only worth $3K, so this is definitely the route I'd go. If you don't want to tackle this yourself, then get a quote from a mobile bumper repair company (they're ubiquitous) and just tell them you want to make it look better and don't expect it to be perfect.

The advantage is that now you don't have to worry about the car as you would if it was still in near perfect condition, you're saving money by not buying full coverage on your insurance and still have reliable transportation and an EV to boot.