Beware if trading in or selling a Leaf

[OPECsux]

I just had someone hit me up from Oregon interested in the car Thats long haul from NC shipping will make it too expensive and I imagine that if they tried to drive it cross country it would take a month :shock: According to some of my local dealers the market for EV's in my area is totally cold and they are avoiding them like the plague. On another note I stopped in for a fill up on my bike today and reg. unleaded shot up to $3.66 from $3.46 in the past 4 days, any ideas why? Prehaps a rabid dog showed up at a refinery :?

 

[ttweed]

On another note I stopped in for a fill up on my bike today and reg. unleaded shot up to $3.66 from $3.46 in the past 4 days, any ideas why?

Speculation in the commodity futures market by hedge funds, the big 5 banks, and other large entities who have no intention of ever actually taking delivery of the commodity they are trading is responsible for this volatility in the market. Futures trading was originally used to insure a business of a supply of the raw materials they need to produce their product at a certain price in the future, but now it is nothing more than a giant casino, with people making huge bets whether a price will rise or fall. It has little to do with the underlying value of the commodity anymore, and can fluctuate wildly based on rumor and perception. Also, the nature of the energy/fuels business has changed radically. There used to be a bigger "buffer" between the futures market price and the end user that moderated price swings.

The worst part is that the futures market regulations were manipulated and deregulated by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 to allow the financial industry to create an opaque, multi-trillion dollar market for the credit default swap derivatives that brought down the world's economy, accomplished by not having them classified as the "insurance" that they most certainly are, resulting in institutions not having sufficient reserves to cover the risks involved. Amazingly, this activity continues today, despite the governments attempts to regulate it, due to the success of the financial industry's lobbying efforts in preventing the Dodd-Frank Act from being implemented, or the Glass-Steagall Act from being re-instituted. They own our Congress, and we should be very, very afraid.

TT

 

[Stanton]

Wish we could flag thread TITLES as inappropriate instead of POSTS :twisted:

 

[WetEV]

Speculation in the commodity futures market by hedge funds, the big 5 banks, and other large entities who have no intention of ever actually taking delivery of the commodity they are trading is responsible for this volatility in the market.

Only if hedge funds, big banks and other large entities lose money buying and selling the commodity.

Economic basics: If you want to make a profit, buy low and sell high, or sell high then buy low.

Speculation makes money by reducing price swings. A speculator that buys when prices are low will increase the minimum price, and sells when prices are high will reduce the maximum price, and will make money. A speculator that sells when prices are low and buys when prices are high will increase volatility and lose money.

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

My point is that it seems that in my local area the Leaf doesn't hold it's value as well as I thought.

You got a FOUR YEAR lease? You are 3 months into it? I only got a two year

You didn't research this enough. Nobody has or should ever have told you the Leaf maintains its value. It's been obvious for months that it is worth nothing used. My 24 month lease 2012 SV has a buyout of $21,500 from Nissan, and yet this moment I've seen on Cars.com a 2012--so only a year old, and only 10k miles, for $18k. Let Nissan take the bath, don't take it yourself. This is why nobody should be buying a Leaf, their resale is God-awful.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

According to some of my local dealers the market for EV's in my area is totally cold and they are avoiding them like the plague.

I bet if you walked in posing as a potential EV buyer you would have heard a completely different story :lol:

 

[TomT]

I dunno... I was in Asheville on business a few months ago and happened by a Nissan dealer. Out of curiosity, I walked in and said I was interested in buying a Leaf. They did everything that could to talk me out of it and in to something else instead...

According to some of my local dealers the market for EV's in my area is totally cold and they are avoiding them like the plague.

I bet if you walked in posing as a potential EV buyer you would have heard a completely different story :lol:

 

[Boourns]

^ Being a warm-ish climate, maybe they are scared off by the possibility of battery degradation complaints? With the way Nissan has handled the issue it could put the dealers in an awkward situation.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

I dunno... I was in Asheville on business a few months ago and happened by a Nissan dealer. Out of curiosity, I walked in and said I was interested in buying a Leaf. They did everything that could to talk me out of it and in to something else instead...

Did they have any on the lot?

Three basic rules of car sales:
1. What the prospective customer has is ****
2. Anything the prospective customer expresses interest in other than what we have on the lot is also ****
3. What we have on the lot is gold

 

[mrdcmills]

He says it's ugly. I brought home a Mitsubishi IMiev. My wife laughed and said, "NO!"

