Why shouldn't I buy a used Leaf ?

[TooLateForAName]

Willy Nilly said:

If there is a problem with the battery, how much would it cost to fix?

Talk to Mike at Indra http://indra.co.uk/
Last I heard in the order of £1500 to refurb your own battery. Basic cost of around £1K then a variable add on depending on how many battery modules need replacing.

[LasseV]

TooLateForAName said:

Come back when you know anything about the subject.

Batteries don't like temperature extremes and the leaf doesnt have lots of battery temperature management kit so yes there were a number of failures in some states with very high temperatures. Similarly there have been issues with cars in North Africa.

This is totally not an issue in the UK.

Hi, i'm back!

I own an old Prius and i have read a lot of about hybrid/EV cars battery packs. Truth to be told, they sucks in this day and age if you buy 2nd hand car. Heat issue is the smallest issue of all. Biggest issue is when battery packs loose their charging capabilities. And oh boy, they will do that. In Prius is not THAT big issue, you just get little bit of worse MPG and you will loose performance quite a bit. In EV car it is more critical issue. So IRL you do have to change battery packs and they are quite expensive.

Battery pack refurb is one option, but they doesn't always work. It's a little bit of gamble and im not sure am i ready to take that bet.

Electric motor is the future in cars, but i wouldn't buy 2nd hand EV car at the moment.

[TooLateForAName]

LasseV said:

Hi, i'm back!

Still don't seem to know anything though...

[Flooble]

Took me 30 seconds to google this:

https://survey.pluginamerica.org/leaf/Leaf-Battery...

Seems to be following the linear trend predicted in the first couple of paragraphs.

[Gareth79]

ikarl said:

I'm also toying with the idea of getting a 2nd hand one like yourself an dive Ben looking at some mods(mainly Americans) to make them look a little better - lower suspension, better alloys etc and tbh, I quite like the look of them

I haven't looked into this (since mine is on PCP) but I am sure better suspension and different wheels would help a lot. I'm not sure if the steering feel can be modified but that might help a little, make it more responsive.

A couple of niggles about the Leaf that would annoy me long-term:

Hitting a pothole triggers either the ABS or stability control - one my work commute there is one just before a junction and a few times I have missed it I'm left with limited braking coming up to the junction!

Another thing - when you nip out of a junction into a gap but apply too much power you might wheelspin. In the Leaf this imposes a 75% (or so) drop in power for a *couple of seconds*, so you are left crawling while the other cars barrel down. This means you need to be really careful exiting junctions in slippy conditions.

[LasseV]

TooLateForAName said:

Still don't seem to know anything though...

Meh. I did my homeworks back then. I admit that i drive a lot, but range (with a new battery pack) wasn't an big issue because we have a 3 cars. For me problem is that warranty, it runs out when the car hits 100t miles (150t km's). If you don't believe that batteries will cost owner's a lot of £££ in the future, thats fine for me.

That survey was old and small sample size and heavily affected by nissan. Take it how you want it.

[TooLateForAName]

LasseV said:

Meh. I did my homeworks back then. I admit that i drive a lot, but range (with a new battery pack) wasn't an big issue because we have a 3 cars. For me problem is that warranty, it runs out when the car hits 100t miles (150t km's). If you don't believe that batteries will cost owner's a lot of £££ in the future, thats fine for me.

That survey was old and small sample size and heavily affected by nissan. Take it how you want it.

Better avoid diesels with their DPF's, and any car with a DMF, or high pressure fuel injection systems, or DSG or.....

[LasseV]

TooLateForAName said:

Better avoid diesels with their DPF's, and any car with a DMF, or high pressure fuel injection systems, or DSG or.....

Well, basically you are right. Our ex diesel-bmw's DPF went wrong and it did cost quite a lot to fix. Last year it was more expensive car to run than my old sport car, so what's the point of owning a economical with high running costs

[anonymous-user]

Here's a Leaf that's been used as a taxi. 170K miles!


lraftaxi


Total maintenance was "2 sets of brake pads, wiper blades and a ball joint"


if you can do 170k miles cheaper than that, you're probably going to have to be pedaling it yourself.......

[DeuxCentCinq]

OP - I have done exactly what you suggest. Although it's replacing a car that was smooshed rather than purely for financial reasons.

Will do a readers' car thread about it in due course.

[babatunde]

TooLateForAName said:

LasseV said:

Meh. I did my homeworks back then. I admit that i drive a lot, but range (with a new battery pack) wasn't an big issue because we have a 3 cars. For me problem is that warranty, it runs out when the car hits 100t miles (150t km's). If you don't believe that batteries will cost owner's a lot of £££ in the future, thats fine for me.

That survey was old and small sample size and heavily affected by nissan. Take it how you want it.

Better avoid diesels with their DPF's, and any car with a DMF, or high pressure fuel injection systems, or DSG or.....

And obviously all his other cars have an unlimited mileage manufactures warranty.

For the OP's commute of 40 miles, a leaf is just about perfect, especially if he can charge at work, end of the day it's a used car and sometimes like all cars it may breakdown,but the lack of moving parts in an Electric car helps with that.

[Frimley111R]

Regarding the batteries, Honda Insights (Mk1) seemed to have lasted well with old tech.

[Mr2Mike]

Frimley111R said:

Regarding the batteries, Honda Insights (Mk1) seemed to have lasted well with old tech.

The Insight was a hybrid, using old fashioned NiMH (nickel metal hydride) batteries. These batteries only provided some power assistance to the engine, you couldn't drive the car on battery power (and if you could it would have had a very poor range). NiMH batteries don't have the energy density needed for a purely electric vehicle, which is why EV's use lithium battery chemistries, and lithium batteries are rather less robust than NiMH.

[andrewrob]

LasseV said:

Leaf's battery packs doesn't last long. I read from us forum that they can last like 3 years or so... Horrible running costs for a economy car.

Mine is coming up to 4 years and 40k miles. I must be on borrowed time then, oh and still showing all 10 battery capacity bars

[dodders]

Mines nearly four years old with all 12 capacity bars.
The battery on the 24kwh is still under warranty for 5 years and would be changed by Nissan if you have 9 bars (or less)

[danp]

andrewrob said:

Mine is coming up to 4 years and 40k miles. I must be on borrowed time then, oh and still showing all 10 battery capacity bars

Assume you mean 12 bars? (Or don't you count the two red ones?)

[andrewrob]

danp said:

andrewrob said:

Mine is coming up to 4 years and 40k miles. I must be on borrowed time then, oh and still showing all 10 battery capacity bars

Assume you mean 12 bars? (Or don't you count the two red ones?)

Ah yes I mean 12!

[Frimley111R]

Mr2Mike said:

Frimley111R said:

Regarding the batteries, Honda Insights (Mk1) seemed to have lasted well with old tech.

The Insight was a hybrid, using old fashioned NiMH (nickel metal hydride) batteries. These batteries only provided some power assistance to the engine, you couldn't drive the car on battery power (and if you could it would have had a very poor range). NiMH batteries don't have the energy density needed for a purely electric vehicle, which is why EV's use lithium battery chemistries, and lithium batteries are rather less robust than NiMH.

Yes, I guess my point is that old battery tech still lasted a huge amount longer than anticipated so today's batteries should have lengthy lifespans.