Found a 2012 Nissan Leaf SL with 53K miles and 8 bars

Should I just call Nissan and check if the battery warranty is still applicable with the VIN number? What else should I look into? I am not the owner. I am planning to buy the car if I can get a free battery

Good plan. Or you could take an extended "test drive" to a nearby Nissan dealer. With an appointment, verification of the battery pack's condition should take no longer than 2 hours, assuming the seller will let you keep the car that long.

I dont think I will be able to take the car from the seller for 2 hours +. If I call Nissan and they say warranty is good, do you think there will be an issue when I take the car in? Such as oh the battery has not been maintained properly?

mitrals said:

I dont think I will be able to take the car from the seller for 2 hours +. If I call Nissan and they say warranty is good, do you think there will be an issue when I take the car in? Such as oh the battery has not been maintained properly?

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As long as the car isn't on the "opt out" list, you should be fine.

Stanton said:

mitrals said:

I dont think I will be able to take the car from the seller for 2 hours +. If I call Nissan and they say warranty is good, do you think there will be an issue when I take the car in? Such as oh the battery has not been maintained properly?

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As long as the car isn't on the "opt out" list, you should be fine.

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+1

mitrals said:

I dont think I will be able to take the car from the seller for 2 hours +. If I call Nissan and they say warranty is good, do you think there will be an issue when I take the car in? Such as oh the battery has not been maintained properly?

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call the nogasev hotline and they can confirm warranty eligibility.

Ask about the 3227 update as well.

Chatted with them and they said warranty is good till 11/28/16 . Looks like I will be buying that leaf. Do you guys think 7K is a good price? Has some scratches and a couple minor dents.

mitrals said:

Chatted with them and they said warranty is good till 11/28/16 . Looks like I will be buying that leaf. Do you guys think 7K is a good price? Has some scratches and a couple minor dents.

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With a new pack...DEFINITELY!

Deal fell through . The seller wanted to hold on to the car till he can get a 200 mile BEV. I told him about the battery and how he should check with Nissan. He called today and said Nissan is giving him a new battery. That could have been me . Atleast I got some good karma

mitrals said:

Deal fell through . The seller wanted to hold on to the car till he can get a 200 mile BEV. I told him about the battery and how he should check with Nissan. He called today and said Nissan is giving him a new battery. That could have been me . Atleast I got some good karma

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Sorry that it fell through but you did the right thing.

I am amazed how so many owners have no clue about the capacity warranty. The guy was doing 65 miles round trip daily on local roads with charging at work.

Well, you did the right thing. Like you say...good karma!

Now you know what to do. There will be plenty of deals out there like that. Keep your eyes open! That would have been a great deal!

Evoforce said:

There will be plenty of deals out there like that.

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I wonder about that...

First, there are actually relatively few places with climates hot enough to degrade the battery to the point to be eligible for a replacement fast enough (i.e., under 60K and 5 years). So of the 19,000+ in the class to start with, likely many were sold to people in very warm climates, but certainly not most. Let's cut the likely number of vehicles eligible for replacement, given the settlement criteria, down to say 8,000+

Second, given the actual resale value of these cars is so low, you have to think that any one Nissan actually still owns (i.e., was a leased vehicle) they probably just scrap when they come off lease (as its likely way cheaper for them than the cost of the replacement battery+labor) if it looks like it might end up qualifying. I think the only likely cars out there are ones that were purchased in those areas and their owners are just unaware of the possibility of replacement, like the owner the OP found.

So can there really be a lot of them on the market?

1) Yes, If you look at the market right now, there are plenty to be had. Keep in mind my first car came out of a California auction and shipped to Arizona and had 10 bars on it when I bought it. It lost those 2 bars to qualify in less than a year. I still had 9 months to go and still could have qualified. I could have bought a late 2012 at the bottom of 11 bars and still qualified for the capacity warranty.

2) No, Nissan puts those degraded cars back out and some of them as Lemon titled vehicles with a clean bill of health and 8-9 bars. Put some time into tracking these cars and it may become more clear to you if you have the chance. It may also be for your benefit if you want to land a good deal. Plenty of cars coming off lease will be spread around the country at auctions like reshuffling a deck of cards.

Think of parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Florida and maybe I missed someone? They will have to end up replacing batteries all the way through 2016. The courts did not settle that for all of those years but that is what the reality of the degradation will cause. Nissan is fighting a losing battle to end up only repairing batteries to minimum of 9 bars in 2013-15 cars that have hit 8 bars and under 5 years /60,000 miles and are currently as a business policy replacing all 8 bar car batteries that qualify with the exception of opt outs.

In fact, I was in a meeting with a high ranking person with Nissan and he commented that they are not repairing batteries only replacing them. I have heard of some 13's already being replaced. What that means for us in hot climates is that when our battery replacement ages to 3.5 years we will sell/trade to newer year vehicle with original battery that has a year and a half to degrade till end of warranty and qualify for a new battery on that car. Rinse and repeat.

jpadc said:

Evoforce said:

There will be plenty of deals out there like that.

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<br abp="587">I wonder about that... <br abp="588"><br abp="589">First, there are actually relatively few places with climates hot enough to degrade the battery to the point to be eligible for a replacement fast enough (i.e., under 60K and 5 years). So of the 19,000+ in the class to start with, likely many were sold to people in very warm climates, but certainly not most. Let's cut the likely number of vehicles eligible for replacement, given the settlement criteria, down to say 8,000+<br abp="590"><br abp="591">Second, given the actual resale value of these cars is so low, you have to think that any one Nissan actually still owns (i.e., was a leased vehicle) they probably just scrap when they come off lease (as its likely way cheaper for them than the cost of the replacement battery+labor) if it looks like it might end up qualifying. I think the only likely cars out there are ones that were purchased in those areas and their owners are just unaware of the possibility of replacement, like the owner the OP found.<br abp="592"><br abp="593">So can there really be a lot of them on the market?

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Thank you guys. I have access to auctions with a dealer license. I guess I will have to look for cars in the south to score a deal. The problem is shipping adds $500-$1000 depending on where I get the car from. I am in Chicago. The leaf I found was perfect. it was a Texas car bought to Chicago when the owner moved. He got tired of not making over 35 miles on a charge in the cold weather here and decided to sell it. Carmax offered him $5000. He put it up for 7000 and I offered him full price. 2 days later he called saying he saw the new bolt and wants to wait to sell the car. I told him to get the battery checked at Nissan and he is getting a free replacement. I surely made his day.