No Battery Warranty Check Necessary?

[chuck101]

There isn't a single other car on the road that I know of that has a mandatory 'visit the stealership or else' warranty. I think this whole topic is useless data.

Common sense tells me that a 'check' isn't going to do anything. If something is identified in the battery, the stealership will do nothing more than swap for a new or refurb battery. I don't see how this 'check' prevents anything. The end result is the same if the battery is replaced due to being lower than 9 bars....
My car is 45 miles from the nearest Leaf approved stealership. Taking the car there for this bullshit check will cost me a day. I am not doing it.
I don't understand the fear here. Screw this check.

Nissan knows everything they need to about my car. I know this because I have to press that F'ing OK button on the stereo every time I hit the power button.......

 

[rgolladay]

I was told today, after calling corporate, that the battery warranty is good to 5 years, 60K miles for the capacity warranty, and 100K miles for a defect in workmanship - IF AND ONLY IF you bring the car in every year for a battery test. And the capacity warranty does not kick in until you have lost 3 bars. Problem is, I live out in the Texas Hill Country 65 miles from the dealer in Austin, at the maximum of my range. To drive slowly home I am putting my life at risk!. Fortunately I have not lost range that I can tell after 34,500 miles on this 2012. If I did, I would have to have it towed in, and back, at considerable expense. My conclusions are: Never buy a Leaf if you live farther than about 75% of the vehicle's range away from a dealer. Nissan could care less for the safety of its customers. to get rear ended on busy roads. Nissan could use the on-board data transfer function to collect data on the driving and charging habits, and determine battery health from that - it they wanted to. But they don't want to, which leads me to suspect that an overriding reason they want you to come in (at the risk of being read ended, in my case) is to sell me something, like new tires. The lady who fielded my questions at Corporate was somewhat rude and short with me. If you are a rural driver, my advice is to never buy a Leaf.

 

[keydiver]

You must lose FOUR bars to get a new battery. How many capacity bars have you lost? Its hard to believe someone in Texas hasn't seen any degradation on a 2012 Leaf. I'm at 39,000 bars in Florida, and a few months away from dropping my 4th bar.

 

[dhanson865]

There isn't a single other car on the road that I know of that has a mandatory 'visit the stealership or else' warranty. I think this whole topic is useless data.

Tesla has a similar policy of requiring annual service checks to keep a warranty valid. And they charge more for their annual service on the Model S. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1079637_tesla-model-s-service-contract-600-year-or-warranty-voided

vs
http://my.teslamotors.com/service/faq

How often do I need to bring my Model S in for maintenance service?

We recommend that you bring your Model S into the nearest Service Center for maintenance service every 12,500 miles (20,000 km) or once a year, whichever comes first. Please use our Find Us page to find a Service Center near you.
If I choose not to service my Model S, will this void my warranty or Resale Value Guarantee?

It is highly recommended that you service your Model S once a year or every 12,500 miles (20,000 km). If you do not follow this recommendation, your New Vehicle Limited Warranty will not be affected. If you are financing your Model S through Tesla Financing, you will only be eligible for the full Resale Value Guarantee if your Model S is brought in for service per the above recommended timeline.

I think there are 3 classes of Model S owners that need to do the annual service. Lease, extended warranty, and resale value guarantee. If you aren't in those groups you have the option of ditching the annual service. It's not a rip off but it isn't cheap vs mass market cars. It's clearly aimed at luxury car buyers expectations of maintenance costs.

At least with Nissan it's only a few bucks and you can do the rest yourself.

 

[davewill]

Well, technically, Nissan can't actually "void" your warranty over missing a battery check. In order to refuse a claim, they would have to prove that skipping the battery check caused the issue you were claiming. Since the battery check isn't maintenance in any meaningful way, but just a readout of data, that would be pretty hard to do. The best they could manage would be that they might have caught a problem sooner.

But who wants to have to fight about it? is there absolutely no opportunity to charge between the dealership and your house? Even a hour on a 120v plug somewhere could allow you to make the trip.

 

[kubel]

Just to clarify, there has not been a single case of a battery warranty being denied due to not having the checks done. The thread linked to earlier was dealing with opt-out exemptions.

The warranty wording from Nissan is consistent with Magnuson–Moss, and states that the warranty can be denied if not having the test causes damage. It doesn't say you will be denied if you don't do the tests- only if it can be shown that the tests would have prevented an issue.

