Trading in a old leaf for the new 2019 leaf?

Hi,

I was thinking about trading in my current leaf for the new 2019 Leaf one. I currently have a 2015 SV that has 18,00 miles on it.

The only reason I'm thinking about trading it is because I will be transferring schools and I need a better range.

I first brought this car when I graduated high school and it had only 8,000 miles on it. I'm interested in the new leaf due to the 226 mile range and warranty.

I have seen some New/CPO 2019 Nissan Leafs for around 21,000. I searched online and my trade in value is 8,000 and I only have 8,500 left on my loan.

Does this sound like a good deal? I'm looking to buying a new leaf before next fall.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

If you sell the 2015 SV privately, you should be able to get the loan paid off, plus a bit more. Trading a car in is easy, but not the way to get the most for it. Does it have Premium Package? If so it should, depending on resale values in your area (which is...?) be worth $10k to $15k. If not, then maybe $9k to $12k. The 2015 is especially desirable because it has a very good battery. Has your leaf got all 12 capacity bars left?

The 2015 leafs in the mid to high 20k miles are for 12,000 in my area.

And yes I have premium package.

Im not sure if I have full battery capacity tho. I don't see all of bars. Here is a pic.

Your Leaf is down to 10 bars so for anyone who knows Leafs it won't bring top dollar.
It's up to you, you could try and sell it yourself on a free site like Craigslist.org or of course the easiest option is to just trade it in and avoid any potential hassles.

I can't see the image. A 2015 with 10 bars must be in a very warm climate...

Very hot climate or is fast charging like crazy. Don't forget about that battery warranty:
"LITHIUM-ION BATTERY CAPACITY COVERAGEIn addition to the lithium-ion Battery Coverage fordefects in materials or workmanship, the lithium-ionbattery is also warranted against capacity loss belownine bars of capacity as shown on the vehicle’sbattery capacity level gauge for a period of60 months or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first."
page 8 http://juicedcar.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2015-LEAF-warranty-booklet.pdf
If you can make it drop another two bars you might get yourself a replacement battery which would increase the value of the car or perhaps a potential buyer could keep that warranty in mind. Those bars would have to drop before 60 months.

I would not expect this capacity loss on a 2015 especially when I see your mileage, do you live in a hot place like Arizona in the US? If so you might want to look at an electric car with better battery thermal management or if you really want that 2019 leaf make sure you get a plus which will cost you more but the larger capacity battery may heat up less.

You might also look at preowned Chevrolet Bolts. They are starting to list around $20k now.

Would go with Leaf Plus (can be had in S form post discounts for under 30K) or Bolt.

There is virtually no chance of dropping from 10 bars to 8 bars in the few months that may be remaining on the capacity coverage of the battery warranty of a 2015 even in a hot climate. Mine took quite a while to drop from 10 to 8 even though range was dropping due to a few weak cells and I had a lot more miles on the odometer. If you can negotiate enough trade in to get out of the current loan and can afford a new car, then go for it. If you are really concerned about range, then consider a plus model.

Besides the range for a person who lives in a hot climate I suspect the larger battery heats up less while charging and such, perhaps you can confirm that as you live in Az and have a plus you could set us straight. I prefer the Nissan, more room inside for one last I looked but I wonder if the Bolt might be a better buy for people in hot climates due to the battery cooling.

salyavin said:

Besides the range for a person who lives in a hot climate I suspect the larger battery heats up less while charging and such, perhaps you can confirm that as you live in Az and have a plus you could set us straight. I prefer the Nissan, more room inside for one last I looked but I wonder if the Bolt might be a better buy for people in hot climates due to the battery cooling.

Click to expand...

For the bolded part, probably yes, esp. if the car can be plugged in (doesn't need to be charging) when it's hot. I can confirm that Bolt's battery thermal management can run even not charging but attached to its stock L1 120 volt EVSE.

https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/battery-conditioning.33279/#post-512173 are some observations re: Bolt's thermal management behavior. Numerous folks in hot climates (not mine) have sworn that they've had thermal management run when not plugged in and not in READY mode when it's really hot. Unfortunately, we don't know when (in terms of temps/conditions) that triggers.

Unfortunately, on pre-'19 Bolts, there's no "target charge level" limiter, only hill top reserve on/off. So, if you plug it in, it will charge until either 100% or hill top reserve amount (sorry, I don't know the % off the top of my head... 87? 93? 90?). On my '19 Bolt, I can set the limiter as low as 40% (wish it could go lower) to inhibit charging but to allow thermal management to run.

