2014 LEAF S - Nissan offering buyback in lieu of battery replacement

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raedward

New member
Joined
Jun 6, 2021
Messages
1
I have a 2014 S with about 68000 miles I bought used from a private party in mid-2021. The previous owner had an extended service contract that ran through February 2023. Under that contract, a traction battery that fell below 9 bars or 70% capacity was eligible for coverage.

In summer 2022, the 9th bar dropped of my LEAF's display, and I knew from Leaf Spy that the SOH was about 65%. The dealership and CNA did approve a replacement of the 24 kWh pack in mid-August. I checked on the status of the replacement pack every month or two from the dealership, and they had no info on the ETA. In February, I contacted Nissan directly to inquire, and was given a case specialist who sent me weekly status updates - those updates simply being that there was not a known shipment date.

Last week, I was contacted by an agent in the arbitration/buyback department offering to repurchase the car in lieu of replacing the battery because of the unknown availability of 24 kWh replacement packs. After sending the requested info, Nissan is offering to buy my car for exactly what I paid for it 2 years ago, plus my most recent year's state registration fees.

This seems like a great deal monetarily, but I am also disappointed that I would have to find another vehicle. The car is in good condition except for the diminished battery capacity (now about 62% SOH - 57 mile range). If I had my own charger and the ability to L1/L2 charge nightly, I would certainly keep the car. I live in a condo building and have to use public chargers 1-3x per week for energy.

Nissan's offer is significantly above the current KBB private party value for the car, so I don't think I would do better selling the car myself or trading it in. I assume Nissan will resell it in as-is condition to a buyer who is OK with the battery status.

It is interesting that Nissan seems to have decided that repurchasing cars with 24 kWh packs is a better financial alternative for them than sourcing/producing/shipping replacement packs. Has anyone else received this kind of offer for their 2011-2015 LEAF with a pending battery replacement?

Thanks!
Robert in Honolulu
 
Interesting !

I would not take the Nissan offer as is, because it leaves you without a car.
Tell Nissan that compensation has to be enough to buy a used LEAF in good condition with at least 22 kWh usable capacity -- meaning a car that is at least the equivalent of what they owe you from the warranty

And since forcing you to buy a used car exposes you to the risks of buying a used car, they must cover that too, and also taxes, fees, and any costs related to the purchase, e.g. transport.

Counter with $20k, and settle for somewhere in the $16 - $18k range.
 
I don't think there are many owners of 2011-2015 Leaf's who qualify for a warranty replacement pack since the normal warranty period has long expired for them. Your situation is quite unusual due to the 'extended warranty' that was purchased for the car. I haven't heard of this on the forum here but it was only second hand information and not conclusive.

You'd have to read the terms of the warranty to see if you could force Nissan to give you a new car or pay to replace the battery or whatever but if you are coming out even after 2 years of ownership that sounds like a reasonable deal to me.

It is technically possible to put a newer 40kWh battery into a 2014 Leaf using aftermarket parts but I don't know if that is something Nissan supports with their in-house equipment.
 
A counter offer from you could be to let Nissan buy-out the warranty.

You would give up the warranty for a cash payment from Nissan, and keep the car as-is.

They should be agreeable to paying about 20% less than the replacement costs them, and they don't have to spend time transferring title and selling the car.

You could then continue to use the car as-is or trade up with the Nissan cash.

Let us know what you end up with.

Good luck, Don
 
I'm going through a similar saga with my 2016 SV.

Long wait, no ETA, no car (but a gas guzzling loaner) and eventually I was handed over to the arbitration department.

Their offer started at ~$9K (price used, minus the miles I'd accrued, plus fees) - I said no, that the offer had to at least be close to the replacement cost.

First they knocked off the miles accrued which got the offer to $12. I said no and that a better formula would be Price New, minus the total miles used (47K out of a usable life of 120K) plus fees and all the gas I had to buy while the car was in the shop.

This came in at a hair over $16K and to my surprise they (just now) agreed to it.

Time to start shopping for a new (to me) Leaf.
 
