Buying a Used LEAF

First, I see many threads about topics too narrow like "buying a 2013 SL," when we should be making those things sub-topics under a general "Buying a Used Leaf" topic.

Yesterday I bought my third LEAF and my first used LEAF.

I had a 2011 LEAF on a three year lease that was interrupted in August of 2013 by a crash that totaled my car.

I replaced that one with a 2013 SL on a three year lease.

On Jan. 1, 2016 my second LEAF was totaled when my wife was rear-ended and high speed (no serious injuries, thankfully).

I have had a non-LEAF rental (ICE) while USAA processed my claim, which should allow me to end the lease early without payment beyond what by insurance will pay.

Because I am planning on buying an EV that offers 200+ mile range as soon as they drop below $40K, (and although I am one of the nation's leaders in achieving more than 100 miles per charge),I did not want to buy another LEAF or take out a three-year lease. That would make me have two fairly new EV cars, one of which was almost obsolete.

So I thought I should buy a nice used LEAF to tide me over.

First I "won" one (a 2011) on eBay for $8,400, plus $900 shipping, but that deal fell through by mutual agreement.

Then I found a nice 2012 Model S with only 14,000 miles for $9,800 at a large used car dealership in Miami. I financed a chunk of it and my payments are half of what I was paying for the 2013 SL. There seem to be lots of used LEAFs for reasonable retail prices at dealers, so I would not buy one privately.

One thing to note: the first couple the salesman steered me to had only 9 bars of capacity left, even though they had less than 30,000 miles. The salesman did not even know that there was a gauge for capacity and what the numbers meant, but the next three cars I saw all had 12 bars.

Yes but those 9 bar cars could have qualified you for a brand new free battery after a few months.

There's no such thing as a 2012 Model S, unless you're talking about a Tesla :lol:

Either it's a 2013 (the first year of the Leaf S trim), or it's an SV which was the base trim for 2011/2012.

RonDawg said:

There's no such thing as a 2012 Model S, unless you're talking about a Tesla :lol:

Either it's a 2013 (the first year of the Leaf S trim), or it's an SV which was the base trim for 2011/2012.

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I didn't know that either. I've learned something new that I wasn't even aware of, or not aware of. So no S, SV SL until 2013 just SV and SL, noted.

Then I found a nice 2012 Model S with only 14,000 miles for $9,800 at a large used car dealership in Miami. I financed a chunk of it and my payments are half of what I was paying for the 2013 SL. There seem to be lots of used LEAFs for reasonable retail prices at dealers, so I would not buy one privately.

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So, is this a 2013 S, or a 2012 SV? Either way, the price seems pretty good.

It is a 2012 SV. Once I added some air to the tires it started showing me nice range, giving me 5.5 m/kwh on the way into the office today.

Hello, I just got my 4th LEAF, a blue 2013 SV, from a nice used car dealership in Miami. The car had only 9,400 miles when I bought it last week. I paid $10,488, financed with zero down payment. It is very clean and detailed.

The blue one replaced a white 2012 SV that I just bought on Jan 18 from the same dealership, for $9,888, which was totaled by a hit and run driver on March 26th in Fort Lauderdale (no injuries).

My second LEAF was another white 2012 that I leased new that was rear-ended and totaled as my wife was driving on South Dixie Highway in Miami.

I got 105.5 miles on a single charge today 5.6 m/kwh.

To be clear, you had three Leafs totaled in less than three years?

Have you considered buying the worst possible gas guzzling ICE cars? With your luck you might do a lot for the environment over the next couple years "retiring" large emitters of green house gases....

Very funny. I got the blue one this time to stand out more. I was hit broadside at the left front in my silver 2011 (airbags deployed all around); my wife was rear-ended in a newly-leased white 2013 SL; and a hit-and-run driver ran a stop sign and hit my right front (no airbags deployed that time) of my used white 2012 SV that I had 2 months. No injuries but each time my next LEAF cost less.

Is there something about Leaf profile that is hard to see? I have an Ocean Pacific 2013 SL and my brother thought how could anyone miss that car. I have had 2 situations in parking garages where after pounding the horn, I had to reach out the driver's side window and pound on the rear window/molding of an SUV to prevent being backed into for damage.