What do you wish you had known before purchase?

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
thankyouOB said:
How much is nissan going to pay you for your old battery core, when you trade in your battery to buy a new one?
Click to expand...
They aren't selling you a new one - they are renting you a new one. If you don't want a new one you can keep your old one. So they are not "stealing" anything. Stealing is when they take it from you without you knowing. Take off your tinfoil hat / don't knowingly misrepresent facts - also known as lying.

Don't keep thread-crapping. We all know your opinion by now - treat this as a warning.
 
evnow said:
thankyouOB said:
How much is nissan going to pay you for your old battery core, when you trade in your battery to buy a new one?
Click to expand...
They aren't selling you a new one - they are renting you a new one. If you don't want a new one you can keep your old one. So they are not "stealing" anything. Stealing is when they take it from you without you knowing. Take off your tinfoil hat / don't knowingly misrepresent facts - also known as lying.

Don't keep thread-crapping. We all know your opinion by now - treat this as a warning.
Click to expand...

I take your point, evnow. they are not stealing the battery, but they are taking it without recompense, if i want to upgrade my old battery.

Now here is mine: I ask you to please not be so literal. the whole point of calling it the steal-your-battery program is hyperbole.
everyone should get that. it is NOT a literal statement. it is purposeful exaggeration.

I am not thread molesting. the OP asked a question. I answered. I disagree strongly with your literal view of my answer. I answered with sarcasm after you stepped right up to the threshold of calling me a liar.
You said: "Oh BTW, ignore people who try to spread lies, like the above poster..."
i then replied in two posts, concluding:

they wont sell you a new battery.
they wont pay you anything for your battery core or your used battery.
they will just take the old battery and charge you $100 a month forever to lease a new battery, which you cant keep.

every word of that is truth, and it doesnt matter if you bought the car and OWN the old battery. nissan will take it from you.

i didnt get all medieval about your personal attack.
I have been here a long time. I have posted thousands of times and supplied lots of good information and insight. use of the L word about me was and is uncalled for, especially from a moderator.
You overstepped.

as to the repetition. it is not gratuitous.
the point of bringing it up repeatedly is to make sure that nissan doesnt feel it has accomplished its purpose of deflecting our concerns about their promise to provide a battery price nor that we have forgotten their next promise to provide answers to our questions.
 
What do I wish I had known before purchase?

The shift knob in my 2013 S model Leaf is the most annoying part of the car for me. Let it be said right now that these are minor complaints and wouldn't have changed my mind about leasing the car. But back to the shift knob; It mimics the old mechanical shifters when it doesn't need to. I would prefer buttons or something flat (perhaps a dial?) rather than the protruding knob. The whole movement assembly on the thing is nothing but unnecessary moving parts just waiting to break when I accidentally bash it while putting something in the passenger's seat. The patterns that used to make sense with a mechanical shifter are crazy for the leaf, I pull it backward to go forward and push it forward to go backward? How does that make sense?

The worst part is what happens if I jump the gun when I'm starting the car. If I shift before the Leaf finishes singing to me I end up in neutral! Stay in park or engage the gear of my choice but Nissan, please don't give me a potentially dangerous and unexpected third option.

Once I actually get driving I no longer notice the shifter so most of the time it's a non-problem.
 
Thanks everyone for the responses. I do appreciate hearing all points of view, and I can understand the frustration some of you feel with the way Nissan is handling the battery issues. I guess sometimes there are costs to being early adopters, whether justified or not. That said, I am not so dismayed as to give up on the Leaf.

One more quick n00b question about my understanding of the tax credit: If I lease, the leasing company essentially "gets" the tax credit and it deducts $7500 from the capitalized cost. If I buy, I finance the entire amount and I claim the $7500 credit when I do my taxes the following April. In other words, the $7500 doesn't come off the purchase price. Do I have that right?
 
right, though as a buyer, i am not familiar with how much of the $7500 the leasing company pockets.

however, you are right, if you have sufficient taxes owed in that year, you get a maximum nonrefundable $7500 credit. it does not come off the sale price. and in CA the tax is figured on the price at time of sale.

(non-refundable means you dont get roll over any unused credit to the next tax year.)
you may increase your taxes owed in the year you bought the car -- if you do not have sufficient income to get the full credit -- by moving some money from a traditional IRA to a ROTH IRA. the amount you move during the calendar year may be adjusted, if you over-estimate.
you should consult with a professional, if you want to take advantage of the adjustment period, which runs until you file in the following winter or spring.
 
Excellent. Thanks for the confirmation. We pay our taxes quarterly because my wife owns an LLC, the taxes for which pass through to our personal return, so I need to check with my accountant to see how that would work if I were to buy and get the EV credit. But, because of how that's handled I think that deepens my preference for leasing.
 
I wish had had known how badly the battery was going to degrade over time and moderate heat. Far more so that Nissan lead us to believe. And that the typicality range (73) would be considerably less than what Nissan advertised and claimed (100)...
 
thankyouOB said:
evnow said:
Oh BTW, ignore people who try to spread lies, like the above poster about "stealing battery". Reminds of how Obama is supposed to come and steal your guns.
Click to expand...

nice.

Riddle me this, EVNOW:
How much is nissan going to pay you for your old battery core, when you trade in your battery to buy a new one?
Click to expand...

Hard to say, is perhaps a decade into the future, assuming I even decide that I need to.
 