Because Nissan does not offer this service for free indefinitely, the battery checks (beyond the freebies) are known as a "tie-ins". Tie-ins are only permitted if the manufacturer gets a waiver from the FTC and proves that such a tie-in is necessary for the proper function of the car, **or** provides the checks for free. I'll let you guess as to whether or not Nissan actually has this waiver. (hint: they don't)

In short, if you are denied a warranty repair for not having the annual check performed, take them to court. You'll win.

 

[rgolladay]

You must lose FOUR bars to get a new battery. How many capacity bars have you lost? Its hard to believe someone in Texas hasn't seen any degradation on a 2012 Leaf. I'm at 39,000 bars in Florida, and a few months away from dropping my 4th bar.

Hard to believe maybe, but true. I don't drive the car fast, and almost never use A/C, I rarely charge past 80%. I have not lost any capacity bars. 34,500 miles. Still, given my situation, I'm not going to take the thing in to the dealer anymore. Too dangerous driving slow to achieve 65 mile distance one way on the return trip. I still say this is an impractical car for someone living more than about 75% of the extreme range from a dealer.

 

[TomT]

You may not have lost any bars (yet) but you have definitely lost some capacity... Only Leaf Spy will tell you how much...

I have not lost any capacity bars. 34,500 miles.

 

[rgolladay]

Mt. kdriver, I think I was wrong in what I said. But still confused. I show 10 white bars left to the far right. But when I charge it up at home all the way, to the immediate left of those 10 bars, it comes up showing 12 bars of charge. What gives ?

 

[mwalsh]

Mt. kdriver, I think I was wrong in what I said. But still confused. I show 10 white bars left to the far right. But when I charge it up at home all the way, to the immediate left of those 10 bars, it comes up showing 12 bars of charge. What gives ?

Far right bars are total capacity left. The ones immediately next to are total fuel left.

 

[dgpcolorado]

...If you are a rural driver, my advice is to never buy a Leaf.

It certainly is true that rural folks have to work harder to make a short-range LEAF work. For me it was worth it to drive electric. My nearest dealer is 92 miles (and three mountain passes — 8000 cumulative vertical feet) away. When my car was fairly new I actually made the entire drive home from the dealer on a single charge in warm September. But in winter? Not a chance. I solve the problem with an overnight stay at a motel midway that has a 240V outlet that I can use. Is it a hassle, and a bit more expensive, than what the city folks deal with? Sure. But my car hasn't really needed any service except for those battery checks, so I guess I lucked out.

Although I paid for my third battery check last December (plus the motel stay and two days of my time) I'm leaning toward skipping it this year. I'll never qualify for the capacity warranty and in the unlikely event that my battery fails I'll just fight them on the warranty claim, if it even comes to that.

It's of interest to me that getting a Tesla will mean an even longer service call: 300 miles and a lot of mountains each way. At least I could drive it easily using Superchargers and stay overnight with friends for free. But if the car isn't driveable that could be an expensive hassle. Nevertheless, there are several new Teslas in my area, so some people are taking the chance.

 

[rgolladay]

Mr. mwalsh. How is it possible to have more fuel left (12) bars, then battery capacity (10 bars) ?

 

[Firetruck41]

Think of it like the bars on the left telling you how full your tank is, and the bars on the right telling you how big your tank is. If you only have ten bars on the right, your "tank" is smaller than when it was new/had 12 bars.

 

[mwalsh]

^ That.

When your car is new you have 12 bars worth of 12 bars when fully charged. Now you have 12 bars worth of 10 bars when fully charged.

 

[Evoforce]

After doing extensive digging on this subject, I find that the battery replacements are being done without the annual battery checks. I have spoken with many service writers and a Nissan battery technician specifically about this issue. Yes, It does state that an annual check is required but... If you take your car in because it is down to 8 bars, they will test it to see if your battery has truly degraded to that. If it has, and your car falls within the warranty period/mileage, they will send a request to Nissan for replacement along with that last battery check and no other battery check information. For those of you who are very conservative and need the feeling that you absolutely complied, get all the annual tests done. For those of you who don't do all the tests, they have been replacing those batteries too, if bad. One exception to all of this is if you purposely opted out.