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tattoogunman

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 7, 2016
Messages
211
Location
Plano, Texas
I had mentioned this in another thread, but didn't get too much feedback. There is a 2011 Leaf at a dealership that I used to work at with around 52K miles on it. The battery appears to be down to 8 bars - however, I called Nissan with the VIN number and they told me that the car I am looking at is actually warrantied until 5/2019 and/or 100K miles (whichever comes first - this is for the battery pack). He told me it would be no problem bringing it in to get tested to see if it qualifies for the replacement. I had some anxiety over getting one of these, but seeing as how the battery pack has another three years on it and another 48K miles, I'm considering it again (had basically taken Leaf off the list in favor of a Volt). The price seems about right at around $7600 and since I used to work there, I can probably get a better deal on it anyway. This is also the SL model (the loaded one with nav, backup camera, solar panel in spoiler, etc.). I've put less than 20K miles on my current car in the two years since I've owned it, so I'm not too worried about racking up miles on the Leaf. I don't have access to the OBD II thing at the moment, but on the surface, this seems like it would be a decent pick up. One other thing to note - the Nissan guy told me that this is one of the original cars made and that it has the "charging" battery - not sure what that means??

Thoughts?
 
tattoogunman said:
I had mentioned this in another thread, but didn't get too much feedback. There is a 2011 Leaf at a dealership that I used to work at with around 52K miles on it. The battery appears to be down to 8 bars - however, I called Nissan with the VIN number and they told me that the car I am looking at is actually warrantied until 5/2019 and/or 100K miles (whichever comes first - this is for the battery pack). He told me it would be no problem bringing it in to get tested to see if it qualifies for the replacement. I had some anxiety over getting one of these, but seeing as how the battery pack has another three years on it and another 48K miles, I'm considering it again (had basically taken Leaf off the list in favor of a Volt). The price seems about right at around $7600 and since I used to work there, I can probably get a better deal on it anyway. This is also the SL model (the loaded one with nav, backup camera, solar panel in spoiler, etc.). I've put less than 20K miles on my current car in the two years since I've owned it, so I'm not too worried about racking up miles on the Leaf. I don't have access to the OBD II thing at the moment, but on the surface, this seems like it would be a decent pick up. One other thing to note - the Nissan guy told me that this is one of the original cars made and that it has the "charging" battery - not sure what that means??

Thoughts?
The battery capacity warranty is NOT 8 yrs/100k. It is 5 yr/60k which has probably expired (probably 5/2016, based on the date you put for the battery defect warranty). DO NOT PURCHASE IF YOU THINK YOU WILL GET A WARRANTY REPLACEMENT PACK, because you won't! An out of pocket battery pack replacement is in the range of $6500.

There are several different warranties on the car:
5yr/60k Battery Capacity Warranty (from the Klee Settlement)
8yr/100k Battery Defect Warranty which DOES NOT include gradual/normal capacity loss, just things like dead cells
3yr/36k bumper to bumper warranty
5yr/60k drivetrain warranty
 
Firetruck41 said:
tattoogunman said:
I had mentioned this in another thread, but didn't get too much feedback. There is a 2011 Leaf at a dealership that I used to work at with around 52K miles on it. The battery appears to be down to 8 bars - however, I called Nissan with the VIN number and they told me that the car I am looking at is actually warrantied until 5/2019 and/or 100K miles (whichever comes first - this is for the battery pack). He told me it would be no problem bringing it in to get tested to see if it qualifies for the replacement. I had some anxiety over getting one of these, but seeing as how the battery pack has another three years on it and another 48K miles, I'm considering it again (had basically taken Leaf off the list in favor of a Volt). The price seems about right at around $7600 and since I used to work there, I can probably get a better deal on it anyway. This is also the SL model (the loaded one with nav, backup camera, solar panel in spoiler, etc.). I've put less than 20K miles on my current car in the two years since I've owned it, so I'm not too worried about racking up miles on the Leaf. I don't have access to the OBD II thing at the moment, but on the surface, this seems like it would be a decent pick up. One other thing to note - the Nissan guy told me that this is one of the original cars made and that it has the "charging" battery - not sure what that means??

