Looking forward to my first Leaf

[Zelten]

Hi everybody, I am the current owner of a Chevy Bolt, and looking for another small EV for my grad school-bound son. Lots of people have recommended a low- to mid-mileage Leaf to me, so here I am to learn everything I need to know about model years, trim levels, and what to look out for before I go shopping.

I promise to read the appropriate older threads before I go asking Frequently Answered Questions.

 

[jjeff]

Someone else will probably link it for you but I'd strongly suggest a thread by Leftie Biker, sort of a buyers guide/tips and tricks for Leafs, particularly older first-generation Leafs.
I had 2 gen1 Leafs, a 2012SL and 2013S and had very little issues with them, all in all a decent cheaper EV. I never had any heater issues but I do read an occasional post of someone who does and it can be very costly to fix, almost to the point of it not being worth it to fix, so if a working heater is important to you(like it would be for me in MN) I'd strongly suggest verifying it works, even though it's now summer and you might not think of it.
As I'm sure Leftie's guide suggests, I'd probably skip anything older than '13 model year and even then if you live in a warmer climate not anything before April of '13 build date as Leafs older than that tend to suffer bad battery degradation, especially in hot areas but also more moderate climates such as MN. The pre '13 Leafs also had other issues I didn't like, such as no SOC% indicator so unless you have a very hard-to-find aftermarket display or Leafspy installed on your smartphone. you will only get the wildly inaccurate GOM(Guess-O'-Meter) display that comes on the car, telling you how much range you have.
All in all I think a older 1st gen Leaf is a pretty decent safe low maintenance car for a first-time driver if they can live with the very limited range of 60 miles or less and even down to 30 in the very cold and if the battery is degraded and the user keeps up on keeping the battery charged, it's not such a good choice for people regularly driving across a larger town or for sure out of town. The batteries rarely fail they just get less and less miles from the new 70 mile range.

 

[cornbinder89]

Since you already have an electric, and know about charging issues, that may be made harder by renting/living in student housing, I'll focus on others.
How many miles/trip are they going to realistically need? Once you know that, be sure to test drive a used leaf at least that far, and at speeds they would likely use it at. Remember range drops in the cold, so if it just barely makes it now, it will not in the cold.
Leaf has a SOH meter but it isn't very accurate.
2015 is about the best year for 24Kwh battery units, or at least the best compromise.
30 Kwh packs in the '16 and new had hit and miss problems.
40 Kwh pack replace the 30's and were the std pack in later models
The Leaf+ with the big battery are only in the later years.

 

[Zelten]

Someone else will probably link it for you but I'd strongly suggest a thread by Leftie Biker, sort of a buyers guide/tips and tricks for Leafs, particularly older first-generation Leafs.
I had 2 gen1 Leafs, a 2012SL and 2013S and had very little issues with them, all in all a decent cheaper EV. I never had any heater issues but I do read an occasional post of someone who does and it can be very costly to fix, almost to the point of it not being worth it to fix, so if a working heater is important to you(like it would be for me in MN) I'd strongly suggest verifying it works, even though it's now summer and you might not think of it.
As I'm sure Leftie's guide suggests, I'd probably skip anything older than '13 model year and even then if you live in a warmer climate not anything before April of '13 build date as Leafs older than that tend to suffer bad battery degradation, especially in hot areas but also more moderate climates such as MN. The pre '13 Leafs also had other issues I didn't like, such as no SOC% indicator so unless you have a very hard-to-find aftermarket display or Leafspy installed on your smartphone. you will only get the wildly inaccurate GOM(Guess-O'-Meter) display that comes on the car, telling you how much range you have.
All in all I think a older 1st gen Leaf is a pretty decent safe low maintenance car for a first-time driver if they can live with the very limited range of 60 miles or less and even down to 30 in the very cold and if the battery is degraded and the user keeps up on keeping the battery charged, it's not such a good choice for people regularly driving across a larger town or for sure out of town. The batteries rarely fail they just get less and less miles from the new 70 mile range.

Thanks. I will go look for that thread.

Different generations of the car are one of the things I need to research. His college is very generous with free (but slow) chargers so he can charge while he's in school. I'm expecting that his daily use will be just a couple of miles to and from college, and once a week into town for shopping and laundry - maybe a 20 minute drive.

His college is in Vermont so cold weather loss of range is definitely a concern.

 

[Zelten]

Since you already have an electric, and know about charging issues, that may be made harder by renting/living in student housing, I'll focus on others.
How many miles/trip are they going to realistically need? Once you know that, be sure to test drive a used leaf at least that far, and at speeds they would likely use it at. Remember range drops in the cold, so if it just barely makes it now, it will not in the cold.
Leaf has a SOH meter but it isn't very accurate.
2015 is about the best year for 24Kwh battery units, or at least the best compromise.
30 Kwh packs in the '16 and new had hit and miss problems.
40 Kwh pack replace the 30's and were the std pack in later models
The Leaf+ with the big battery are only in the later years.

I'm expecting that his daily use will be just a couple of miles to and from college, and once a week into town for shopping and laundry - maybe a 20 minute drive. However, I never like getting too close to what the GOM says my range is, so I'll be looking for something with plenty of margin of error.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

If you can afford it, go for a 2018 model year or later.

 

[atikovi]

I'm expecting that his daily use will be just a couple of miles to and from college, and once a week into town for shopping and laundry - maybe a 20 minute drive.

Any first gen with at least 6 or 7 bars on the capacity gauge would work just fine. Are you in the tax bracket to take advantage of the federal tax credit?