Need an opinion for buying a 2011 CPO Nissan LEAF

Is $11K a fair deal for a 2011 CPO Nissan LEAF SL with 9 bars and 48K miles on it? And does anyone know how much it costs to replace the lithium-ion battery? Thank you so much.

Sounds way high. What was the original in service date? Where are you?

cwerdna said:

Sounds way high. What was the original in service date? Where are you?

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I just saw it on a dealer's website. I haven't checked it in person. I live in Los Angeles Area.

I didn't feel the car at the first post of http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=20452&hilit=8%2C990#p435921 with a new battery was a particularly good deal. My reasons are in my responses.

Are you hoping the car you found loses its 4th capacity bar before that 5 year/60k mile capacity warranty expires?

Can you update your location info via your user name in the upper right > User Control Panel > Profile tab? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

What are your daily driving needs in terms of miles? How much city vs. highway? Will you have the ability to charge at your work/destinations?

cwerdna said:

I didn't feel the car at the first post of http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=20452&hilit=8%2C990#p435921 with a new battery was a particularly good deal. My reasons are in my responses.

Are you hoping the car you found loses its 4th capacity bar before that 5 year/60k mile capacity warranty expires?

Can you update your location info via your user name in the upper right > User Control Panel > Profile tab? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

What are your daily driving needs in terms of miles? How much city vs. highway? Will you have the ability to charge at your work/destinations?

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My daily mileage is around 40 miles. Most of them are city. No charger at work but I have a Level 2 Charger at home because my mom has a 2015 LEAF. I am not really hoping to find a car that I can replace the battery using the warranty. I just want to find an pre-owned LEAF with a fair deal.

chuhouse2003 said:

My daily mileage is around 40 miles. Most of them are city. No charger at work but I have a Level 2 Charger at home because my mom has a 2015 LEAF. I am not really hoping to find a car that I can replace the battery using the warranty. I just want to find an pre-owned LEAF with a fair deal.

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Well, the car you listed in the OP is a horrific deal, if you ask me.

FWIW, as I posted at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=435924#p435924, my former leased '13 SV w/both premium and quick charge inlet + LED packages (build date 6/2013) and under 24K miles went at auction for $11K w/fees. So, if the used car dealer I worked with had picked it up, it would've cost $12K, since his markup is $1K, That's on a car w/at least 10 months left on the 3 year/36K mile basic warranty and almost 2 years left on the 5 year/60K powertrain warranty, etc.

There were so many great improvements on the '13+ cars (see http://sfbayleafs.org/news/2013/01/2013-nissan-leaf-product-highlights/ and http://sfbayleafs.org/commentary/2013/09/2013-vs-2011-nissan-leaf-whats-new-whats-gone-whats-changed/).

Re: battery replacement cost, per http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17168

Battery replacements are now available for purchase at your certified Nissan LEAF dealers in the United States. The suggested retail price of the Nissan LEAF battery pack is $5,499. This price includes and requires a return of your original battery pack (valued at $1,000) to the dealer in exchange for the new battery. This price does not include tax, installation fees or an installation kit required for 2011 and 2012 vehicles. The MSRP for the installation kit (which includes brackets and other minor parts required to retrofit the newer pack to original vehicles) is approximately $225. Nissan expects the installation to take about three hours. However, dealers set the final pricing, so we recommend confirming with your local retailer.

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In my area, I found the prices on used Leafs at Nissan dealers to be pretty high (as in big markup). I think you're better off looking at Craigslist and looking for a used car dealer that goes to Manheim auctions and gets lease return Leafs (NMAC and Manehim have a deal: http://press.manheim.com/2010-07-27-Manheim-partners-with-nissan-motor-acceptance-corp-And-infiniti-financial-services-to-create-a-better-faster-way-to-turn-off-lease-inventory-into-sales). Look for a 2-year lease return so that at least you have 10-11 months of basic warranty left.

cwerdna said:

chuhouse2003 said:

My daily mileage is around 40 miles. Most of them are city. No charger at work but I have a Level 2 Charger at home because my mom has a 2015 LEAF. I am not really hoping to find a car that I can replace the battery using the warranty. I just want to find an pre-owned LEAF with a fair deal.

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Well, the car you listed in the OP is a horrific deal, if you ask me.

FWIW, as I posted at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=435924#p435924, my former leased '13 SV w/both premium and quick charge inlet + LED packages (build date 6/2013) and under 24K miles went at auction for $11K w/fees. So, if the used car dealer I worked with had picked it up, it would've cost $12K, since his markup is $1K, That's on a car w/at least 10 months left on the 3 year/36K mile basic warranty and almost 2 years left on the 5 year/60K powertrain warranty, etc.

There were so many great improvements on the '13+ cars (see http://sfbayleafs.org/news/2013/01/2013-nissan-leaf-product-highlights/ and http://sfbayleafs.org/commentary/2013/09/2013-vs-2011-nissan-leaf-whats-new-whats-gone-whats-changed/).

