Do dealers stock the Leaf?

[baronvonshush]

are 2011s (new) much cheaper than the new 2012s?

I doubt you will still find a 2011 sitting new.

A number of dealers in southern California have them. Many are likely to be demos like ours was, so I would be careful about a few things:

1. Check the mileage, and insist on a discount if it's high. Ours had a whopping 23 miles, so no issue.

2. Ask how often they've been charging and using it. If it's been sitting at 100% charge for a very long time, you might want to pass, as that's bad for the battery. Ours was closer to 20% when we test drove it, and the dealer only seemed to charge if it got really low. Probably no issue as well.

Even if not marked as a demo, I would ask about the history of any new 2011 at this point. But you should get a pretty good discount compared to 2012, as the MSRP is a few thousand lower.

Also on the topic of the battery, some have expressed concern that even a well-maintained 2011 battery is simply older than a 2012, and therefore may degrade sooner. No idea if this could really be noticeable, but we bought our 2011 last month to save some good money and are happy with the tradeoffs.

The Edmunds link earlier in this thread is a convenient way to search for either model year near you.

 

[sub3marathonman]

Sutherlin Nissan of Orlando has 6 in stock, all 2012 model year. Glacier Pearl, Silver, Black and Blue Ocean, all SL models. You have to contact internet manager John Leone. They are a great dealership. They helped me with a buyout of the lease for the Silver Leaf I had gotten at another dealership where I ended up being very dissatisfied.

Another dealer that still has a 2011 Demo is Rountree Moore Nissan in Lake City Florida. The salesman there is Jesse. That one is red, which was my first choice for color.

 

[martel]

Dealers in the central NC area are starting to show Leaf's in stock, not orphans.

Makes me wonder why mine still says June...

 

[mkjayakumar]

That makes me wonder why many of you go through the hassle of ordering process at all, when you can actually go to a few Nissan dealers and pick the one you like. Like what I did.

I did not even know that you have to order online and wait, until I read about that here after I bought my Leaf !

 

[smkettner]

Dealers in the central NC area are starting to show Leaf's in stock, not orphans.

Makes me wonder why mine still says June...

Because it is made and shipped to you specifically.
Ordering does not include a dealer search to find the closest match.

 

[TurboFroggy]

Cars.com has a great search engine for finding any kind of car within a radius.

Here for an example is all the Leafs within 75 miles of your zip code:

http://www.cars.com/for-sale/new/ni...Nm=price&sf1Dir=ASC&sf2Nm=location&sf2Dir=ASC

Currently shows 70 available.

 

[martel]

Dealers in the central NC area are starting to show Leaf's in stock, not orphans.

Makes me wonder why mine still says June...

Because it is made and shipped to you specifically.
Ordering does not include a dealer search to find the closest match.

Unnecessary and strangely self defeating business process.
I suppose because all the dealers operate as independent entities.

Match orders with in stock allocations nearby and sell more cars.
Simple.

 

[KJD]

Cars.com has a great search engine for finding any kind of car within a radius.

Used the cars.com site to search for New Leafs within 100 miles of my zip code. There were 6 total. It looked like 1 car each at 6 different dealerships.

This pretty much says that Leafs sales will be very low in Utah this year.

KJD

 

[Cheezmo]

Did a search around Dallas. There were 9, 1 was a 2012, the rest 2011.

 

[aqn]

Last time I was on their lot, Towne North Nissan in Austin Texas has several in stock!

I was talking to one of their sales guys at the "April Fuels Day" event and he said that a Nissan dealer in Houston had a LEAF fleet deal fall apart so they farmed out the unsold LEAFs to nearby Nissan dealers to sell for them.

 

[NOVA]

Chantilly Nissan (VA) has 10 in stock...$1000 off sticker
http://www.nissanchantilly.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[redLEAF]

Cars.com shows 43 LEAF's (14 are 2011's and the rest are '12's) within 50 miles on my zip outside Chicago, lowest price listed was $33,994 for an '11 SL in white showing only 8 miles.


http://www.cars.com/go/search/detai...pp=50&feedSegId=28705&aff=national&listType=1