ExLeafOwner
New member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2020
- Messages
- 1
Hey folks,
I bought a Nissan Leaf in Perth West Australia back in November of 2019.
The car had 7 bars of battery health, 35,000 KM and a manufacture date 2012.
I knew that the battery was degraded and that it would need replacing within 2-3 years. I had planned on it.
I has an issue with it almost immediately when on a hot day (38C), the car refused to turn on giving me the t/m system malfunction error. After about 10 attempts it turned on. So i was able to drive it out of the supermarket parking lot. After reading up on the issue I upgraded the 12v battery to a new one, this did not fix the ongoing error.
This error occurred on multiple other occasions, always when the ambient temperatures were high and when driving/charging the car had contributed to higher battery temperatures. The car was sent to Nissan Wangara for diagnostics and it was determined that there was a major fault with the big battery. I was going to try and cut a deal with the dealership (a Car Auction House) over a new battery. Due to the fault (rather than being a working degraded battery), Nissan said that the Australian battery replacement program ($10,000) was unavailable for me and that the replacement battery would cost about $30,000 dollerydoos (Australian dollars).
I just wanted to share this bad experience for other would-be owners. One of the things that's most concerning about the experience was Nissan's unwillingness to perform the battery upgrade, given that anyone (who may have bought a new LEAF) could find themselves with a similar fault. I was lucky that there was still under Australian statuary warranty and the seller of legally required to refund me.
I should clarify that I had called Nissan Australia before purchasing the car and clarified a story (that has run in Australian media) claiming that a Nissan Leaf owner was quoted $30,000 for a battery replacement. The customer care representative told me over the phone that the dealership had not acted in accordance with Nissan policy and that it wouldn't happen again. Clearly there's some bad communication happening within Nissan around battery replacements in Australia.
The car has since been returned and refunded by the original seller.
I bought a Nissan Leaf in Perth West Australia back in November of 2019.
The car had 7 bars of battery health, 35,000 KM and a manufacture date 2012.
I knew that the battery was degraded and that it would need replacing within 2-3 years. I had planned on it.
I has an issue with it almost immediately when on a hot day (38C), the car refused to turn on giving me the t/m system malfunction error. After about 10 attempts it turned on. So i was able to drive it out of the supermarket parking lot. After reading up on the issue I upgraded the 12v battery to a new one, this did not fix the ongoing error.
This error occurred on multiple other occasions, always when the ambient temperatures were high and when driving/charging the car had contributed to higher battery temperatures. The car was sent to Nissan Wangara for diagnostics and it was determined that there was a major fault with the big battery. I was going to try and cut a deal with the dealership (a Car Auction House) over a new battery. Due to the fault (rather than being a working degraded battery), Nissan said that the Australian battery replacement program ($10,000) was unavailable for me and that the replacement battery would cost about $30,000 dollerydoos (Australian dollars).
I just wanted to share this bad experience for other would-be owners. One of the things that's most concerning about the experience was Nissan's unwillingness to perform the battery upgrade, given that anyone (who may have bought a new LEAF) could find themselves with a similar fault. I was lucky that there was still under Australian statuary warranty and the seller of legally required to refund me.
I should clarify that I had called Nissan Australia before purchasing the car and clarified a story (that has run in Australian media) claiming that a Nissan Leaf owner was quoted $30,000 for a battery replacement. The customer care representative told me over the phone that the dealership had not acted in accordance with Nissan policy and that it wouldn't happen again. Clearly there's some bad communication happening within Nissan around battery replacements in Australia.
The car has since been returned and refunded by the original seller.
