Buying used? Short New England commute. Warranty?

[mkarolian]

I recently accepted a job offer that requires me to purchase a new car. The commute is only 12 miles round trip meaning in a whole week I'd only be driving about 60 miles. HR has told me that there is a 220volt EV charger in the parking garage that is free to use. I live in a condo that would FREAK OUT if I ever plugged the car into an outlet in our garage... meaning that really I am only going to be charging at work.

I took an extended test drive of a new Nissan Leaf this past weekend and absolutely fell in love with the car. We drove it approx 60 miles and failed returned it with 20% left, which was totally awesome. After the test drive I started looking at some used options at really competitive prices. For example a 2012 with 16k miles for $17k, a 2012 with 17k miles for $18 and a 2011 with 40k miles for $16k.

How worried should I be about the health of a battery on a used car? Will Nissan honor the battery warranty if the car is sold used?

Best,
Matt

 

[RonDawg]

As long as you will have reliable workplace charging, a Leaf will work fine for you. But, if that charging station becomes broken, or others want to use it as well, you might have a problem if you don't have an alternative plan.

As far as battery health, that is a legitimate concern. Using CarFax, see if the car was once registered in an area like Phoenix; if so, it may be an OK buy if the battery has been replaced on it. Also get a tool like LeafSpy to allow you to see how much capacity is actually left. Even though you have ultra short commute, winters in your area will shorten range significantly and you may want to use the car for more than just commuting.

Yes Nissan will honor a warranty on a used car, BUT note that if the previous owner or lessee decided to opt out of a lawsuit known as Klee v. Nissan North America, there is a possibility that Nissan may have branded the VIN in its computers to make it ineligible for the 5 year/60k battery capacity warranty. Before you do buy a used Leaf, I recommend having a Nissan dealer that is "Leaf-certified" (they are if they sell new Leafs) do a comprehensive inspection, including battery inspection report. Their computers will tell you if the car you brought in has the dreaded "B0133" branding on it.

Also note that the 2012's came standard with seat (including back seat) and steering wheel heaters to make your winter commute more comfortable while helping to preserve range. I'm not sure if these were even an option for the 2011's.

 

[mkarolian]

RonDawg,
My thoughts are even if for some reason the charger goes down at the office, there are a few other chargers in the city I can sneak some juice off of.

I'd not heard of the Klee v. Nissan case, I'll be sure to check into that. Also I'll be googling LeafSpy for sure!

Thanks for the help!