azdre
Well-known member
DaveinOlyWA said:Can your issue wait 6 months? now, there is no guarantee Nissan will do anything in 6 months but then again, i cant see them just letting it go either
The answer is maybe. At this point, my 100% range with conservative 5.0 mi/kWh driving to LBW is about 58 miles, 6 months ago, it was 80 miles. Commute is 40, gym is another 20, lunch is usually 5. I'm already unable to drive routes that I had absolutely no issue with 6 months ago. It's not a showstopper yet, but I may only be a few months away from needing to get another hybrid just so opossum and I can both get to work and back on the same day. I HATE the idea of going back to an ICE, but I may not have a choice until I can save up a few bucks for my Model S (assuming those stand the test of time).
There are also a few problems with shutting up and waiting. If no one demands that this be addressed, why would it ever be addressed, in 1 month, 2 months, 6 months? I LOVE this car, it is extremely well-built, comfortable, and fun to drive. I expected glitches, issues, etc. but I also expected Nissan's published expectations (poor sentence, but it's late and I'm struggling to come up with better words) to come in within the ballpark. 70-80% in 5 years... AWESOME. 70% in 4 years, ok, obviously something was unknown and risk is there. 70% in 1.2 years is utterly outrageous and significantly outside of the expectation, advertisements, EPA ratings, etc.
Also, waiting to see what happens will put a lot of us outside of our lemon law protection (what little there is in this situation).
Caracalover said:They did know that high heat could be detrimental to the vehicle, as it is for all vehicles.
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I do doubt that Nissan knew this was an issue
They did or didn't know?... Anyway... When asked about battery performance and warranty, Mark Perry very specifically cited Phoenix, Arizona as a place where we should not be concerned about parking our car outside on a hot day. If he did know, he lied. If he didn't know, this is poor engineering or manufacturing. Either way, it's not the consumer that should bear the brunt of this.
Caracalover said:A fix for this "issue" would be to give all of us 10 bars on the gauge instead of 12 (18KWH usable or less), so the degradation would not show up for an even longer time.
This is not true. I noticed a reduction in range about a month before losing the first capacity bar. A 40 mile commute that I could do in 5-6 fuel bars started taking 6-7, then 7-8, now 8-9. The change from 5-6 to 6-7 actually happened in a very mild March here in Phoenix, and from then it got bad... FAST.
Caracalover said:20, 30, or 50%? Even two bars down would give you far more utility than that - if I am overly patronizing, it is likely due to you over dramatizing.
This is not being overly dramatic. If you take my real range of 58 miles to LBW as compared to 80 miles 6 months ago, I have 72.5% of my original capacity after 15 months of ownership. It seems that I am only weeks ahead of at least 30 other cars in warm climates that will experience the same phenomenon. There is no indication yet of this leveling off.
I love that Nissan came out and tried this, and I do applaud them for it. But by not including TMS, they made a fatal flaw that could doom the program with bad press. I have owned Nissans most of my life, except for a brief stint with an Audi and a 2002 Insight and am bummed that they are failing me now. I'm not convinced that a lot of the rest of the country won't be a few months to a year behind us in the Southwest with respect to capacity loss.
I want consumers to be aware of this issue, because I do not think the LEAF should continue to be sold under the current EPA ratings nor the advertised expectations of 80% after 5 years. The forward-looking statement of residual capacity can and should be wholly thrown-out until there are actually an overwhelming majority of cars that have made it that far with that capacity. We know many batteries that will not be at 80% at 5 years (because they've already past that threshold), and we know of 0 that will definately be at 80% at 5 years.