If you knew then.. what you know now....

[Teamfrisky]

I would NOT have purchased my Leaf. We have less than 40,000 miles and are down 5 bars on a 2011. With the price of a new battery at $8000+ it is a stretch to find economic or environmental justification for buying a Leaf. I was willing to purchase a new battery for $5500 even though the return is marginal.

We were careful to charge to 80% until the range was too low to be functional. We also garaged our Leaf in a cooled environment and even so the battery degraded to less than 50% of the range in 35,000 miles.

We are very disappointed with Nissan in how the EV program has been managed.

Dwight (aka Teamfrisky)

 

[badq45t]

I completely agree with the last post. What a mistake, the extra $$ for a Volt in late 2011 would have been well worth the money. The Leaf is a great driving car and we love it, but the frankly screwing we're taking from Nissan on the battery is unacceptable. I took mine in 2x and was denied both times for a replacement.

Big mistake, my 30k spent in 2011 is essentially now worthless POS. I will NEVER EVER buy a nissan again, andI am a fan boy who owns a 1984 300ZX, 1997 Q45, 20015 Xterra and the 2011 Leaf.

Bye Bye Nissan.

 

[OrientExpress]

Why did you buy your LEAF and not lease it?

That seems to be the error, not anything that Nissan did. Those of us that leased the exact same car had fantastic results.

 

[garsh]

Why did you buy your LEAF and not lease it?

Yep, leasing was the smart move. Wish I had done that. I'm just so used to keeping my cars for ~10 years. Big mistake when it comes to a Leaf.

 

[Foschas]

I purchased my 2015 and drove it for 40 months. Traded it in on a 2019. Cost for the 2015 was $120 a month. Factor in what was owed on the 2015 versus trade in value and cost increased to $205 a month. No money down after all incentives. The 15 still had 12 bars at 49,000 miles.

So purchasing can work out. Glad I wasn’t an early pre-Lizard battery adopter though. You all definitely paved the way for us.

 

[NoReleaf]

NoReleaf wrote:
No discounts, rebates, or tax credits on the Leaf for me. I really wanted an EV. The tax credit was neither here nor there for me. I only realized later that leasing disqualified me.

Hmmm. Where is all this strange stuff coming from? Nissan gives you the full value of the federal EV tax credit as a reduction in the value of the vehicle you lease. In other words, they reduce the value of the car by $7,500 plus any other applicable discounts/rebates before they calculate the monthly cost of your lease.

I guess that was strange, as I put it. Also not quite accurate, apparently.

As far as rebates go, one of the first things the salesman brought up was rebates, and apparently I qualified for none of them. Nothing specific was ever mentioned about discounts, but since I had gone in thinking purchase, I was expecting putting as much money down as I could afford to get me a better deal.

A tax credit was not an incentive for me in wanting an EV. I was only vaguely aware of it (and I do not recall the dealer bringing it up) and misunderstood it as a tax deduction anyway. As it turns out, now that I read the lease agreement again, there is quite a sum under Rebates and Non-Cash Credits or Capitalized Cost Reduction. Nothing more specific than that, but maybe some (a lot? all?) of the benefit of the tax credit pocketed by Nissan was passed along. I still wish I had been aware going in that leasing was in my interest (I'd never leased before, seemed like renting a car to me) and started the bargaining at zero or little money down.

 

[NoReleaf]

Many of the items of suckage above are still items of suckage today.

That was a fascinating post overall. Thank you.

Yes, I think the items of suckage remain in place. That is my early impression. I love driving the Leaf, but most of the wonderful things are "new car wonderful," not "EV wonderful." Maybe I'd be just as happy with an ICE vehicle that had ePedal.

 

[LeftieBiker]

As it turns out, now that I read the lease agreement again, there is quite a sum under Rebates and Non-Cash Credits or Capitalized Cost Reduction. Nothing more specific than that, but maybe some (a lot? all?) of the benefit of the tax credit pocketed by Nissan was passed along. I still wish I had been aware going in that leasing was in my interest (I'd never leased before, seemed like renting a car to me) and started the bargaining at zero or little money down.

That was where some of the tax credit went - to you as a CCR. Nissan kept the rest.

 

[NoReleaf]

But mostly my overarching emotion is disappointment. I’m disappointed that Nissan didn’t take this bold first vehicle and parlay that into an amazing first-mover advantage, eclipsing anything Tesla and others could possibly have done. I had expected significant range increases with subsequent models and it took years to add paltry amounts.