This is needed as that guy said "Edit: also to add if you are using any type of scheduling (either in the EVSE or the car) for charging it does not count as "plugged in" when the car is not allowed to charge."

jjeff said:

Your Leaf is down to 10 bars so for anyone who knows Leafs it won't bring top dollar.
It's up to you, you could try and sell it yourself on a free site like Craigslist.org or of course the easiest option is to just trade it in and avoid any potential hassles.

Click to expand...

Dang ok. I'm thinking about trading it in since Im not too familiar with the process of selling it myself.

LeftieBiker said:

I can't see the image. A 2015 with 10 bars must be in a very warm climate...

Click to expand...

Here is the image again. I live in south Texas. When I purchased the vehicle in 2017 it had 12 bars.

salyavin said:

Very hot climate or is fast charging like crazy. Don't forget about that battery warranty:
"LITHIUM-ION BATTERY CAPACITY COVERAGEIn addition to the lithium-ion Battery Coverage fordefects in materials or workmanship, the lithium-ionbattery is also warranted against capacity loss belownine bars of capacity as shown on the vehicle’sbattery capacity level gauge for a period of60 months or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first."
page 8 http://juicedcar.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2015-LEAF-warranty-booklet.pdf
If you can make it drop another two bars you might get yourself a replacement battery which would increase the value of the car or perhaps a potential buyer could keep that warranty in mind. Those bars would have to drop before 60 months.

I would not expect this capacity loss on a 2015 especially when I see your mileage, do you live in a hot place like Arizona in the US? If so you might want to look at an electric car with better battery thermal management or if you really want that 2019 leaf make sure you get a plus which will cost you more but the larger capacity battery may heat up less.

Click to expand...

I live in South Texas and it gets hot and humid here but not as much as Arizona. Thanks for telling me about the battery replacement! I would be more than satisfied if I could just the battery replaced. This is my first car and I really have come to like it so far. It would be better financially for me too.

PrairieLEAF said:

You might also look at preowned Chevrolet Bolts. They are starting to list around $20k now.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion! I looked up Chevrolet Bolts but they dont have any in my area for that price. I did find some 2019 Bolts out of state though around 20k with 3,000 miles though.

GerryAZ said:

There is virtually no chance of dropping from 10 bars to 8 bars in the few months that may be remaining on the capacity coverage of the battery warranty of a 2015 even in a hot climate. Mine took quite a while to drop from 10 to 8 even though range was dropping due to a few weak cells and I had a lot more miles on the odometer. If you can negotiate enough trade in to get out of the current loan and can afford a new car, then go for it. If you are really concerned about range, then consider a plus model.

Click to expand...

Wow, Thats disappointing. Im looking into the new Leaf and Bolt now. Thanks for the advice.

DougWantsALeaf said:

Would go with Leaf Plus (can be had in S form post discounts for under 30K) or Bolt.

Click to expand...

30k is a lot for me right now lol, but I'll still check it out though. Thanks!

^^^
Keep in mind the Federal tax credit situation for GM and Tesla vs. all the rest: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/taxevb.shtml. However, if you have insufficient tax liability to take full advantage of the applicable Federal tax credit and you can't create more income in that tax year to take advantage, you can only take so much of the credit.

(Example: If your total Federal tax liability is only $5000 in a given tax year, then you can only claim up to $5000 of the Federal EV/PHEV tax credit in that tax year. It can't be carried over. Do not be confused by refund or no refund. That's not the issue. Tax liability is the key factor.)

If you buy a used EV/PHEV, none of this applies. It's ineligible for the above Federal tax credit. And, if you lease, you aren't the owner so you CANNOT claim it either.

If you buy a used EV/PHEV, none of this applies. It's ineligible for the above Federal tax credit. And, if you lease, you aren't the owner so you CANNOT claim it either.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the current situation is with leasing an EV from Nissan or GM, but in the past it's been possible to get some or even all of the Federal credit, which goes to the manufacturer in a lease, applied to reducing the cost of the lease. GM was never very good about doing this, but before Nissan got greedy they applied the whole $7500 to the cost of the lease, up front. Then they stopped. Then they applied some of it. Then all of it, but only for one or two Leaf models. The best time to get some at least some of that money applied by Nissan is when they are trying to clear out the current model year cars to make room for the next model year, from late Summer though early Winter. Again, I have no idea what GM is doing with the credit for lessees, now...

^^^
Ditto. I don't know the current situation for Nissan and GM in terms of passing along savings due to the actual owner (e.g. automaker or their financing arm) receiving the tax credit .