Thoughts?
The battery capacity warranty is NOT 8 yrs/100k. It is 5 yr/60k which has probably expired (probably 5/2016, based on the date you put for the battery defect warranty). DO NOT PURCHASE IF YOU THINK YOU WILL GET A WARRANTY REPLACEMENT PACK!
There are different warranties:
5yr/60k Battery Capacity Warranty
8yr/100k Battery Defect Warranty which DOES NOT include gradual/normal capacity loss, just things like dead cells
3yr/36k bumper to bumper warranty
5yr/60k drivetrain warranty

And that was why I was wondering about it. However, the dealership specifically said it is warrantied until 5/2019 and/or 100K and that was after looking up the history of the car by VIN. Everything he told me about the history of the car was correct (since I knew where it came from already). Could it have been replaced already and that is the new warranty for the replacement? Should have asked at the time - I wasn't thinking about it. I know my wife's Honda hybrid had a similar battery extension and I wasn't sure if it was as a result of a class action or something.

Edit: I did notice that the new Leaf is coming with an 8 year 100K mile warranty on the battery, maybe Nissan has extended this to earlier cars now??
 
tattoogunman said:
Firetruck41 said:
tattoogunman said:
I had mentioned this in another thread, but didn't get too much feedback. There is a 2011 Leaf at a dealership that I used to work at with around 52K miles on it. The battery appears to be down to 8 bars - however, I called Nissan with the VIN number and they told me that the car I am looking at is actually warrantied until 5/2019 and/or 100K miles (whichever comes first - this is for the battery pack). He told me it would be no problem bringing it in to get tested to see if it qualifies for the replacement. I had some anxiety over getting one of these, but seeing as how the battery pack has another three years on it and another 48K miles, I'm considering it again (had basically taken Leaf off the list in favor of a Volt). The price seems about right at around $7600 and since I used to work there, I can probably get a better deal on it anyway. This is also the SL model (the loaded one with nav, backup camera, solar panel in spoiler, etc.). I've put less than 20K miles on my current car in the two years since I've owned it, so I'm not too worried about racking up miles on the Leaf. I don't have access to the OBD II thing at the moment, but on the surface, this seems like it would be a decent pick up. One other thing to note - the Nissan guy told me that this is one of the original cars made and that it has the "charging" battery - not sure what that means??

Thoughts?
The battery capacity warranty is NOT 8 yrs/100k. It is 5 yr/60k which has probably expired (probably 5/2016, based on the date you put for the battery defect warranty). DO NOT PURCHASE IF YOU THINK YOU WILL GET A WARRANTY REPLACEMENT PACK!
There are different warranties:
5yr/60k Battery Capacity Warranty
8yr/100k Battery Defect Warranty which DOES NOT include gradual/normal capacity loss, just things like dead cells
3yr/36k bumper to bumper warranty
5yr/60k drivetrain warranty

And that was why I was wondering about it. However, the dealership specifically said it is warrantied until 5/2019 and/or 100K and that was after looking up the history of the car by VIN. Everything he told me about the history of the car was correct (since I knew where it came from already). Could it have been replaced already and that is the new warranty for the replacement? Should have asked at the time - I wasn't thinking about it. I know my wife's Honda hybrid had a similar battery extension and I wasn't sure if it was as a result of a class action or something.
No, it is as I posted above. In fact there was no battery capacity warranty on the 2011/2012s, until a legal settlement (Klee). Now because of that it has a 5yr/60k battery capacity warranty from the initial inservice date. They are thinking of the 8yr/100k battery defect warranty, it absolutely will not cover a normal degraded battery (which is what an 8 bar 2011 would almost certainly be considered), it only covers things like a bad cell. In fact they probably don't even know about the settlement and the difference between that and the defect warranty. There was a very recent thread about a owner who took his car in 4 days after the 5 yr warranty expired, and no, the capacity warranty would not be honored (since it was expired).

EDIT: No, the 8yr 100k battery capacity warranty for 2016 SV and SL models with the 30kWh pack have not been extended to any other vehicles. The 2016 "S" model with 24kWh pack still has a 5 yr/60k battery capacity warranty.
 
