2011 Leaf SL for $6,000 - good deal?

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stewru

New member
Joined
Sep 8, 2022
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2
I went and looked at a 2011 Leaf SL from a private seller (in Seattle) who is asking $6,000. The car is in great cosmetic shape but the guy was up front that the battery has only 6 bars left and it tops out around 50 miles range. Per his description, the stated range fluctuates wildly based on recent usage, but around the city it gets about that amount.

I noticed when I test drove it that the stated range at full charge quickly dropped from 48 miles to about 37 in just 2 miles of light driving. He told me that the reason is that he just drove it down from its home in Bellingham about 100 miles away and it's now adapting to city driving. He also said it needs a software update that will adjust its range calculations but i couldn't determine if the 2011 has a software update available.

Does this check out? Should I be concerned about this? Our use case would actually be fine for a 50 mile range, but I would really rather not get stuck with several thousand $$ for a battery replacement.
 
I have to agree with LeftieBiker - a 6 bar SOH Leaf is seriously compromised (on top of the fact that the 2011-12 Leaf batteries were subpar from day one).

I think the seller was being pretty optimistic about the range. You might be able to go 50 miles in perfect conditions, but you should remember that you won't always have perfect conditions. Cold temperatures, wet roads, high winds, etc will all drop your range, so that your hypothetical 50 mile range is really in the mid-upper 30s much of the time. Maybe that is fine for you, but if not you should keep looking.
 
I agree with all the above and would only add a new battery isn't a few thousand $$$, it's more like $8-$15k depending on what vintage of battery you install.
 
All very helpful, everyone, thank you. @goldbrick, I found a 2017 battery pack at a nearby salvage yard for $4600 (even had a photo of the dash with the battery fully charged). I assume the install can be done either DIY or for less than $1,000 by a competent shop. But regardless, I'm going to let this car go.
 
Either that salvage yard has no clue what a good condition 30 kWh pack is worth (unlikely) or the pack is in heavily degraded and they are scammers.

Personally, I would only buy that pack after making an OBD2 to battery cable using Dala's 3D printed B24 connector and then following his instructions to make a cable:

https://github.com/dalathegreat/Nissan-Leaf-Battery-to-OBD2
 
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