Planning on buying a used 2012 Leaf with 6 bars - $5000

Hello,
New member here, want to get more info about 2012 Nissan Leaf. Saw this used 2012 Leaf for $5k with 42k miles on it. Currently have only 6 bars left. Owner says it can go 40-45 miles on full charge.
Reason of buying is for my wife to use to drop off and pick up 2 kids from school which is about 10-15miles round trip.

Is this a good deal or stay away from it?

Thank you.

utsug said:

Hello,
New member here, want to get more info about 2012 Nissan Leaf. Saw this used 2012 Leaf for $5k with 42k miles on it. Currently have only 6 bars left. Owner says it can go 40-45 miles on full charge.
Reason of buying is for my wife to use to drop off and pick up 2 kids from school which is about 10-15miles round trip.

Is this a good deal or stay away from it?

Thank you.

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I wouldn't pay $5K. $3 or even $4K might be worth it. Just know that you may only get 3-4 years out of it due to battery degradation.

Not a good deal, but it will work well for you.

If you need to only go 10-15 miles, the car will do that. Worst case range is around 20 miles range in the winter with the heat on full, highway miles.

I sold a similar car (2011, 7 bars) for $3700 recently. If you're on the coast, the car is only worth around $3k. If you could pick up an electric car for $3000-3500 that saves you $500/yr in gas and is reliable for your short trips, that would be an excellent deal!

If you can get the seller to SIGNIFICANTLY drop his price (3-4k), then I'd totally go for it, given your use case. If you can't, I'd buy a Leaf with a much better condition battery for slightly more. For instance, cwerdna is selling his 2013 (a much better car) with a 11 bar battery for $6500. That car will last you at least twice as long and has 50-100% more range.

As you use the Leaf you will find you want to use it for other things, so the very limited range will frustrate you. IMHO not worth more than $3,000.

Owner says it can go 40-45 miles on full charge.

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More like 30 miles, with work. Pass on it.

Thank you all for the replies.

I will try to ask for much lower price and go from there.
How much usually it cost for a new battery? I know that this 2012 model is not covered by any extended warranty.

utsug said:

Thank you all for the replies.

I will try to ask for much lower price and go from there.
How much usually it cost for a new battery? I know that this 2012 model is not covered by any extended warranty.

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$8500 installed by Nissan. Not worth doing. Aftermarket options are starting to come online, but just are brand new and not necessarily reliable yet. There's a place in Canada installing 40 kWh batteries in 2011/2012 cars for around $7k, which would give you ~140 miles range (far further than the original battery).

LeftieBiker said:

Owner says it can go 40-45 miles on full charge.

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More like 30 miles, with work. Pass on it.

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This is not true. 40 miles is very reasonable for a 6 bar battery, and 45 is achievable by driving conservatively (35-40 mph). The real problem is the 20 mile range in the winter, given the 2012 heat.

Lothsahn said:

utsug said:

Thank you all for the replies.

I will try to ask for much lower price and go from there.
How much usually it cost for a new battery? I know that this 2012 model is not covered by any extended warranty.

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$8500 installed by Nissan. Not worth doing.

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I believe so unless Nissan will cover 80% of it as part of their battery replacement.

utsug said:

Lothsahn said:

utsug said:

Thank you all for the replies.

I will try to ask for much lower price and go from there.
How much usually it cost for a new battery? I know that this 2012 model is not covered by any extended warranty.

Click to expand...

$8500 installed by Nissan. Not worth doing.

Click to expand...

I believe so unless Nissan will cover 80% of it as part of their battery replacement.

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I guarantee they will not. I haven't heard of a single goodwill replacement in years.

Lothsahn said:

LeftieBiker said:

Owner says it can go 40-45 miles on full charge.

Click to expand...

More like 30 miles, with work. Pass on it.

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This is not true. 40 miles is very reasonable for a 6 bar battery, and 45 is achievable by driving conservatively (35-40 mph). The real problem is the 20 mile range in the winter, given the 2012 heat.

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I believe in giving real world, typical driving range estimates, not what is possible with hypermiling or near hypermiling.
We have another member who bought a 7 bar leaf and is just managing 35 miles. If 40 miles were reasonable for a 6 bar Leaf, then it would have had an 80 mile real world range when new. It didn't.

