2015 for $11200 w 13700 miles

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Ferrum said:
SageBrush said:
Similar battery health in those two cars, but the second car is in slightly better shape. You can probably choose based on price or model trim. Anticipate losing the 12th charge bar sometime this year, most likely in the summer.
Thank you! Is it customary to wire them the money when paying by cash?
I'm not sure who 'they' are, but I can tell you about my experience of two with car purchases at a distance:

1. Carportal: I wired the money after I received a signed bill of sale by email. Carportal then asked me to sign the bill of sale via a California approved electronic signature process. That was to pacify the state -- Carportal already had my money.

2. New Car dealership: I paid a $2000 deposit by credit card after receiving in email assurance that my deposit was fully refundable, for any reason, without any fees or penalties. A few days later I paid for the car balance by wire transfer after receipt of the bill of sale by email. In a similar vein but not electronically, the dealership then mailed me the original bill of sale for me to sign and mail back to them. Again, this was in order to be in compliance with the local state authorities rather than any particular worry from me or the car dealer over fraud.

Auto purchases are tightly (read: detailed to a fault) regulated by states because of the taxes and assorted fees involved the state collects. You should expect dealerships and brokers to all act the same. I mentioned earlier that CarPortal had some difficulty figuring out the paperwork for an out of state customer. I remember Ravi sweating over whether he should update the car's MCO odometer reading to include the 20 miles he put on the car as a test drive to ensure nothing was amiss before he shipped it to me. I told him it made no difference to me but he was having visions of the California MVD revoking his broker license over an incorrect (in their eyes) entry.

If you are buying from Carportal, I just remembered another story. The day the car was to be shipped to me, Ravi emailed to say that his last inspection found a scratch he thought had happened from their last wash and polish. He apologized and offered to reimburse me the cost of repair which I thought was fine and fair. To this day, even after going over the car carefully after a wash and wax, I still cannot find whatever he saw.
 
SageBrush said:
Ferrum said:
SageBrush said:
Similar battery health in those two cars, but the second car is in slightly better shape. You can probably choose based on price or model trim. Anticipate losing the 12th charge bar sometime this year, most likely in the summer.
Thank you! Is it customary to wire them the money when paying by cash?
I'm not sure who 'they' are, but I can tell you about my experience of two with car purchases at a distance:

1. Carportal: I wired the money after I received a signed bill of sale by email. Carportal then asked me to sign the bill of sale via a California approved electronic signature process. That was to pacify the state -- Carportal already had my money.

2. New Car dealership: I paid a $2000 deposit by credit card after receiving in email assurance that my deposit was fully refundable, for any reason, without any fees or penalties. A few days later I paid for the car balance by wire transfer after receipt of the bill of sale by email. In a similar vein but not electronically, the dealership then mailed me the original bill of sale for me to sign and mail back to them. Again, this was in order to be in compliance with the local state authorities rather than any particular worry from me or the car dealer over fraud.

Auto purchases are tightly (read: detailed to a fault) regulated by states because of the taxes and assorted fees involved the state collects. You should expect dealerships and brokers to all act the same. I mentioned earlier that CarPortal had some difficulty figuring out the paperwork for an out of state customer. I remember Ravi sweating over whether he should update the car's MCO odometer reading to include the 20 miles he put on the car as a test drive to ensure nothing was amiss before he shipped it to me. I told him it made no difference to me but he was having visions of the California MVD revoking his broker license over an incorrect (in their eyes) entry.

If you are buying from Carportal, I just remembered another story. The day the car was to be shipped to me, Ravi emailed to say that his last inspection found a scratch he thought had happened from their last wash and polish. He apologized and offered to reimburse me the cost of repair which I thought was fine and fair. To this day, even after going over the car carefully after a wash and wax, I still cannot find whatever he saw.

Again thanks for sharing your experience. I've only bought 1 vehicle on my own and that was financed.
I am working w Ravi and he called you his beta test? They don't seem setup for selling in volume yet, but he is certainly much better to work with compared to the dealership internet department. How did you find carportal?
 
