My Open Letter to Nissan:
Dear Nissan,
I want to thank you for finally coming forward with your analysis of the issues concerning battery capacity loss in Phoenix. I have some issues and concerns of my own and I thought I'd follow it up with my own letter. I'd like to give you a brief history of my Leaf car buying experience.
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I started my 76 mile RT commute without an HOV sticker, but it was summer, so not as big a traffic issue. I whipped up and down the 405 without any range anxiety whatsoever. My sticker arrived just in time for the fall and now I was able to pop in and out of the carpool lane to keep my commute within sane levels. I would usually get home on LBW and have 6-8 miles left. That was even enough to run an errand or two if I needed. In Feb of this year, I even sold my 2005 Pathfinder because I just didn't need the extra car, I had learned to live with the Leaf's range. (BTW, I bought the 2005 Pathfinder while trading in a 2003 Infiniti G35 Coupe, which I bought trading in a 2000 Xterra, the connection being I have a history of being an early adopter for first year Nissan/Infiniti out of the box vehicles)
Now, here I am, at the end of summer number 2, with a lost capacity bar, in a temperate climate, within my Lease miles (15k/year). One note about Lease miles. Nissan considered the difference between 12k miles/yr and 15k miles/yr to be worth 1% of the car's value, or about $350 for 9000 miles, but now you are saying that 15k miles/year is high miles, if you thought that 2 years ago, I would assume you would have made the residual between the 12k miles and 15k miles larger than 4 cents a mile.
Today, with my 76 mile commute, I now get home with VLBW. Every day. I am concerned about 2 things. Am I going to be able to run my heater in the "winter" mornings and be able to get home in the afternoon like I did last year? And, will I be able to make it home from work at the end of next summer if more "normal" battery degradation occurs?
So here's what I'm asking from you today. I think it's pretty simple. When I am no longer comfortable with the range on my Leaf, I want to be able to hand you my keys and walk away. I'm not asking you to buy my car back today, I'm not asking you to warranty the battery capacity, or range or anything of that matter. I'm only asking that once "I am no longer a perfect candidate for the Leaf", you take it back. From posts on this forum, it looks like you've done that for a select group of people once they complained. I don't want to go through that, I want you to offer it to me and all the other owners. I understand that if I have some excessive wear and tear on the vehicle or I'm over my prorated miles, I would be charged for that. I know this isn't normal course of business, but neither is the Leaf or how you sold the Leaf, so why not be innovative with how you take the Leaf back. This would remove my two concerns because once those questions are no, I'd hand you back the keys. And guess what, I'll need to buy another car, if you look at my history, it'll probably be a Nissan.
~David Imboden