The 24 kWh battery has been obsolete for several years now, and Nissan made a final production run of the battery and its components in 2019. I would advise to take the offer, counter if your haggling skills are good, but by all means take the offer.
 
I have a 2014 S with about 68000 miles I bought used from a private party in mid-2021. The previous owner had an extended service contract that ran through February 2023. Under that contract, a traction battery that fell below 9 bars or 70% capacity was eligible for coverage.

In summer 2022, the 9th bar dropped of my LEAF's display, and I knew from Leaf Spy that the SOH was about 65%. The dealership and CNA did approve a replacement of the 24 kWh pack in mid-August. I checked on the status of the replacement pack every month or two from the dealership, and they had no info on the ETA. In February, I contacted Nissan directly to inquire, and was given a case specialist who sent me weekly status updates - those updates simply being that there was not a known shipment date.

Last week, I was contacted by an agent in the arbitration/buyback department offering to repurchase the car in lieu of replacing the battery because of the unknown availability of 24 kWh replacement packs. After sending the requested info, Nissan is offering to buy my car for exactly what I paid for it 2 years ago, plus my most recent year's state registration fees.

This seems like a great deal monetarily, but I am also disappointed that I would have to find another vehicle. The car is in good condition except for the diminished battery capacity (now about 62% SOH - 57 mile range). If I had my own charger and the ability to L1/L2 charge nightly, I would certainly keep the car. I live in a condo building and have to use public chargers 1-3x per week for energy.

Nissan's offer is significantly above the current KBB private party value for the car, so I don't think I would do better selling the car myself or trading it in. I assume Nissan will resell it in as-is condition to a buyer who is OK with the battery status.

It is interesting that Nissan seems to have decided that repurchasing cars with 24 kWh packs is a better financial alternative for them than sourcing/producing/shipping replacement packs. Has anyone else received this kind of offer for their 2011-2015 LEAF with a pending battery replacement?

Thanks!
Robert in Honolulu
Consider that you are entitled to a brand new 24 kwh battery replacement. So the market value of your car is a 2014 with 68,000 miles and a brand new 24 kwh battery with zero miles on it. This raises the market value considerably.
 
Consider that you are entitled to a brand new 24 kwh battery replacement. So the market value of your car is a 2014 with 68,000 miles and a brand new 24 kwh battery with zero miles on it. This raises the market value considerably.

OP did not say if the extended warranty had the same provisions as the original degradation warranty. If that is the case, then the "value" of the warranty is to bring the battery up to 9 bars.

It is true that for a while Nissan was putting in new packs, and even new packs with higher than 24 kWh nominal, but that was more than the warranty provision
 
Very interesting. My 2014 leaf is bouncing the 12th bar on and off and there's around 78k KM's on it. That's around 48,750 miles. No highway, just city.
The car doesn't have enough range to wander too far away but it can go shopping all day long. :)
Cant complain. 1 set of tires, front pads were buffed and changed 1 set of wipers and washer fluid.
Roughly 22k dollars saved in fuel i didn't have to buy.
Clearly though, looking at these posts, when the battery starts to crap out, it will be time to move into something new and recycle the car.
Hopefully by then, the price tags on new EV's will have come down to something people can afford. The current numbers are just stupid.
Another hopeful, is that EV pickup trucks will gain better towing range.
MY XD diesel is thirsty, but it does a great job with an extra fuel tank in the back.

Zurc.
 
WOW that service contract worked. Awesome..... My 2015 is at 10 bar 80% and is working for me, local errands occasional 65 mile round trip (which is pushing range, getting back home with 15 mile range left). That "long" 65 mile round trip requires me to take the back highway vs freeway. The back highway route is shorter and more relaxing, but takes 5 min longer. Driving at plus 70 mph cuts Miles/Kw average. I can charge at destination with 110V L1 charger, which is a whopping 6 miles range an hour.
 
I have a 2014 S with about 68000 miles I bought used from a private party in mid-2021. The previous owner had an extended service contract that ran through February 2023. Under that contract, a traction battery that fell below 9 bars or 70% capacity was eligible for coverage.

