Hello, should I keep wrap warranty

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baerster

Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2021
Messages
7
Hello,

I just purchased a 2018 Leaf S with 12,000 or so miles at a Nissan dealership. I am very happy with the purchase, and the car seems to be in near-perfect condition. Battery has 12 bars which I suppose is to be expected for a car of that age and mileage.

The car still has a warranty on the battery, for another 8 years or up to 100k miles, in case the battery goes below 9 bars by that time.

When I bought the car, I got a pitch from the finance guy for a "wrap" warranty that will cover anything other than consumables (e.g., tires) for the next 8 years or 100k miles. He said it's transferrable so will increase the value of the car if I sell it in a few years. The price: about $2500.00.

I have 30 days to cancel it for a full refund. Should I cancel and get the refund? I am inclined to cancel it, and the only reason I got it is because it would buy me some time to do research. I get the sense that it's not likely that I will need that amount of repairs (again, other than tires and things like that) in that period of time. But the finance guy said that if something like the computer breaks, it could be ridiculously expensive.

I am good with car repairs and with computers, and am good at researching how to fix things. But I wonder if repairs to Leafs require proprietary equipment and training that would be beyond me.

Thanks for any help you can provide,

-Tom
 
Most will say not to get the overpriced extended warranty. My suggestion (harder to implement in this case) is that people wait until the 3 year bumper to bumper factory warranty is about to end, and if you are still sure you want to keep the car, consider buying the extended warranty then. Also, make sure that it's the Nissan 'Gold Preferred' warranty if you decide to keep it, as that's the only one that's really worth considering.
 
baerster said:
When I bought the car, I got a pitch from the finance guy for a "wrap" warranty that will cover anything other than consumables (e.g., tires) for the next 8 years or 100k miles. He said it's transferrable so will increase the value of the car if I sell it in a few years. The price: about $2500.00.
The LEAF, like most good EVs, is a near-zero maintenance vehicle. And the number of real problems people have is very low. In that time frame you can only expect to have to replace tires and the 12V battery. Many here have gone 6+ years with no other expenses on the car.

Basically, don't buy the overpriced extra warranty.
 
These stealership tack on overpriced items. The battery has only a 5yr 60k degradation warranty and a 8yr 100k for any defects for the traction battery pack. You need to get as many of the crap they loaded up your contract cancelled and refunded. Don't wait they will start playing and stalling games to run out the time. You should ask the lender to send a copy of the contract to you and compare it with the one you have. Many stealership will even commit fraud. I own a 2013 and now a 2018 leaf. So far the 2013 hasn't given me any problems. If you still want a extended warranty look for a reliable company. Or.. Bank the money.
 
Thanks so much everyone! I am leaning heavily toward cancelling the warranty, but I have a couple other questions first. One I posted in a different thread (what work can a non-dealer mechanic do on a Leaf), but another question that I want to ask here is whether anyone has heard anything to back up Consumer Reports' rating of the 2018 Leaf as having relatively poor reliability with the transmission and "drive system." Maybe CR's sample in this case is not representative?

Thanks for any insights you can provide,

-Tom
 
The Leaf has no real transmission, so there's that. If you include defective battery cells in "drive system" then there there were a significant (though I'd guess not large) number of defects there. I drove an early build 2018 for three years, and I only had some trouble with the Pro Pilot front radar unit.
 
Thank you @LeftieBiker, that makes sense. In case we have the same problem with the ProPilot front radar, what resolved your problem with it?
 
Turning the car in resolved that problem. ;) It never produced any codes, so the dealer never replaced the unit. Under certain conditions (cold weather after wet weather) the unit would ice up, thawing out when the temps warmed a bit.
 
@LeftieBiker - interesting. So based on what you say and what I've read elsewhere, it sounds like there maybe a design defect in the radar that means there is no real fix to it and so it's best to use ProPilot with caution or not at all. So far I have not found any reports of the radar problem being successfully fixed such that it does not come back. Does that seem right?

I see that there are lawsuits in progress in a couple of states so maybe someday there will be a recall.
 
They redesigned the radar unit to make it more waterproof. They install the new design when codes are saved when the first version malfunctions.

We have a '20 SV+ and a '21 SV40 now, and have only had one instance of the '20 glitching, and none so far with the '21. We use Pro Pilot all the time.
 
baerster said:
@LeftieBiker - interesting. So based on what you say and what I've read elsewhere, it sounds like there maybe a design defect in the radar that means there is no real fix to it and so it's best to use ProPilot with caution or not at all. So far I have not found any reports of the radar problem being successfully fixed such that it does not come back. Does that seem right?

I see that there are lawsuits in progress in a couple of states so maybe someday there will be a recall.
Found that my own '19 glitches some in colder weather, which I traced to condensation (or frost) obstructing the camera in the windshield. In some cases, the condensation is on the inside of the glass and blocked from the defroster airflow by the black plastic shrouding behind the mirror. Once the glass warms enough to burn off the moisture, the system returns to working correctly.

On your original extended warranty question, my own choice to purchase and keep an extended warranty was based on past experience with vehicles that have risks of abnormally high repair cost if an event happens. The term "Exotic" is likely the wrong word to describe the LEAF, but in a twisted way LEAF fits that characterization when repairs are needed. Unfortunately the LEAF is not very common, or well understood, or very fixable outside of a dealership.

The one warranty repair event with my past LEAF ('14) that set that perspective was the accelerator pedal going dead, that eventually was traced to a failing ABS module that is unique to the LEAF. The module alone was in excess of $2000, plus diagnostic time, plus labor to install and re-bleed the braking system. So in my use case, I anticipated almost 25K miles/yr and purchased a 5yr/100K mile contract. After getting home and reading the contract, I didn't like the wording because it itemized covered systems from a non-EV perspective. In the end, I decided to not cancel but don't have a warm & fuzzy feeling about the contract. Just hope that it doesn't generate a coverage argument if a failure happens.
 
There was some incorrect information in an earlier post. Your 2018 does have an 8-year, 100,000-mile traction battery warranty for both capacity loss and defects. I normally don't purchase extended warranties, but the LEAF has some expensive components that are unique to it and require specialized diagnostic equipment that generally means "dealer repair". Although all 3 of my LEAFs have been very reliable, I purchased an extended warranty for the 2015 and again for the 2019 because I had no or very low interest 6-year loans from Nissan so there was little or no extra interest expense (each extended warranty was valid for 6 years or 100,000 miles, had no deductible, and included a loaner car). The extended warranty paid for itself on the 2015 because the intelligent brake controller (master cylinder and hydraulic control unit) would intermittently lose communication with the other computers and cause the brakes to be basically full on or off with severe ABS operation when stopping. I could clear the error codes and restore normal operation using LEAF Spy Pro with Bluetooth adapter connected to OBDII port, but finally got tired of that and took it to the dealer when it happened one morning. The repair bill was on the order of $2500 to replace the brake unit (which was more than I paid for the warranty). To be fair, I would have continued to clear/reset the brake controller errors rather than paying for a new unit if I had been without warranty.

I suggest that you read the terms of the particular extended warranty you have to see what it covers and what is excluded. Make sure it covers all of the electrical and powertrain components (other than the traction battery). It is better if it only lists things that are excluded rather than listing items that are included. Also, to avoid paying extra for something already included, check the terms of the CPO purchase since some manufacturers include extended warranty as part of that process.
 
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