[NSG]

Hi all. First post!

I took delivery of my first EV this week: a Dec. 2015 Leaf 30KWh. It has 12 bars (but Leaf Spy tells me it is at 85.7% SOH) and 34,000 miles on the clock. Apart from a bit of wear and tear it seems in good condition. No service history except for the one just done by the dealer. Poor communication throughout with the dealer but that aside I'm left wondering if this is a good deal or not. I paid £12,500.

Any thoughts, as I'm wondering if I should send it back (I have 14 days under distance selling regulations)?

Thanks in advance.

Nick.

 

[Rei]

Seems okay for a car with 12 bars. What model is it?

 

[NSG]

Thanks Rei, it's an Accenta.

Mainly concerned that I'm gonna lose that first bar on the battery very soon despite having paid for a "12 bar car" and the lack of service history might effect the value, but if it's a good deal anyhow I'll not worry so much.

 

[Rei]

Try running it right down to the very low battery warning, then charging it up again and post a screenshot of Leaf Spy showing the cell voltages. There are experts here who can interpret it.

The price seems reasonable even for 11 bars.

 

[NSG]

Will this give a more accurate SOH reading then?

 

[phil-ev]

For the price it's good.

Looking on AT I can see the Tekna trim at £1000 more, similar low mileage.

Auto Trader UK - New and Used Cars For Sale

Find your next car with Auto Trader UK, the official #1 site to buy and sell new and used cars. Over 400,000 cars online. Simple, easy, quick!

www.autotrader.co.uk

Personally I would never get a leaf new or old.

 

[NSG]

Personally I would never get a leaf new or old.

A leaf seemed the best I could get for my budget. The Renault Zoe cars I saw all had leased batteries which added too much to the ongoing cost for me.

 

[phil-ev]

A leaf seemed the best I could get for my budget. The Renault Zoe cars I saw all had leased batteries which added too much to the ongoing cost for me.

I would pick the Leaf over the Zoe.

That Tekna trim above seems pretty decent price for spec but it's £13,549.

At the sub £20k the Leaf 30kWh is probably the only real choice. At £20k probably the first gen ZS over the Leaf 40kWh

Auto Trader UK - New and Used Cars For Sale

Find your next car with Auto Trader UK, the official #1 site to buy and sell new and used cars. Over 400,000 cars online. Simple, easy, quick!

www.autotrader.co.uk

 

[NSG]

Yes, now I look at the others on Auto trader it does seem like a good deal. I would have liked a bit more battery health ideally but I guess on a car that age it's unlikely.

 

[Rei]

I love the old Leaf, it's a wonderful car. Wish I had kept mine.

 

[Stephen Sunshine]

You might want to use Leafspy to check the BMI version - I'm thinking that if it hasn't been updated then you can update it to improve the battery charge availability.

 

[donald]

Hi all. First post!

I took delivery of my first EV this week: a Dec. 2015 Leaf 30KWh. It has 12 bars (but Leaf Spy tells me it is at 85.7% SOH) and 34,000 miles on the clock. Apart from a bit of wear and tear it seems in good condition. No service history except for the one just done by the dealer. Poor communication throughout with the dealer but that aside I'm left wondering if this is a good deal or not. I paid £12,500.

Any thoughts, as I'm wondering if I should send it back (I have 14 days under distance selling regulations)?

Thanks in advance.

Nick.

Welcome to the forum!

You really can't going asking that after you buy it! LOL. Can only end in a world of pain.

My POV is that all BEVs are overpriced these days, but then I am comparing it with a time when I was on the fence of a brand new 22kWh Leaf for £11,900, or a brand new 40kWh Zoe for £16,500.

Reality is that you've paid market price. If you want 'that' then pay the piper, the key thing I think is to check what warranty coverage you have, I mean you get a theoretical 6 months so to speak, but if you got a comprehensive extended warranty, and the range of the car is OK for you, then 'happy days'!

If you are happy with the range, and the reliability (either you're just chilled about it or have a good warranty) then don't sweat it, you are good to go I think.

... I still think the market is overpriced on 2nd hand BEVs, especially these smaller earlier ones, but the market says what the market says, if you want it, give up your money!

(Just don't expect to be able to sell it for more than you bought it for in a few years time, which has happened recently with BEVs.)

 

[DBMandrake]

Hi all. First post!

I took delivery of my first EV this week: a Dec. 2015 Leaf 30KWh. It has 12 bars (but Leaf Spy tells me it is at 85.7% SOH) and 34,000 miles on the clock. Apart from a bit of wear and tear it seems in good condition. No service history except for the one just done by the dealer. Poor communication throughout with the dealer but that aside I'm left wondering if this is a good deal or not. I paid £12,500.

Any thoughts, as I'm wondering if I should send it back (I have 14 days under distance selling regulations)?