Re: battery replacement cost, per http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17168

Battery replacements are now available for purchase at your certified Nissan LEAF dealers in the United States. The suggested retail price of the Nissan LEAF battery pack is $5,499. This price includes and requires a return of your original battery pack (valued at $1,000) to the dealer in exchange for the new battery. This price does not include tax, installation fees or an installation kit required for 2011 and 2012 vehicles. The MSRP for the installation kit (which includes brackets and other minor parts required to retrofit the newer pack to original vehicles) is approximately $225. Nissan expects the installation to take about three hours. However, dealers set the final pricing, so we recommend confirming with your local retailer.

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In my area, I found the prices on used Leafs at Nissan dealers to be pretty high (as in big markup). I think you're better off looking at Craigslist and looking for a used car dealer that goes to Manheim auctions and gets lease return Leafs (NMAC and Manehim have a deal: http://press.manheim.com/2010-07-27-Manheim-partners-with-nissan-motor-acceptance-corp-And-infiniti-financial-services-to-create-a-better-faster-way-to-turn-off-lease-inventory-into-sales). Look for a 2-year lease return so that at least you have 10-11 months of basic warranty left.

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Thank you very much!

The only way that car might be a good deal is if a Leaf Spy readout shows it on the verge of losing that 9th bar, and qualifying for a new battery from Nissan. Even then it's about $1k too high. ;-)

LeftieBiker said:

The only way that car might be a good deal is if a Leaf Spy readout shows it on the verge of losing that 9th bar, and qualifying for a new battery from Nissan. Even then it's about $1k too high. ;-)

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Although I'd never buy it and I don't know if it has a CHAdeMO inlet (which seems to artificially boost prices), if it had no CHAdeMO, even if it was certainly going to hit 8 bars before 5 years/60K miles (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=13192) is up, I'd say it's more like $3+K too high considering how bad Leaf resale value is.

From glancing thru http://cpo.nissanusa.com/brochures/faq and downloading the brochure from http://cpo.nissanusa.com/brochures?tool=cpo.top_nav.section.link, it's vague what the (7 year/100K mile from original in service date) CPO warranty covers beyond powertrain. Does it include the on-board charger, brake booster/master cylinder (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=431228#p431228), electronic parking brake (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=394052#p394052), or heater?

Some folks w/2011s had blown diodes in the OBC, possibly caused by GE Wattstation home EVSEs. Google for site:mynissanleaf.com wattstation diode. OBC is covered under the 5 year/60K mile EV system coverage warranty.

It would suck to have some pricey failures that aren't covered by warranty if the price of the car isn't low enough to help compensate for the risk.

Can't seem to get '11 Leaf manuals and warranty booklets anymore from https://owners.nissanusa.com/nowners/navigation/manualsGuide, but the '12 should be the same. (I have PDFs of the '11 booklets on my local machine.)

For reference, I did a CPO inventory search and found http://cpo.nissanusa.com/search-inventory/90024/Los-Angeles/Nissan-Leaf/details-b9blamt. I think this is the car the OP's referring to. '11 Leaf for $10,974 at Alhambra Nissan w/48,101 miles. I do see it has only 9 capacity bars left.

(If your Google-fu is weak, here is the link that cwerdna referenced)

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=7996&start=20

Thank you so much for all your help, guys. Without your opinions, I would think it is still a fair deal by what price I see using Kelly Blue Book and bought it. I guess I would do some more research and check around on different places and websites before I make my purchase.

chuhouse2003 said:

Thank you so much for all your help, guys. Without your opinions, I would think it is still a fair deal by what price I see using Kelly Blue Book and bought it. I guess I would do some more research and check around on different places and websites before I make my purchase.

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Just as a general rule, KBB & NADA are seldom "real world" bellwethers for price. I would avoid them altogether and go instead with Black Book, while setting your sites more towards the "wholesale" value listed. Also, "certified pre-owned" vehicles tend to track towards the very high end of resale and often bring nothing more than a better margin for the dealership, while offering the purchaser little by comparison. Maybe others have had a different experience, but I have ALWAYS found much better deals elsewhere.

Friend just bought a 2013 Leaf S for $11,000+tax from CarMax. It has 25,000 miles, full bars, and 6 months left manufacture warranty
The car was a return of a 2-yr lease. If you are buying a leaf, I recommend 2013 or newer.

freeewilly said:

Friend just bought a 2013 Leaf S for $11,000+tax from CarMax. It has 25,000 miles, full bars, and 6 months left manufacture warranty
The car was a return of a 2-yr lease. If you are buying a leaf, I recommend 2013 or newer.

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Another option other than CarMax is carvana.com. I talked to them yesterday. They currently have 21 used, lease return Leafs in stock and another 33 they just purchased from auctions that will be listed soon. No dealer fee, ship nationwide and good prices. All their cars are accident free.

Their 2013 "S" Leafs range from $10,250 w/24,000 miles to $11.250 w/5,000 miles. No dealer fees and quoted $665 to ship to Florida which equates to around $1.50 per mile. Most have 11-12 months left on the 36 month factory warranty.

I'm actually thinking of buying a second leaf just because they are so cheap.

Here's a list of current Leaf inventory;.
http://www.carvana.com/search?SortBy=Newest&Models=cDaP