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Fair warning to prospective Leaf buyers in NC and VA, if you buy this car or lease plan on keeping it till the end, I inquired about trading it in and posted it for sale and most dealers don't want it and the few that actually put a number on it lowballed the hell out of it. The trade in spread on my 2013 Leaf S with 3600 miles has been a high of $17,000 and a low of $13,000. Proof that like me others really don't like it's appearance. On the bright side, I haven't given a ish about gas prices and saved alot of money. 3 years 9 months and counting till I can get a fun car This is the first time I've been stuck in a car I couldn't sell or trade :x

welcome to the world of used cars.

i can guarantee you that all but a handful (if missing a few fingers) of models will suffer the same depreciation. the dealer is not there to help you out. they are there to MAKE MONEY and they do it with people who are desperate to get rid of their car.

a real life example. Guy had tricked out all black Explorer. Goes to Iraq. Old lady sells car and gets VW convertible and shacks up with hubby's best friend.

needless to say, the relationship is a bit rocky upon guys return. he immediately comes to dealership trades in VW and $400 a month payments for 4 years for an Explorer with $340 a month payments for 7 years thinking we did him a favor...

ya right

 

[OPECsux]

I got $22,600 for it, never had such a hard time selling a car, hopefully when EV becomes more mainstream this won't be an issue.

 

[surfingslovak]

I got $22,600 for it.

Good to hear! Care to share the transaction details (mileage, date of manufacture, etc)?

 

[nosuchthing]

Leaf's value will jack up once we swap in double density batteries from non-Nissan independent vendor. Three years down the road? I'm hopeful.

A Spark dealer told me about a local auto repair shop here in Novato where the owner already got some sort of electro certification to prepare for the onslaught of this sort of business. It the nascent breed of electro auto mechanics, folks. Our battery and range troubles will soon be in the rear-view mirror. As soon as my car is out of warranty I'll be first in line.

 

[RonDawg]

I got $22,600 for it, never had such a hard time selling a car, hopefully when EV becomes more mainstream this won't be an issue.

Considering a base Leaf like yours only retails for $29k and the difference is more than made up by the $7500 Federal credit, I would say you did extremely, extremely well.

That is, unless you traded the car in and the dealer made up for it by jacking up the price of the replacement vehicle.

 

[OPECsux]

I got $22,600 for it, never had such a hard time selling a car, hopefully when EV becomes more mainstream this won't be an issue.

Considering a base Leaf like yours only retails for $29k and the difference is more than made up by the $7500 Federal credit, I would say you did extremely, extremely well.

That is, unless you traded the car in and the dealer made up for it by jacking up the price of the replacement vehicle.

Ok I traded the Leaf in for a 2009 IS250 with 75,000 miles that they sold me for $19,000 every option including Mark Levinson system. It seems like a fair deal to me and I got the color I wanted Starfire Pearl aka Pearl White. I brought my first full tank of premium this weekend for $47. I'll be back when I blow the engine on it and rig up a EV set up or when a nice looking EV is available that doesn't cost $70,000.

Good luck guys thanks for all y'all do for the environment.

 

[johnrhansen]

You know I think just about everything is hard to sell right now. I'm trying to sell my Toyota pickup that my leaf replaced, and I'm having a hard time. I bought my leaf, and kind of messed up. I got too excited about it and the dealer screwed me. I'm still mad about it... but I met another car salesman who sells leafs while hiking one day and told him my particulars and he told me... yeah you got screwed. But then he said.. don't be mad anymore.. the deal is done. You have a good car, now all you have to do is enjoy it. I think that is good advice for you too. Lots of potholes out there for us to step into. You tripped in one. they get the best of all of us some time or another. Learn from your mistake and move on. Like he told me, you have a good car... enjoy it.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

You know I think just about everything is hard to sell right now. I'm trying to sell my Toyota pickup that my leaf replaced, and I'm having a hard time. I bought my leaf, and kind of messed up. I got too excited about it and the dealer screwed me. I'm still mad about it... but I met another car salesman who sells leafs while hiking one day and told him my particulars and he told me... yeah you got screwed. But then he said.. don't be mad anymore.. the deal is done. You have a good car, now all you have to do is enjoy it. I think that is good advice for you too. Lots of potholes out there for us to step into. You tripped in one. they get the best of all of us some time or another. Learn from your mistake and move on. Like he told me, you have a good car... enjoy it.

If it's any consolation whatever bad deal you think you got it's gotta be way better than what a lot of us got on 2012s.

 

[supra410]

I'm still happy with "Electra" as my wife has dubbed her. No matter what "bad deal" anyone thinks they have. Look at it this way. You could have made a crappy deal & still stacked on the added cost of fuel, oil changes, transmission flushes, & drive belt changes from a conventional car. I have never owned a car that actually offsets it's ownership costs from it's monthly operating costs.

My wife somehow managed to talk me into buying her a new Toyota Camry a few weeks ago. The stupid car only has 122 miles now as it would be silly to drive it, when fuel from my garage is still at bargain basement prices!

 

[cwerdna]

Leaf's value will jack up once we swap in double density batteries from non-Nissan independent vendor. Three years down the road? I'm hopeful.

Yeah, right. Good luck w/that. Sounds like very wishful thinking. Even if existed in that timeframe, I doubt the price would be reasonable.

I don't follow all the "future" battery technology stuff as so much of it seems like marketing FUD (e.g. Envia). I'll believe it when hits the market for a known price. As far as I can tell unfortunately, battery technology is nowhere near improving at the rate of Moore's Law.