Ferrum said:
Again thanks for sharing your experience. I've only bought 1 vehicle on my own and that was financed.
I am working w Ravi and he called you his beta test? They don't seem setup for selling in volume yet, but he is certainly much better to work with compared to the dealership internet department. How did you find carportal?
I think I found him through Google search. He was surprised too ;-)

Calling me a 'beta' is his way of beating himself up a little over his uncertainty in handling the paperwork, but that was because I was his first out of state *and* at a distance sale. It bothered him a whole lot more than it ever bothered me. I know he has been selling cars locally in the Bay area for a while. Did he say he was unable to sell you a car from his current inventory ? That would surprise me.

You know, you probably have another option with Ravi: head up to his warehouse (via friend, bus, whatever) and drive the car home. I bet he would be happy to collect you from nearby. I am not from CA but it is my understanding that DC fast charging stations are now available to make the drive down to LA. I mention this mostly out of a guess that whatever hesitancy you feel from him is related to paperwork at a distance. It would also save you some costs involved in getting the car home if you have the day to spend. Check out plugshare.com for the charger station map. This of course presumes that your car has DC QC ...
 
Not sure where to post this but I wanted to thank everyone for their input on my newbie buying questions (this thread and elsewhere). One of the reasons I like the Leaf over the Ford Focus Electric is the active forum and the shared knowledge from a community.

The short story is that I ended up with a 2017 SV this week and am happy as a clam.
34229581370_ebd7d9b848_n.jpg


Here's the long story.

I was minding my children at a playground one day when a loud crash announced that a vehicle had ploughed into my parked 2005 Honda Element. A week later I was $8K richer but without a ride.

I started researching vehicles like I was cramming for an exam as every additional week was costing me $ for my insurance did not cover rental reimbursement. I was disappointed at the low mpg of available CUV; I was convinced they would have made a >50mpg CUV a decade after the Prius was introduced? And why does every vehicle come with carpeted floors? That was the main reason I bought my E, for the water-resistant non-carpeted floors!

I naturally gravitated to the Kia Niro except that it was not yet available. This led me to think of buying a used EV to use for a few years while the market matured and hopefully more fuel efficient CUV would be available. That's how I started to look at the most sold ev in the USA. I remembered how helpful the Element Owners forum was and immediately started spending my research time here. With the help of Turo, I even rented a 2012 Leaf for a week and was surprised at how much I liked it. I set my sights on used 2013 SV and would have pulled the trigger through Carportal if they were setup and ready to go. I hope that in the future, more online auto purchase options are available as I cringe at the current process for auto purchase.

The $10K below MSRP deals reeled me into purchasing new. My commute is typically <10miles and twice a week I make a 30 mile roundtrip. But monthly we take a >50 mile out to LA. And should there be a job change the range on the 2017 Leaf could accommodate that.

Meanwhile, I rented my way through 3 different ev s: Leaf, Mercedes B Class, FFE. The oddest thing was that the Mercedes took longer than the Leaf to trickle charge and had a warning pop up (3 times) that resulted in me returning it early for the owner to take to dealer. The FFE was a great combination of value and luxury, noiseless interior, but I could not live with the poor trunk space. We also had more trouble with smooth driving on the FFE which did not have an equivalent B/eco mode and the kids are prone to motion sickness. By the time I signed and drove the new Leaf home, it was a welcome finality. The simple dashboard was such a welcome. The smooth drive that I could do effortlessly (when brain is on autopilot). And the fact that I have not even had to charge once in the 5 days I have driven my new Leaf to work!
 
GerryAZ said:
Enjoy your new ride! The factory tests the QC so that accounts for 1 and the dealer added another.
Thanks!
Got down to 14 miles remaining at the end of my excursion to Oxnard today! Misjudged how much battery the Camarillo grade (7% incline) would eat. What's the best app for routing evs? The included navigation on the Leaf is not smart in this sense.
 
I don't know of any LEAF EV apps that do a good job of calculating topography.
If you hunt through my earlier posts you will find a calculation you can perform yourself.

You should have plugshare, so you will know where to grab some charge if needed.
 
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