Turning in my leased LEAF.

I am getting ready to turn in my LEAF. The lease is up and it is bittersweet. Its hard to believe it was May 24th, 2012 when I picked up the LEAF. I had no idea what I was in for. Time sure does fly by. I put right at 40K miles on it, my kids have learned to drive in it and the car has been flawless. This is the first new car I have ever had. I am sad to see it go but happy about not making anymore payments.

Any idea what you will be replacing it with?

Driving the LEAF for the past 3+ years inspired me to start a business selling used LEAFs. So now I get to drive whatever I have in inventory! I have enjoyed trying out the different flavors of LEAFs. I have thought about buying some of the other EVs but I always come right back to the LEAF.

What have you seen in terms of resale value of these things? I'm getting ready to turn in my lease as well and am shocked at how much it's depreciated.

juicedcar said:

Driving the LEAF for the past 3+ years inspired me to start a business selling used LEAFs. So now I get to drive whatever I have in inventory! I have enjoyed trying out the different flavors of LEAFs. I have thought about buying some of the other EVs but I always come right back to the LEAF.

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Any insight on why resellers seem to be asking $3000 over wholesale on average? That seems like a tidy number for a trip to the auction and a car wash. I wouldn't mind paying $8000 tops for one in primo condition, but not $8-10K.

Remember though it's not like that car will sell instantly. EVs especially could sit on a lot for quite some time. In the meantime you have rent, utilities, insurance, and employees that still have to be paid.

They're also taking the same chances of getting a lemon you would be if you went to auction yourself to buy a car, except there's no possibility of you suing yourself for buying a lemon :lol:

caffeinekid said:

juicedcar said:

Driving the LEAF for the past 3+ years inspired me to start a business selling used LEAFs. So now I get to drive whatever I have in inventory! I have enjoyed trying out the different flavors of LEAFs. I have thought about buying some of the other EVs but I always come right back to the LEAF.

Click to expand...

Any insight on why resellers seem to be asking $3000 over wholesale on average? That seems like a tidy number for a trip to the auction and a car wash. I wouldn't mind paying $8000 tops for one in primo condition, but not $8-10K.

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Have some examples? Year? Mileage? Options? What's the wholesale cost? What's the reseller asking? Is it a Nissan dealer or some used car lot?

The used car dealer I went to only has a $1K markup above auction price: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=430825#p430825.

I am not a used car dealer by trade, so I have learned a lot about the business over the past year. Most of the LEAFs I see selling at auction (Southeast) are going to exporters. I do everything online and cherry pick the ones I buy. Most of the time I get outbid by the exporters. I only buy cars that are still within the 3/36K warranty so I can get anything fixed that needs fixing. Also the Nissan franchise dealers have access to the best vehicles. Its not as easy as you might think. But I am getting the hang of it. I have 3 very nice LEAFs in inventory. 2 2012's and 1 2013. The 2014s are still way too expensive.

So now the interesting part will be watching my former LEAF go through the auction process next week.

juicedcar said:

I am not a used car dealer by trade, so I have learned a lot about the business over the past year. Most of the LEAFs I see selling at auction (Southeast) are going to exporters. I do everything online and cherry pick the ones I buy. Most of the time I get outbid by the exporters. I only buy cars that are still within the 3/36K warranty so I can get anything fixed that needs fixing. Also the Nissan franchise dealers have access to the best vehicles. Its not as easy as you might think.

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Exporters as in out of the country? Any idea what countries they're going to?

As for the statement about Nissan franchise dealers, interesting. I know for the week that the car I have now, the used car dealer mentioned to me, that for that week, Nissan franchise dealers would access and have 1st dibs on the cars going up for auction, so it wasn't certain that there'd actually be anything left that I wanted. I only wanted a '13 SV w/premium package only (no QC + LED package) and preferred and disliked certain colors.

It didn't sound like the above practice was the norm each time. Also, the used car dealer said there was a decent chance he could get what I wanted since Nissan franchise dealers were likely to take ones w/CHAdeMO inlet and pass on ones w/o it. I guess he ended up being right.

I've been dealing with an exporter in NJ that I found on eBay. He seems to deal almost exclusively in Leafs. A week or two ago, I was about to drive out there to take a look at some used Leafs, but thankfully I called him and he let me know that he had literally sold every single Leaf he had to some guy in Norway that's going to resell them over there. He's got more coming in next week so hopefully I'll find a nice used Leaf then.

Auction prices for LEAFs are definitely on the rise. I have seen more than 10% increase this summer.