redLEAF
Well-known member
Raza said:I had intention of leasing it as the monthly cost was attractive and I did not have to worry about $7500 rebate that is absorbed in the lease. However, Maryland has $2000 rebate only on purchase so I ended up buying it.
Raza
Hard to believe that this thread is a bit over a year old so perhaps should be 'renewed' or whatever you need to do to allow those who voted back then to change their vote ... my original vote was 'waiting' but went with buying one as Illinois like Maryland has an up to $4,000 rebate for purchased LEAF's only so it was too much to pass up. We also pay enough in federal taxes to take the credit so that wasn't a factor. My hope is when the battery approaches end of life we have a decent option to simply replace it with a longer range one at a 'reasonable' cost but as my 'out of pocket' when you factor in the credit, rebate and trade in brought it's price down to actually less out of pocket than the car it replaced, if we get a similar 6 years (or more of course with the warranty) out of it we'll be happy. The only thing that would be disappointing would be if the value drops so low (at the end of 6 years for comparison purposes) that the car offers little trade in value as again the car it replaced (would need to factor in inflation, offset the savings in operation, etc.). That amount was $9,000 so we'll see. I would think the car without the battery is much more than a 'rolling chassis' towards the end of its battery life as it still has its power plant just not it's ability to refuel but as we see more EV's we'll see how that all works out. This wasn't simply a cost factor to switch from an ICE to EV but would be a nice side benefit. We do typically keep most of our cars for many years but it's tougher to do that in the midwest as over time despite garaging them, keeping the salt off, etc. if you drive them year round they will eventually rust out (I do still own a '99 Miata that is only driven 3 seasons yearly that bears this out --- even the exhaust is still OK, but a '97 Dodge Grand Caravan was getting rusty enough to for a 'cash for clunkers' trade in '09). There is also the factor of the longer you wait the less the older car is worth; sometimes the government does come along and offer an incentive to basically 'junk' the old car (cash for clunkers) but it's rare. Edmunds shows the LEAF being worth about $14,300 after 5 years and 75K miles so perhaps it offers even more value then people think ...
http://www.edmunds.com/nissan/leaf/2012/tco.html?style=101397755
EDIT: I see that I could change my original 'vote' so I did and picked another one -- was going to lease but changed to buy (due to the IL EPA rebate making leased cars ineligible)