I think this is a pretty common viewpoint among fans of the Leaf, and it is precisely what I was getting at when I characterized the general reviews of Nissan here as negative. I acquired my Leaf before I knew this forum existed. What I've learned here hasn't made me regret anything besides not being a more well-informed and savvy buyer, but the realization that Nissan has fumbled this, as so aptly put above, does give me pause. It's not a big deal, but it makes it ever so slightly less enjoyable to think that this Leaf is just a starter EV from the company that couldn't get it right rather than (metaphorically) the iPhone I bought right away because I knew it was going to set the world on fire and would only get better. (I didn't really do this with the iPhone. Everyone in the world had one before I did.)

 

[alozzy]

iPhones suck!

 

[NoReleaf]

iPhones suck!

Heh. Did I jump on the wrong bandwagon there, too? I'll get a Samsung if you tell me it's the Tesla of smartphones.

 

[alozzy]

LOL, I run a Cloud Desktop hosting company so I'm not really a typical user. I appreciate the flexibility and customizations of the Android platform and the fact that it's not tied to proprietary hardware. Most people don't care about those things, they just want an easy to use phone and to feel like they belong to a tribe

 

[NoReleaf]

Yeah, I used to have something of an Apple tribe thing going, but I'm not so particular these days. For most of what I do, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the Mac OS or iOS from something that just looked like it.

 

[cwerdna]

NoReleaf wrote:
No discounts, rebates, or tax credits on the Leaf for me. I really wanted an EV. The tax credit was neither here nor there for me. I only realized later that leasing disqualified me.

Hmmm. Where is all this strange stuff coming from? Nissan gives you the full value of the federal EV tax credit as a reduction in the value of the vehicle you lease. In other words, they reduce the value of the car by $7,500 plus any other applicable discounts/rebates before they calculate the monthly cost of your lease.

I guess that was strange, as I put it. Also not quite accurate, apparently.

As far as rebates go, one of the first things the salesman brought up was rebates, and apparently I qualified for none of them. Nothing specific was ever mentioned about discounts, but since I had gone in thinking purchase, I was expecting putting as much money down as I could afford to get me a better deal.

A tax credit was not an incentive for me in wanting an EV. I was only vaguely aware of it (and I do not recall the dealer bringing it up) and misunderstood it as a tax deduction anyway. As it turns out, now that I read the lease agreement again, there is quite a sum under Rebates and Non-Cash Credits or Capitalized Cost Reduction. Nothing more specific than that, but maybe some (a lot? all?) of the benefit of the tax credit pocketed by Nissan was passed along. I still wish I had been aware going in that leasing was in my interest (I'd never leased before, seemed like renting a car to me) and started the bargaining at zero or little money down.

As for "strange stuff" or whatever from Dooglas and Leftie's reply at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=544641#p544641, yes, apparently, Nissan may no longer pass along the full $7500 Federal tax credit to someone leasing. They definitely did pass along the FULL amount for many years, possibly all thru model year '17.

The tax credit goes to the purchaser and if you're leasing, you're not the owner. The owner automaker/leasing company can choose to pass along 0 to the full amount.

As for any other incentives available in your state, see https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/electric-cars/leaf/cost-calculator/rebates/. It looks like there's not a lot of help for you. I put one of the zip codes for your city/town.

https://www.choosenissan.com/ lets you see Nissan's openly advertised incentives.

 

[SalisburySam]

iPhones suck!

I think about 200 million people annually disagree with you, me included.

 

[GerryAZ]

iPhones suck!

I think about 200 million people annually disagree with you, me included.

Although this is getting way off topic, I agree with Alozzy. I tolerate an iPhone for work because my employer switched from BlackBerry. I am already on my second iPhone because the battery failed and started expanding (pushing the screen out). My personal phone is a BlackBerry that runs Android.

 

[alozzy]

I think about 200 million people annually disagree with you, me included.

And far more people would say that EVs suck too

Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's better. My Moto E5 Play cost me $150 outright, is unlocked, does everything I need it to do, and has a battery I can easily replace when it wears out. Spending over $1000 on an iPhone seems outrageous to me, but I'm cheap!

 

[coach81]

Love my Iphone X.. it is amazing.. Love my AppleTV.. and thanks to Santa.. I now love my new HomePod!!!