OT Nissan Leafs Used

[cnighbor1]

I noticed that in Seattle you can get a 2015 Nissan Leaf (all electric) 6K $11500
Than I went to local Nissan dealer car lot today and looked at used leafs Price had just been dropped $6000
Are they giving away these dirt cheap
with only 85 mile range on the pre 2016 models not much range
But could work has the short drive car if your family had has a second car a gas engine car
anyone have one and what's yours opinion of them
than has charging time at 240V when depeted is 4 hours
How could I drive one home to walnut Creek, CA from Seattle assuming I can get to a charging station every 85 miles
Thanks
Charles
PS here are three examples
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/5868701707.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/5864376528.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/5872216453.html

[SoCalSteve]

I noticed that in Seattle you can get a 2015 Nissan Leaf (all electric) 6K $11500
Than I went to local Nissan dealer car lot today and looked at used leafs Price had just been dropped $6000
Are they giving away these dirt cheap
with only 85 mile range on the pre 2016 models not much range
But could work has the short drive car if your family had has a second car a gas engine car
anyone have one and what's yours opinion of them
than has charging time at 240V when depeted is 4 hours
How could I drive one home to walnut Creek, CA from Seattle assuming I can get to a charging station every 85 miles
Thanks
Charles
PS here are three examples
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/5868701707.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/5864376528.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/5872216453.html

I believe an issue with the Leaf is that the older the batteries are, the mileage range drops. I don't think you will get 85 mile range. You may want to go to one of the Leaf Forums and get real world opinions.

I looked into this at one point ( as the prices seemed really great ) but the detraction was the loss of range.

Good luck!

PS: if this isn't important to you, then pay to have one trucked to you. You won't have to worry about charging it along the route. My uncle in law has a Tesla. He winters in FL and has another home outside of Boston. He has it trucked to him for the winter and then back.

[carpediemracing]

In my neverending quest for TDI replacement cars, I visited the plug in EV idea, like the Leaf, the eGolf, etc. It's great for short trips and such. Based on talking with a EV owner (Fit) and one other, it seems that range is halved in the winter, based on cold, using a heater, etc. My Fit friend has a 40 mile each-way commute and he can't use the heat in the winter else he won't make it to work. There's a charger at work but apparently it's more uphill going home because he's had to stop to charge the car on the way home.

Now, for us, the Missus's office is about 4 miles away. It's her business so it's not likely to move very far. We're not likely to move. So a Leaf/etc would be a pretty realistic car.

Until we started thinking of the places we go which are just a little bit further away. It's simply not practical right now for year round driving.

The other thing is that we regularly drive a bit further. If our "other" car was out of commission, for whatever reason, and we only had the Leaf/etc, we'd be very limited in where we could easily go.

This made me look at plug-in hybrids. Plug in, charge, and use the charge for short trips. On longer trips the engine would kick in. The only realistic car that I could find were used Volts, with it's 30 mile EV range (halve that in the winter). Other plug in hybrids were too expensive and/or their EV range extremely limited, like 10 miles or something. The Volt seemed like it might work, with its EV capability for most of our driving but with a gas engine to keep going once it hit its EV limits. In addition the newer ones have some kind of button to regenerate (when coasting down a hill or braking). The one electric bike I rode for a bit had that button. I like that kind of stuff.

But then I read reviews about the car and it seemed that there are regular issues with the car. I didn't do a CarMax warranty query on it so no idea of its operating costs relative to other cars.

In the end I decided against EV.

[Cicli]

Whats not to love?
Cant go anywhere and anti-theft styling to boot. :bike:

[cmg]

here's a video on upgrading the charger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tousBn84r-I here's a link to installing a battery upgrade for greater distance. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=21873 http://evobsession.com/hybrid-industries-now-offering-third-party-nissan-leaf-battery-pack-upgrades-160-miles-per-charge-for-6500/ http://hybridindustries.webs.com/ go to craigslist and see if there's someone in your neck of the woods that can do the upgrades. this is an example of the fear automakers must have when looking at electric cars. there will always upgrades available. with fewer parts to go wrong as soon as they design obsolescence they'll be a start up providing a workaround.

[Elefantino]

I believe the plural is "Leaves"?

[ajhapps]

I drove a LEAF as a commuter car for a little while (got to use it for about 3 months when my buddy's Model S came in early). I liked it a lot, but was only going about 15 or 20 miles each way, each day. It is awesome to never, ever have to fill up with gas. It cost <$1 to charge each night, and I was always good to go in the morning. Smooth, quiet, and efficient!

Not much cold in the Bay Area, so can't comment on winter range. The car I was driving was at the very end of a 3 year lease, and the fully-charged range was about ~80 miles, vs. 85 or so new. Not terrible.