Lothsahn said:

utsug said:

Lothsahn said:

$8500 installed by Nissan. Not worth doing.

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I believe so unless Nissan will cover 80% of it as part of their battery replacement.

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I guarantee they will not. I haven't heard of a single goodwill replacement in years.

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saw your signature, you have a 2011 and did a battery swap this year. Before swapping battery, what is condition of your orignal battery?

$3K tops so you can afford the battery replacement. If you can get it for 3 + 8K for a new battery, 11K for a like new 24kW Leaf is not bad.

DougWantsALeaf said:

$3K tops so you can afford the battery replacement. If you can get it for 3 + 8K for a new battery, 11K for a like new 24kW Leaf is not bad.

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You mean 24 kWh? I wouldn't want to spend $11K or $11.5K on a $3K '12 + $ to replace the battery. Pass.

LeftieBiker said:

Lothsahn said:

LeftieBiker said:

More like 30 miles, with work. Pass on it.

Click to expand...

This is not true. 40 miles is very reasonable for a 6 bar battery, and 45 is achievable by driving conservatively (35-40 mph). The real problem is the 20 mile range in the winter, given the 2012 heat.

Click to expand...

I believe in giving real world, typical driving range estimates, not what is possible with hypermiling or near hypermiling.
We have another member who bought a 7 bar leaf and is just managing 35 miles. If 40 miles were reasonable for a 6 bar Leaf, then it would have had an 80 mile real world range when new. It didn't.

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+1 as my new '13 24Kwh Leaf had about a 70 mile freeway/mixed range when new I'd say you'd be lucky to get 35 with a 6-bar batt. Now if you were talking about strictly side street driving, 30-40 mph I could see 40 miles as my new '13 could probably do 80 in such a case and as everyone has said, the heater on the old liquid loop Leafs really sucked the juice, could easily turn a 40 mile summer Leaf into 20 miles in freezing conditions.

utsug said:

Lothsahn said:

utsug said:

I believe so unless Nissan will cover 80% of it as part of their battery replacement.

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I guarantee they will not. I haven't heard of a single goodwill replacement in years.

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saw your signature, you have a 2011 and did a battery swap this year. Before swapping battery, what is condition of your orignal battery?

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7 bars, but nearly 6. So basically the exact same as that car. That's how I know what the range is

jjeff said:

+1 as my new '13 24Kwh Leaf had about a 70 mile freeway/mixed range when new I'd say you'd be lucky to get 35 with a 6-bar batt. Now if you were talking about strictly side street driving, 30-40 mph I could see 40 miles as my new '13 could probably do 80 in such a case and as everyone has said, the heater on the old liquid loop Leafs really sucked the juice, could easily turn a 40 mile summer Leaf into 20 miles in freezing conditions.

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You described the range of a 6-7 bar 2011/2012 Leaf perfectly. The good news is the 2012 has heated seats & steering wheel, so you could avoid using the heat as much.

The good news is the 2012 has heated seats & steering wheel, so you could avoid using the heat as much.

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Without a Heater On/Off switch, a '12 will preheat the "heatant" in the tank whenever the temps drop into...the low sixties? So you have to install that aftermarket switch to be able to turn the heater completely off.

I just realized the OP is in Palmdale, CA. That's a fairly hot part of So Cal, I think. A quick Google search for palmdale weather shows high temps in the 90s or 100s for the next 7 days. At 10 pm, it's 79 F. A '12 battery will degrade very badly if the summers are like that.

If I were near the OP, I'd sell them my 11 bar (Leaf Spy SOH 81.xx to 83.xx%) 5/2013 built '13 SV w/premium for $6300. CA tabs are paid for thru near end of June 2020.

edit: For future reference, I put up a snapshot of Palmdale weather and a 7 day forecast at https://imgur.com/a/HRs5d6x. I wouldn't count on goodwill from Nissan to help cover the cost of the replacement battery. As others have said, it ended years ago. Also, Nissan isn't doing so hot financially from its most recent quarter: https://www.autonews.com/automakers-suppliers/nissan-will-cut-12500-jobs-after-profit-plunges-99.

cwerdna said:

I wouldn't want to spend $11K or $11.5K on a $3K '12 + $ to replace the battery. Pass.

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Why not ? It strikes me as a smart move in general, although I personally would not own a LEAF in a hot climate.