Firetruck41 said:
tattoogunman said:
Firetruck41 said:
The battery capacity warranty is NOT 8 yrs/100k. It is 5 yr/60k which has probably expired (probably 5/2016, based on the date you put for the battery defect warranty). DO NOT PURCHASE IF YOU THINK YOU WILL GET A WARRANTY REPLACEMENT PACK!
There are different warranties:
5yr/60k Battery Capacity Warranty
8yr/100k Battery Defect Warranty which DOES NOT include gradual/normal capacity loss, just things like dead cells
3yr/36k bumper to bumper warranty
5yr/60k drivetrain warranty

And that was why I was wondering about it. However, the dealership specifically said it is warrantied until 5/2019 and/or 100K and that was after looking up the history of the car by VIN. Everything he told me about the history of the car was correct (since I knew where it came from already). Could it have been replaced already and that is the new warranty for the replacement? Should have asked at the time - I wasn't thinking about it. I know my wife's Honda hybrid had a similar battery extension and I wasn't sure if it was as a result of a class action or something.
No, it is as I posted above. In fact there was no battery capacity warranty on the 2011/2012s, until a legal settlement (Klee). Now because of that it has a 5yr/60k battery capacity warranty from the initial inservice date. They are thinking of the 8yr/100k battery defect warranty, it absolutely will not cover a normal degraded battery (which is what an 8 bar 2011 would almost certainly be considered), it only covers things like a bad cell. In fact they probably don't even know about the settlement and the difference between that and the defect warranty. There was a very recent thread about a owner who took his car in 4 days after the 5 yr warranty expired, and no, the capacity warranty would not be honored (since it was expired).

EDIT: No, the 8yr 100k battery capacity warranty for 2016 SV and SL models with the 30kWh pack have not been extended to any other vehicles. The 2016 "S" model with 24kWh pack still has a 5 yr/60k battery capacity warranty.

OK, I just called a second dealership to confirm and they told me the same thing - this particular battery in this car IS covered until 5/2019 or 100K miles. The guy even had to double check because he thought it was expired at first, but then saw the extension. He told me that because this was one of the first cars, they (Nissan) extended the warranty on it. So that's two separate Nissan dealers that I've talked to that have confirmed it. He told me the same thing - bring it in and if it meets the criteria, it will be replaced no questions asked.
 
OK - I also just got off the phone with Nissan EV support directly and I was told the same thing - they are *all* warrantied for 8 years or 100,000 miles under a "manufacturer defect" warranty. She told me that many people get the warranty coverage's confused, but she said the 8 year/100K mile is a manufacturer defect warranty and that if the car's battery capacity is sitting at the 8 bar or less, it WILL be covered under the 8 year/100K mile warranty. She told me the same thing - take the car in for diagnostic and if bad, they would cover it no questions asked. She even said that there is obviously going to be some degradation, which is normal, but in cars that have the 8 bar or less issue, it is absolutely covered under warranty.

This is straight from the 2011 Leaf warranty booklet and it clearly shows battery coverage 8 years/100K miles. So I guess my question is, have people NOT been getting taken care of in this regard? Seems kind of odd when I've had Nissan themselves tell me otherwise???

Capture_zps51qrkmcb.jpg
 
tattoogunman said:
Firetruck41 said:
tattoogunman said:
And that was why I was wondering about it. However, the dealership specifically said it is warrantied until 5/2019 and/or 100K and that was after looking up the history of the car by VIN. Everything he told me about the history of the car was correct (since I knew where it came from already). Could it have been replaced already and that is the new warranty for the replacement? Should have asked at the time - I wasn't thinking about it. I know my wife's Honda hybrid had a similar battery extension and I wasn't sure if it was as a result of a class action or something.
No, it is as I posted above. In fact there was no battery capacity warranty on the 2011/2012s, until a legal settlement (Klee). Now because of that it has a 5yr/60k battery capacity warranty from the initial inservice date. They are thinking of the 8yr/100k battery defect warranty, it absolutely will not cover a normal degraded battery (which is what an 8 bar 2011 would almost certainly be considered), it only covers things like a bad cell. In fact they probably don't even know about the settlement and the difference between that and the defect warranty. There was a very recent thread about a owner who took his car in 4 days after the 5 yr warranty expired, and no, the capacity warranty would not be honored (since it was expired).

EDIT: No, the 8yr 100k battery capacity warranty for 2016 SV and SL models with the 30kWh pack have not been extended to any other vehicles. The 2016 "S" model with 24kWh pack still has a 5 yr/60k battery capacity warranty.