The only real downside was the budget car interior, but given I was spending like an hour in the car total, it wasn't a big deal. Can't think of a better commuter option for that price range.

[Velosmith]

We purchased a 2015 with 9k milage Certified PreOwned and a 100k warranty for $13k. At that price I just said "well, I got to do that!". It will replace one of our TDI Wagons as a around town, get me to work and back car. For that use-case it is a really lovely car.

A couple of cautions when buying. Either buy it from a dealer as we did with all of the battery tests done (insist on seeing the results) or agree with the seller that you will buy pending a test. It will cost you ~$60 but may save you $5500. There are hacks that temporarily resets the dash meters to 100%. It is a wide enough problem that there are YouTube videos on the subject. That's it. There are over 1200 parts on a gas engine that can go wrong. An electric motor has 16 so they are very reliable.

We have been surprised at how well it drives and handles in-town and on the freeway. So far we are just using the trickle charger overnight and I have free fast charging at work. Bikes go in the back with room to spare.

I'm not sure I would be able to have it as the only car. As a two car family it works for us very well.

[AngryScientist]

charles,

when i was recently in sanfan, i was hearing a bunch of commercials on the radio for the fiat 500e - electric car. it sounded like, with the available bay area rebates you could lease or buy a new fiat electric for practically nothing.

dont know if you've looked into that route, but it might be worth checking out.

[ultraman6970]

Get an elio... is a lot cheaper and new (7000 bucks), if you want something just to commute that thing ideal because no more than two people fit inside and you get like like 85 miles a gallon...even if you get 70... thats a lot than anything with a normal engine gets.

Or if you are into just sports cnad cool cars you have the t-rex... same concept, a lot of mpg and a lot of money, but the thing looks awesome tho.

[cmg]

Get an elio... is a lot cheaper and new (7000 bucks), if you want something just to commute that thing ideal because no more than two people fit inside and you get like like 85 miles a gallon...even if you get 70... thats a lot than anything with a normal engine gets.

Or if you are into just sports cnad cool cars you have the t-rex... same concept, a lot of mpg and a lot of money, but the thing looks awesome tho.

when will those go on the market? there has been talk of that for 3-4 years. they'll be used teslas on the market before that one ever shows up. like the one from LIT motors. always next year.

[ultraman6970]

The lit motors is a motorcycle... the elio is more like a tricycle, like the T-rex but cheaper.

Im not sure when they will be out or if they had been getting cars out of the factory already but what I do know is that elio bought one of the closed GM factories and that they are shy like 2000 units out of 60000 units they have for the promotional price. I saw last month a couple of TV commercials at night, thats how I found out about the elio like finally making it to the market.

The other thing is that looks like the elio has a descent engine... 900 cc is big enough. Those tiny engines you can take them out of the bay by hand if you need to repair them. Wish had the money, to commute and going groceries shopping, ideal.

[soulspinner]

I believe the plural is "Leaves"?

:p

[christian]

Interesting. We have a cheap station car that we use to run to the train station and run local errands. I don't think it's ever been further than 10 miles from hom. In a few years, it seems realistic to swap that for a used electric with depleted range...

[Steve in SLO]

I have a Fiat 500e on lease now, and if buyout prices are as low as retail prices, I will definitely buy it. I live 7 miles away from work, barely ever drive more than 25 miles at a time, so it is a perfect car for a small town. Besides the savings in gas, the big deal is no maintenance. Wait, I do every once in a while add air to the tires. Other than that, just get in and go. Super easy to drive, quiet, deceptively quick, and can park on a postage stamp. I can't help but think that when the 200+ mile range models hit the market, the pendulum will swing a bit further to the electric.

[Force]

I have a 2012 Leaf and love it. I use it to commute to work, where we have 10 chargers at my office complex. I rarely have to charge it at home, except on the weekends. I love not having to go to the gas station. You just have to get used to planning your driving out. If I have to drive a little farther one day, I borrow my wife's hybrid. I would recommend it. Hoping to get a Tesla one day, though!

[cmg]

do some research on Nissan leaf battery replacement. while nissan will replace the 24Kwh battery for $5,499 (after a $1,000 credit for turning in the old pack, which is required), plus installation fees and tax. The installation is estimated at roughly 3 hours of labor and fitting the replacement pack to 2011 and 2012 Nissan Leaf models requires a special $225 installation kit. nissan is NOT going to provide Leaf owners with a battery that will extend the range. they recommend you buy a new electric car. so unless you go to a 3rd party provider finding a replacement battery is going to be difficult. i had wondered how they were going to build in obsolescence since the electric simplifies the mechanics. proprietary battery design and software to the rescue.