advice: shopping for used 2011 Leaf

[FlybyNight17]

A used 2011 Leaf costs about $14K here, while a 4y lease of a new Leaf would cost about $9600 (no more rebates in Oregon)

Your profile says "Oakland, CA". My recommendation assumed that you would lease in California, not Oregon, and save $2,500.

Thank you for all of your help! I will do my homework and figure out how to save the most money.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

As someone who will be shouldering a lot of student debt, I'd like to be as frugal as possible. I don't mind having to plug in during the winter--I will get to campus early each day and there are many EVSEs. It seems that buying the used car would cost less money in the long-term. Have I missed an important factor?

With a new car, you'll pay a lot more for insurance, and excise tax if you have that there. But you'll also get a 3yr/36k warranty. A lightly degraded used car battery would still last you many years if you can plug in at school, you might need new tires, but the other major systems seem pretty reliable so far. You'll never have a muffler fall off anyway!

 

[Moof]

We picked up a used 2011 Leaf with ~30k miles for under $15k in very good shape. I live in Portland, OR, and it was a lease return from someone living in Vancouver, WA (found a business car stuck in the manual). I probably should have done more to find out the battery condition, but it has 12 bars at least.

Leases just aren't our thing. I figure that if i can get ~7 years and another 70k miles more, it will have paid for itself. It is mostly keeping the miles off my truck as a commuter car for ~15-40 miles a day. We put half down, and have $200/month payments for 3 years. A newer slightly longer range Leaf would have been nice, but I am very glad to have low payments. Even at $5500 for a fresh battery at ~100 k miles, getting another 100k miles for 9 cents a miles ($0.03 electricity plus $0.055 battery cost) is pretty darn awesome.

Most of the previous advise is very good. Know what you are getting into, it is like being stuck with a 3 gallon tank, but one that magically fills back up every night. Charging away from home is a pain, and look at where you would likely need to charge on the road for any frequent longer trips. The fast chargers along the Oregon coast are run by AeroVironment for example, which is a pretty lame system (must call for one-time use, and only has a $20/mo. plan). Until the DC quick chargers get more prevalent and the networks settle down, I suspect the vast majority of Leaf drivers are charging at home nearly exclusively.

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
Are you by chance an Apple fan? For those who don't get the reference, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogcow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

 

[RonDawg]

As someone who will be shouldering a lot of student debt, I'd like to be as frugal as possible. I don't mind having to plug in during the winter--I will get to campus early each day and there are many EVSEs. It seems that buying the used car would cost less money in the long-term. Have I missed an important factor?

With a new car, you'll pay a lot more for insurance, and excise tax if you have that there. But you'll also get a 3yr/36k warranty. A lightly degraded used car battery would still last you many years if you can plug in at school, you might need new tires, but the other major systems seem pretty reliable so far. You'll never have a muffler fall off anyway!

Another thing to consider are the improvements made for the 2013 and again for the 2015 model years. The 2013 SV and SL models added a "B" mode for increased regen and more importantly a less power-hungry heater. 2015 of course has the supposedly more heat-tolerant battery but where the OP is going to take this car, sustained periods of hot temperatures is not an issue.

But if the OP knows the limitations and the pitfalls of buying an older Leaf, there's nothing wrong with getting one. However I would consider a 2012 model instead as those came standard with seat and steering wheel heaters, which help reduce the need to use the power-hungry cabin heater (especially in a milder cold climate like western Oregon).

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

^^^
Are you by chance an Apple fan? For those who don't get the reference, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogcow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Or the waterpipe?

 

[Moof]

^^^
Are you by chance an Apple fan? For those who don't get the reference, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogcow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

I was at one point. I've been using Moof as my alias for about 20 years. I picked it up when I was learning to program my Mac, but ended up becoming a hardware engineer instead of a programmer. These days computers are like almost any sort of appliance, grab whichever one gets the job done.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Even at $5500 for a fresh battery at ~100 k miles, getting another 100k miles for 9 cents a miles ($0.03 electricity plus $0.055 battery cost) is pretty darn awesome.

If you need 40 miles' worth of range, I doubt you will get to 100k before you need that new battery. If you only need 20 miles, then it will probably work.