In summer 2022, the 9th bar dropped of my LEAF's display, and I knew from Leaf Spy that the SOH was about 65%. The dealership and CNA did approve a replacement of the 24 kWh pack in mid-August. I checked on the status of the replacement pack every month or two from the dealership, and they had no info on the ETA. In February, I contacted Nissan directly to inquire, and was given a case specialist who sent me weekly status updates - those updates simply being that there was not a known shipment date.

Last week, I was contacted by an agent in the arbitration/buyback department offering to repurchase the car in lieu of replacing the battery because of the unknown availability of 24 kWh replacement packs. After sending the requested info, Nissan is offering to buy my car for exactly what I paid for it 2 years ago, plus my most recent year's state registration fees.

This seems like a great deal monetarily, but I am also disappointed that I would have to find another vehicle. The car is in good condition except for the diminished battery capacity (now about 62% SOH - 57 mile range). If I had my own charger and the ability to L1/L2 charge nightly, I would certainly keep the car. I live in a condo building and have to use public chargers 1-3x per week for energy.

Nissan's offer is significantly above the current KBB private party value for the car, so I don't think I would do better selling the car myself or trading it in. I assume Nissan will resell it in as-is condition to a buyer who is OK with the battery status.

It is interesting that Nissan seems to have decided that repurchasing cars with 24 kWh packs is a better financial alternative for them than sourcing/producing/shipping replacement packs. Has anyone else received this kind of offer for their 2011-2015 LEAF with a pending battery replacement?

Thanks!
Robert in Honolulu
I'm sitting on Kauai, one r/t to Lihue (35 miles) and some quick trips around my neighborhood and that's it. I'd love to get contact info for the arbitration/buyback dept because the customer service specialist and legal left me hanging. They had replaced the battery at about 30K miles and I have almost another 30K on replacement battery, but they refuse to do anything even though there's only less than 60K on the car's 2 batteries. Never again! and the gov't wants us to all drive electric.....duh
 
I'm sitting on Kauai, one r/t to Lihue (35 miles) and some quick trips around my neighborhood and that's it. I'd love to get contact info for the arbitration/buyback dept because the customer service specialist and legal left me hanging. They had replaced the battery at about 30K miles and I have almost another 30K on replacement battery, but they refuse to do anything even though there's only less than 60K on the car's 2 batteries. Never again! and the gov't wants us to all drive electric.....duh
From looking at your old posts (e.g. 2012--lost 3 bars since early this year), you are WELL past the 5 year/60K mile (whichever comes first) capacity warranty, so of course they won't do anything. They're not obligated to. If you got a free replacement pack due to warranty, that doesn't reset the warranty.

The terms of warranties are usually that the warranty doesn't get extended but it could extend it by up to 1 year/12K miles, which would happen if you had the work done on the last day of original warranty.

Page 21 (corner page numbers) of https://www.nissanusa.com/content/d...af/2013/2013-Nissan-LEAF-warranty-booklet.pdf and Wayback Machine basically say this.

If it was one that was fully customer paid, Update on Nissan LEAF Battery Replacement implies that it would have its own 5 year/60K mile (whichever comes first) capacity warranty.
 
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Hopefully by then, the price tags on new EV's will have come down to something people can afford. The current numbers are just stupid.
Actually a new or late model used LEAF or Bolt seems to me to be within the "affordable" range now. What isn't so affordable is an EV pick up, SUV, or anything with a 400 mile battery pack. (in other words - no, I don't find an Ariya tempting)
 
We have just completed this process of Nissan buying back our 2017 leaf rather than replace the battery as they should have. They're giving us all that we paid for the leaf in cash and taking it back. I would have rather had the battery. The LEMON law argument that they put forth and what they owe is specious. It doesn't fall under the Lemon Law. They're just conveniently using that. At first they wanted to charge us a usage fee based on mileage. Crazy! I have a lot of thoughts about this. I would have preferred a new battery on our 2017. We wound up buying a tesla with the money. Easier but not happy about it.
 
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