Seems a bit more expensive that I would have expected but market prices may have gone up in the nearly 2 years since I bought my 2016 Leaf 30 - I paid about the same for a Tekna with 24k miles on the clock that at the time would have been 3 years younger than yours.

Battery health seems par for the course for the age - mine is down to about 86% SoH now so still just clinging onto its 12th bar, and is a year younger but has done 45k miles so that probably evens things out a bit. As long as Leafspy shows good cell voltage balance and no obvious weak cells the battery is probably as good as could be expected for a nearly 7 year old Leaf.

No service history is perhaps a slight problem - the Leaf 30 has a 100k mile 8 year "battery warranty" which requires proof of yearly servicing being kept up to be honoured, however as your car is pushing 7 years old now you'd only have one year of that left, and Nissan are notorious for trying their best not to honour the battery warranty for things like faulty cells so in the end it's probably not worth worrying about - the chance of anything going wrong with the battery in the last year of its battery warranty if it currently tests good is very remote.

As others have mentioned, check the firmware version of the LBC (battery management ECU - there's threads on how to check this) to see if it's due a software update that will increase the reported SoH. Mine has already had this update before I bought it.

The question is, do you feel you paid an acceptable price for what you were looking for relative to current going market prices, do you like the car to drive, and does its real world range meet your expectations ? Those are questions only you can answer.

 

[ahutcheon]

When my 2014 24kw went from 12 to 11 bars it was about the same impact as when I went from 57 to 58 years old (i.e. approximately zero). The SOH looks decent to me for the age and mileage, price I have no idea about (but here in NZ prices are way up on a couple of years ago due to demand what with petrol prices and all). Leafspy at low charge gives a better view of whether there are weak cells in the battery; near full charge they'll all look pretty even, but if some are weaker then they'll drop voltage sooner and that shows up at lower charge.

After two and a half years I find the Leaf way more versatile than I expected (it's actually quite big inside, and it's a nice drive around town in particular) and because my use fits within its range its hard to justify spending big money on a "better" EV. Enjoy!

 

[SMLMcKenzie]

For price comparison I paid £8500 for a September 2015 24KWh Leaf with Acenta trim in September 2021. It had a 90% state of health and 28,000 miles on the clock.

Prices of all cars have increased since I bought so if you needed a new car right now then the price is kind of irrelevant. You have to pay what you have to pay if you are not in a position to wait until prices go down again.

If I were you I would take the car to a trusted garage and get them to do an inspection. Make sure the parking brake cable is not seized because if it is that is a £450 fix. You should make sure the heaters put out hot air fairly quickly to ensure the PTC heater is working ok because if it isn't then that is over £1000 to fix.

You might want to consider getting a warranty if an unexpected £1000 bill would be a big deal for you. WarrantyDirect and MotorEasy seem decent. I have a policy with WarrantyDirect for £13.30 a month with a £250 excess which includes AA breakdown cover. In my opinion avoid Nissan's Good To Go warranty plan. They are a total pain to deal with. They will require you to book in for an inspection at a cost of £40 and you should expect to wait weeks for your appointment.

The Leaf is a good car though so long as you don't need a lot of range. Enjoy the instant torque at the traffic lights!

 

[Scrooge]

Just over a year ago my 2014 Leaf 24 was £5600 ~54k miles. Other than than brake maintenance and a couple of tyres nothing gone wrong. Did replace the front bulbs with Osram Nightbreaker laser as the originals were worn out. Was 12 bars, now 11. Cheap enough to be disposable.

 

[SMLMcKenzie]

Oh you definitely want to read this thread as a new Leaf owner.

Front strut top bearing failure

I think I will replace it with silicone grease to be safe.

www.speakev.com

Get yourself down to Aldi for a couple of cans of tuna!

 

[donald]

....I have a policy with WarrantyDirect for £13.30 a month with a £250 excess which includes AA breakdown cover. ...

That is a VERY good price! I guess that means at least Warranty Direct have good regard for Leaf reliability!?

If I owned a Leaf, I'd rip their arm off for that. (hint to OP......!)

 

[SMLMcKenzie]

That is a VERY good price! I guess that means at least Warranty Direct have good regard for Leaf reliability!?

If I owned a Leaf, I'd rip their arm off for that. (hint to OP......!)

Seems to be the case. I even specifically asked them if the warranty covered some of the high value components such as the PTC Heater, heat pump and Brake modulator unit. They confirmed that they were covered so long as they are factory fitted components. The policy is only any good for cars up to 70,000 miles though. You don't even need to have a car health check performed beforehand unlike Nissan's Good To Go warranty.

 

[donald]

Bargain.

Sometimes I wonder if these actuaries are still playing catch up on how much BEVs cost to repair (same has applied to GAP insurance, IMHO), but, hey, maybe Leaf cars really are that reliable! All strength to you.