Nissan towed my car beyond the range and wants me to get it.

My story begins under my old topic about my local dealer loosing their leaf certification. Nissan towed my car to the nearest leaf certified dealer. It is now beyond the battery range and there are zero chargers between here and there. Take a look at plugshare and look at Charleston, WV going south east to Beckley, WV. Yup, zero chargers, in the mountains, and it's winter and cold.

Nissan said they only tow to the dealer and not back to me. I dropped it off at my local dealer who informed me they were no longer certified to work on it. I then called Nissan and they then towed it from the dealer in Charleston to Beckley. It's been over two weeks and the car is supposed to be done tomorrow. They called me and told me I'd have to get it. I mentioned the issue about range and they guy said he would make some phone calls to see if there is anything he can do but not likely. I'm not a happy camper. I'm wondering if the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act can help me out in any way here.

What are your thoughts? I have two years left on my lease. I can't even drive to the nearest crevice center much less drive till turtle mode then wait hours for roadside and have to repeat that on the way back! Any suggestions are much appreciated. Tomorrow I may be calling lawyers.

Your best option under these trying circumstances may be to drive it home at 30MPH, with minimal heat. Slow to 20MPH when possible going uphill, and make sure you use B mode to recover maximum energy when going down steep hills. You can also try running the heater at 80 degrees whenever the car is under maximum regeneration going downhill. The range under these conditions should be 80-90 miles. Is that enough?

Are there any hotels you can stay at overnight and charge? You're right -- there aren't even anyone's homes listed on Plugshare.com.

For those interested, it's around 60-62 miles of highway driving through mountains.

Edit: There are NO hotels directly between here and there either. Wow... If you go on interstate 3, there is a hotel listed there that might lend a power plug for an overnight stay:

Coal Country Inn
32958 Coal River Rd
Sylvester, WV 25193
(304) 854-7916

It's out of the way, but roughly half way between the two cities. Staying on smaller interstates will help you keep your speed down and increase range.

IF you dropped it off at a local Nissan, tell Nissan you expect to pick it up where you dropped it off. Seems reasonable to me don't you think?

Clearly they are in a pickle here - I don't believe very many folks would consider it reasonable to require a customer to pay to have their vehicle towed home from a dealer. Exhaust (and document) your attempts to get them to bring it back then consider public shaming (local media just might enjoy a bit of Nissan bashing eh?). Of course the media approach may end up doing more damage to EVs as a whole than Nissan specifically, but certainly Nissan corp would not want the bad publicity that both highlights the limited range issues and implies a lack of support on their part eh?

Call the EV hotline explain your story and tell them your dealer lost their cert and your battery degraded to the point you can't drive it home. They should make a roadside exception.

op could drive the car until it runs out of juice and then call nissan road service for a tow home

apvbguy said:

op could drive the car until it runs out of juice and then call nissan road service for a tow home

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Heck, save time - figure out about where the range ends and call ahead - "I'll be somewhere between x and y, I'll update you as I get closer - please send someone to meet me" Bet that would get an interesting conversation going with the roadside folks...

apvbguy said:

op could drive the car until it runs out of juice and then call nissan road service for a tow home

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I was thinking the same thing.

Wouldn't local Nissan dealer offer to loan you a vehicle that can tow a trailer, perhaps?

I agree that you have been left our in the lurch there by Nissan and can rightfully expect some help. If your demands are modest, they are in no place to complain.

Depends how adventurous you are. You could stop at the bottom of a hill and wave a tow rope at a truck. Maybe get a tow to the top should see you bridge the divide!

Phatcat73 said:

Call the EV hotline explain your story and tell them your dealer lost their cert and your battery degraded to the point you can't drive it home. They should make a roadside exception.

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I'd also start with calling the national hotline and explaining. They usually get much better results than the dealer will give.

And in case they won't make an exception, I like what Slow1 said just a few posts up. Figure out where your range ends and call roadside assistance ahead of time, telling them you're running out of power there.