On the bad side
- Highway range is less than I expected. Our roads are high speed, range is greatly reduced over 55mph, especially 75mph. Cant figure the 100mile range, more like 60 @ 75mph or less w a buffer. But it does extremely well at low speeds.

On the positive side
- I wish I would have known that the range handles most of what we needed two vehicles for previously.
- ... how much money we'd save. We're saving between $150-200/mo. That makes the Leaf practically free.

If we had know the positives, may have looked at leasing one earlier. But I think our timing was pretty good. Got an amazing deal that we couldn't pass up even though we didn't even really need a car.
 
Boourns said:
One more quick n00b question about my understanding of the tax credit: If I lease, the leasing company essentially "gets" the tax credit and it deducts $7500 from the capitalized cost. If I buy, I finance the entire amount and I claim the $7500 credit when I do my taxes the following April. In other words, the $7500 doesn't come off the purchase price. Do I have that right?
Click to expand...

FYI only NMAC (Nissan's in-house financing) passes the $7500 credit directly to the lessee. Otherwise you are correct, the $7500 is in the form of a tax credit, and you only get it if you are paying that much in taxes that year.
 
RonDawg said:
Boourns said:
One more quick n00b question about my understanding of the tax credit: If I lease, the leasing company essentially "gets" the tax credit and it deducts $7500 from the capitalized cost. If I buy, I finance the entire amount and I claim the $7500 credit when I do my taxes the following April. In other words, the $7500 doesn't come off the purchase price. Do I have that right?
Click to expand...

FYI only NMAC (Nissan's in-house financing) passes the $7500 credit directly to the lessee. Otherwise you are correct, the $7500 is in the form of a tax credit, and you only get it if you are paying that much in taxes that year.
Click to expand...

thanks for validating what i said on this issue.
 
thankyouOB said:
RonDawg said:
Boourns said:
One more quick n00b question about my understanding of the tax credit: If I lease, the leasing company essentially "gets" the tax credit and it deducts $7500 from the capitalized cost. If I buy, I finance the entire amount and I claim the $7500 credit when I do my taxes the following April. In other words, the $7500 doesn't come off the purchase price. Do I have that right?
Click to expand...

FYI only NMAC (Nissan's in-house financing) passes the $7500 credit directly to the lessee. Otherwise you are correct, the $7500 is in the form of a tax credit, and you only get it if you are paying that much in taxes that year.
Click to expand...

thanks for validating what i said on this issue.
Click to expand...

You're welcome.
 
You're certainly in the right place to research this car, and giving yourself months to wade through all the info you'll find here, asking good questions, is smart for you and may help others too. Welcome aboard.

I'll add a thought about leasing, which I prefer since the technology is only going to improve, and prices will come down.

In your case, turning in your Nissan ICE for a Leaf will save you some end fees and likely they will not be too picky on wear and tear. Also, (at least at my dealer) they start offering you deals early to entice you to re-lease with them, like waiving your last couple lease payments.

Now, since your current lease is up in March, if your dealer is willing to make such offers, you may be able to combine that with a year end deal on a leftover 2013 (if there are any). If inventory is still short by then, this may not work.

The 2014's are due in October, if there are any 2013's left, you could work a great deal by the end of this year.

Anyway, sounds like you'll be well prepared.
 
I have a commute very similar to yours. I leased a stripped model S about a month ago and have not bought gas since! I've been very pleased with it, and don't "miss" any of the features on the SL/SV. I just use a basic trickle charge at home over-night and don't plan to get a Level 2 installed at home.

The one thing that did disappoint me a little was the stock sound system. It is notably poorer than the stock sound system in my last 2 ICE vehicles (2000 Toyota Tundra, 2003 Mazda MPV). It's not a big deal and I never figured out if/how much $$ it would have been to upgrade.
 
Boourns said:
Excellent. Thanks for the confirmation. We pay our taxes quarterly because my wife owns an LLC, the taxes for which pass through to our personal return, so I need to check with my accountant to see how that would work if I were to buy and get the EV credit. But, because of how that's handled I think that deepens my preference for leasing.
Click to expand...
How you pay your taxes doesn't matter, whether payroll deductions, quarterly payments, or a lump sum. It's just that, for individuals, the total of all payments due needs to be at least $7500 in the tax year when you buy your EV. But the rules are different for companies, so do talk to your accountant.

Ray
 
All in all I'm very happy with the purchase of the car. It's peppy, reliable, cheap to operate, handles great, is fun to drive and is the perfect size and has good range for my family. However, to answer the OP's question, I wish I had known:
1. that Level 1 charging at home would easily fit my needs;
2. that the "free" EVSE from The EV Project would costs almost $3,000;
3. that QC stations in my area would take so long to roll out and would be so unreliable;
4. that the backup camera and photovoltaic cells on the SL would be so useless;
Based on these factors, I wish I had stuck with my original decision to buy the SV, but I let myself be talked into upgrading to the SL. However, I have the 2011 and these factors may not apply to you and may not be true on later models. In addition, perhaps the infrastructure will appear before the useful life of the car is gone and the decision to upgrade will pay off after all.
 

Similar threads

P
New member 2024
Replies
6
Views
284
Mcflocki
M
B
Love our Leaf
Replies
6
Views
233
Steve52
S
P
What the dealer didn't tell you
Replies
5
Views
688
Jnovoseljr
Jnovoseljr
M
Hello from Wales
Replies
1
Views
125
Jamesjeff
J
L
Hi to all Leaf drivers with poor batteries
Replies
13
Views
2K
Lucky
L

Latest posts

Back
Top