spare parts issues? long duration warranty repairs?

Given my current problem with my Leaf being out of service (3 weeks and counting), I'm wondering how many other people have had long waits for repairs because of delays getting spare parts. I know DaveInAvl had a similar issue to mine and his repair took just as long. I'm just wondering how bad the spare part situation is for the Leaf.

jlv said:

Given my current problem with my Leaf being out of service (3 weeks and counting), I'm wondering how many other people have had long waits for repairs because of delays getting spare parts. I know DaveInAvl had a similar issue to mine and his repair took just as long. I'm just wondering how bad the spare part situation is for the Leaf.

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Mine has been out of service for 6.5 weeks and growing waiting on a door. I was finally able to wrangle one from a dealership in California and have them fly it at their cost to the local shop. Should arrive this week then another for assembling and painting. So most likely 8 weeks out of service.

2k1Toaster said:

Mine has been out of service for 6.5 weeks and growing waiting on a door. I was finally able to wrangle one from a dealership in California...

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Were the LEAF specialists involved in getting the door? I finally got the "Zero Emission" chrome lettering for my driver's door after waiting since late March for it. I mentioned it to the LEAF specialist who had helped me with the blower box, and it showed up in about a week. The guy at the body shop said how impressed he was at the LEAF specialist obtaining parts faster than a dealer

DaveInAvl said:

2k1Toaster said:

Mine has been out of service for 6.5 weeks and growing waiting on a door. I was finally able to wrangle one from a dealership in California...

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Were the LEAF specialists involved in getting the door? I finally got the "Zero Emission" chrome lettering for my driver's door after waiting since late March for it. I mentioned it to the LEAF specialist who had helped me with the blower box, and it showed up in about a week. The guy at the body shop said how impressed he was at the LEAF specialist obtaining parts faster than a dealer

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Nope. Nissan in general has been completely unhelpful throughout the whole process. The body shop called all the local Nissan dealers who told them they had none and "nobody has any". They ordered a part from Japan (even though I am pretty sure mine is a TN built one unfortunately...) and it must still be on a boat or something, but long story short it isn't here yet. So after waiting over a month and having the insurance company refuse to pay for a more expensive part (shell vs. skin) that was available within a couple hundred miles, I started cold calling dealers. I called around the TN plant area, maybe one of them had an in to the assembly-line process which they didn't. Found a place in Georgia that had one shell but no skins. Then I switched coasts and called California. I literally just picked numbers off of Google in areas where I now there are lots of Leafs and I finally found a dealership in the Bay Area that had 2 of them just sitting in his warehouse collecting dust. Insurance company OK'd paying to EXPRESS AIR FREIGHT a friggin door skin but they still refused to pay the much smaller cost delta to put the whole shell on?!?! Whatever.

It took the shop a couple days to box up the door since it was an unusual request to ship a giant door in a wooden crate by air freight and they hadn't done it before. Supposedly it has arrived, but I have been too busy to care right now. Instead I am just driving the Prius or Lexus around.

Nissan Dealerships (which I understand are franchised, so not a knock on Nissan) could not help anywhere in my state or bordering states. Nissan corporate number could not help locating one. I had to cold call random dealers 2000 miles away asking for a part number that I searched on the internet to find. Pretty ridiculous. All the while my brand new Leaf sits idle in a body shop with no door.

2k1Toaster said:

DaveInAvl said:

Were the LEAF specialists involved in getting the door?

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Nope. Nissan in general has been completely unhelpful throughout the whole process.

Nissan corporate number could not help locating one.

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Sorry if I'm slow to understand who you have and haven't talked to at Nissan, but was the corporate number you called 1-877-664-2738 (the LEAF specialists) or was it 1-800-NISSAN-1 (the general Nissan corporate number)? When I initially called the 800 number (at the insistence of the service manager), I got someone on the Indian subcontinent in a room with a lot of laughter in the background. When I looked in my owner's manual, found the 877 number and called that, I started getting results.

I'm just trying to see if there might be a useful resource you haven't contacted yet, that's all.

2k1Toaster said:

jlv said:

Given my current problem with my Leaf being out of service (3 weeks and counting), I'm wondering how many other people have had long waits for repairs because of delays getting spare parts. I know DaveInAvl had a similar issue to mine and his repair took just as long. I'm just wondering how bad the spare part situation is for the Leaf.

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So most likely 8 weeks out of service.

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I would request this undue loss of use/time would at least supplement the duration of the the 36 month overall warranty (maybe free battery annual test yr. 3)?

I waited over 3 months for spare lights in all four corners to arrive from Japan (both tail lights and the turn signal lamps [second half of the headlights]) due to hairline cracking that occurred over the winter of 2012-2013. The same lights cracked again in the winter of 2013-2014 at almost the same exact locations as before. I'm not waiting another 3 months to have them replace it so I can enjoy them for 1 month before they crack again next winter.

I'm so torn on the LEAF. I love the car so much, but it's just not turning out to be the right car or car manufacturer for a long term commitment. This was my first ever Nissan. In fact, first Nissan in my family. I can't help but think that if the LEAF wore another badge, we wouldn't have these problems.