OK, I just called a second dealership to confirm and they told me the same thing - this particular battery in this car IS covered until 5/2019 or 100K miles. The guy even had to double check because he thought it was expired at first, but then saw the extension. He told me that because this was one of the first cars, they (Nissan) extended the warranty on it. So that's two separate Nissan dealers that I've talked to that have confirmed it. He told me the same thing - bring it in and if it meets the criteria, it will be replaced no questions asked.

They are absolutely wrong, and I guarantee you will be paying about $6500 when it comes time to replace the battery. AS with most dealerships they are idiots, and do not know the intricacies of their own products. Sure, you have a 8 yr/100k warranty on the battery, what they do not know or understand is that is the Battery DEFECT Warranty, if they do know that, then what they do not understand is that it DOES NOT cover normal loss of capacity.

As you don't believe me, read/search the forum.

Just saw your last post. It is incorrect that battery capacity is covered by the 8yr/ 100k warranty. Really, search the forum before you make that $6500 mistake.
 
Firetruck41 said:
tattoogunman said:
Firetruck41 said:
No, it is as I posted above. In fact there was no battery capacity warranty on the 2011/2012s, until a legal settlement (Klee). Now because of that it has a 5yr/60k battery capacity warranty from the initial inservice date. They are thinking of the 8yr/100k battery defect warranty, it absolutely will not cover a normal degraded battery (which is what an 8 bar 2011 would almost certainly be considered), it only covers things like a bad cell. In fact they probably don't even know about the settlement and the difference between that and the defect warranty. There was a very recent thread about a owner who took his car in 4 days after the 5 yr warranty expired, and no, the capacity warranty would not be honored (since it was expired).

EDIT: No, the 8yr 100k battery capacity warranty for 2016 SV and SL models with the 30kWh pack have not been extended to any other vehicles. The 2016 "S" model with 24kWh pack still has a 5 yr/60k battery capacity warranty.

OK, I just called a second dealership to confirm and they told me the same thing - this particular battery in this car IS covered until 5/2019 or 100K miles. The guy even had to double check because he thought it was expired at first, but then saw the extension. He told me that because this was one of the first cars, they (Nissan) extended the warranty on it. So that's two separate Nissan dealers that I've talked to that have confirmed it. He told me the same thing - bring it in and if it meets the criteria, it will be replaced no questions asked.

They are absolutely wrong, and I guarantee you will be paying about $6500 when it comes time to replace the battery. AS with most dealerships they are idiots, and do not know the intricacies of their own products. Sure, you have a 8 yr/100k warranty on the battery, what they do not know or understand is that is the Battery DEFECT Warranty, if they do know that, then what they do not understand is that it DOES NOT cover normal loss of capacity.

As you don't believe me, read/search the forum.

Just saw your last post. It is incorrect that battery capacity is covered by the 8yr/ 100k warranty. Really, search the forum before you make that $6500 mistake.

That is why I was asking and I've read the forums. However, if I have Nissan directly telling me that it is covered as well as two different dealerships, what are they telling people who are trying to get them covered when they come in for service? I refuse to believe that two separate dealerships are lying to me and that Nissan's own EV customer service line is lying to me after I detailed the issues I've read about. Again, I'm interested in people's experiences and it's why I'm going down this road. So what are people being told when they come in trying to get them covered???
 
tattoogunman said:
OK - I also just got off the phone with Nissan EV support directly and I was told the same thing - they are *all* warrantied for 8 years or 100,000 miles under a "manufacturer defect" warranty. She told me that many people get the warranty coverage's confused, but she said the 8 year/100K mile is a manufacturer defect warranty and that if the car's battery capacity is sitting at the 8 bar or less, it WILL be covered under the 8 year/100K mile warranty. She told me the same thing - take the car in for diagnostic and if bad, they would cover it no questions asked. She even said that there is obviously going to be some degradation, which is normal, but in cars that have the 8 bar or less issue, it is absolutely covered under warranty.

This is straight from the 2011 Leaf warranty booklet and it clearly shows battery coverage 8 years/100K miles. So I guess my question is, have people NOT been getting taken care of in this regard? Seems kind of odd when I've had Nissan themselves tell me otherwise???

Capture_zps51qrkmcb.jpg
She is partly correct. As the warranty booklet indicates, there is a 8yr 100k battery warranty... it only covers battery defects, not gradual/normal capacity loss like an 8 bar 2011 Leaf. In fact when purchased, there was NO WARRANTY FOR BATTERY CAPACITY for 2011 and 2012 cars. The only reason there is battery capacity warranty coverage is because of a class action lawsuit (Klee), which is 5yrs 60k. NO, PEOPLE DO NOT GET A BATTERY REPLACEMENT FOR CAPACITY AFTER 5yr/60k MI.
 