All good ideas, but he still has to get to the car which means more out of pocket expense: taxi or friend driving another vehicle. On the other hand, if they follow you home and you run out of juice, you've got a nice warm car to wait in for roadside assistance!

You'll need a ride to Charleston anyway, right? It is possible to tow-charge a LEAF. So when the battery is getting low you can tow it with the other car while leaving it in drive mode, foot off the accelerator and just enough brake pedal to engage full regen. The regen will recharge the battery nearly as fast as ChaDeMo. Take care to do safely, of course. Might want to do that piece on a side road.


Turn on close caption for English subtitles….


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sujv90PLLY[/youtube]

revised: That car is at Lewis Nissan? Where do you live?

Nubo said:

You'll need a ride to Charleston anyway, right? It is possible to tow-charge a LEAF. So when the battery is getting low you can tow it with the other car while leaving it in drive mode, foot off the accelerator and just enough brake pedal to engage full regen. The regen will recharge the battery nearly as fast as ChaDeMo. Take care to do safely, of course. Might want to do that piece on a side road.


Turn on close caption for English subtitles….


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sujv90PLLY[/youtube]

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:lol:

Nubo said:

Turn on close caption for English subtitles….
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sujv90PLLY[/youtube]

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Nissan Roadside Assistance should stop using flatbeds!

The internet tells conflicting stories. Is it legal to tow a car with a strap? My brother is a car junkie, and I used to help him tow his beater cars all the time. I was the brakeman in the back.

johnrhansen said:

... Is it legal to tow a car with a strap? ...

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Not sure.
Not sure it is a very good idea in WV :shock:
Lots of hills.
But if you try it, turn the warning flashers on :!:
Guy in video says he can't because of low power.
If you are towing at a speed sufficient to get the regeneration shown in the video which was around 55 mph, power for the warning flashers is a trivial impact.

But 55 mph seems way too fast for safe vehicle towing

The problem with telling Roadside Assistance that you *will be* running out of charge at X location is that I'm pretty sure they have a rule against "deliberately" stranding your car. They might make an exception but I'd check with Nissan first. If not, call them at or very close to the time you run out of charge.

Thanks for the ideas. I've been working with Nissan's hotline since the beginning of this mess. They are the ones that towed it to Lewis Nissan in Beckley. I live in Charleston. I'm about 10 miles south of town on highway 119.

I have several complaints about this and I think I've been way more than reasonable. Nissan has told me if repairs ever go over night I'm due a loaner or a rental at no cost except for fuel. So the car has been gone for 16 days already and I used a rental for 2. I saved them a ton of money and it was a pain for us to pick up and return the car. Nissan towed it and now they expect me to go and get it. This means me and a second driver, most likely my wife with baby, has burned in our Volt, $12 in tolls for the Trip, and all the time it takes to do all of that. Then you have to take into account the miles. I run the car to my max. That's 32 miles a day. This trip will eat up several days. Now it's not such a worry since I've now got 16 days worth of not driving. Granted it's still cheaper to run this car past the miles allowed than to drive the truck I traded in for it, I just don't want to pay extra out of principal.

My biggest fear is having to do this several more times since my lease has 2 years left and I've already been to the dealer for repairs 4 or 5 times already. Last time our air conditioning stopped working and it needed a new hose under a service bulletin. I guess I'll have to see what happens next time. I still have to get through this one.

I don't want to ruin the EV image but this story has seriously turned away several friends that were on the fence. It's a shame. I still have a more reliable car than most new ICEs but it's not as reliable as I hoped. When I don't like it I just remind myself that I got this car so that I can buy a Tesla quicker than if I had kept my truck.

Soon I will see what Nissan will actually do to fix this. They still have a chance to make this right.

Sorry for keep going off topic. I don't think you need to go 55 for regen. I bet 40 is plenty. so you get 3 dots instead of 4. My bro and I used to go freeway speeds all the time and towed for miles. It's actually easier at freeway speeds. Not as much work to keep the line taut. No harder than just driving. except you have to look way ahead if you are the brakeman. But I do that anyway.