Interesting, because she specifically told me if the car was at 8 bars or less, they would cover it under manufacturer defect. So are they basically using the exemptions clause (i.e. subjecting the car to over 120 degrees, fully charging at all times, etc.) against people? I'm going through some other threads now, but it's all a bit confusing....

Thanks for you help.
 
tattoogunman said:
Interesting, because she specifically told me if the car was at 8 bars or less, they would cover it under manufacturer defect. So are they basically using the exemptions clause (i.e. subjecting the car to over 120 degrees, fully charging at all times, etc.) against people? I'm going through some other threads now, but it's all a bit confusing....

Thanks for you help.
You are welcome. I really don't want you to end up with a costly mistake. But, no, they are not using exemptions. The warranty booklet states capacity loss is not covered, specifically, on page 9.
 
tattoogunman said:
Firetruck41 said:
tattoogunman said:
OK, I just called a second dealership to confirm and they told me the same thing - this particular battery in this car IS covered until 5/2019 or 100K miles. The guy even had to double check because he thought it was expired at first, but then saw the extension. He told me that because this was one of the first cars, they (Nissan) extended the warranty on it. So that's two separate Nissan dealers that I've talked to that have confirmed it. He told me the same thing - bring it in and if it meets the criteria, it will be replaced no questions asked.

They are absolutely wrong, and I guarantee you will be paying about $6500 when it comes time to replace the battery. AS with most dealerships they are idiots, and do not know the intricacies of their own products. Sure, you have a 8 yr/100k warranty on the battery, what they do not know or understand is that is the Battery DEFECT Warranty, if they do know that, then what they do not understand is that it DOES NOT cover normal loss of capacity.

As you don't believe me, read/search the forum.

Just saw your last post. It is incorrect that battery capacity is covered by the 8yr/ 100k warranty. Really, search the forum before you make that $6500 mistake.

That is why I was asking and I've read the forums. However, if I have Nissan directly telling me that it is covered as well as two different dealerships, what are they telling people who are trying to get them covered when they come in for service? I refuse to believe that two separate dealerships are lying to me and that Nissan's own EV customer service line is lying to me after I detailed the issues I've read about. Again, I'm interested in people's experiences and it's why I'm going down this road.
It is very believable that 2 dealerships would lie to you, I have never been to one where I didn't expect to get lied to, however, I think in this case they are probably just ignorant, and I can't blame 'em, they probably have hundreds of different car models from several manufacturers to try to keep straight. As far as the Nissan EV customer service, just mistaken, or miscommunicated.

So what are people being told when they come in trying to get them covered???
$6500, please!



Look at page 9 of the same warranty booklet, which tells you what is NOT covered under the warranty:

GRADUAL CAPACITY LOSS
The Lithium-ion battery (EV battery), like all lithium-ion
batteries, will experience gradual capacity loss with time
and use. Loss of battery capacity due to or resulting
from gradual capacity loss is NOT covered under this
warranty. See your OWNER’S MANUAL for important
tips on how to maximize the life and capacity of the
“Lithium-ion battery.”
 
I read the exception clauses in there and it still seems odd how this is working out for people (or not working as the case seems to be). The Nissan EV rep even told me that while capacity was going to decline naturally (which I get), that the battery would still be covered if 8 bars (or under) by the defect warranty.

I think I will opt for the advice of the wise ones on here. I'm half tempted to see if the dealer will let me take it up to a Nissan dealer for a diagnostic out of curiosity to see what they say. I used to work there, so they may let me do it :)

Thanks again everyone!
 
Couldn't you just take the Leaf to the dealer and have them test the battery? If it qualifies and they order you a new battery free of charge, buy the car. If they don't cover it, then don't complete the purchase? Wouldn't that work?
 
I agree, ask the dealer to put the new battery in under warranty and then purchase the car. My guess is they won't be able to get it done.
 
Hey, i think he should buy it, just so WE can see the outcome. I'm guessing that the Dealer is either lying or misinformed and when push comes to shove, a new battery will cost $6500. I think I'll book mark this thread and come back when my battery is 8 bars at 7.9 years and get a new free battery. NOT.
 
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