[ngodima]

I have had a 2012 Leaf for the last 2 years. Idyllic you'd think. You need to know a few facts. The HV guarantee expires this January. The cabin heater unit was removed from Hv warranty last year. The first cold day of this winter I learned a very hard lesson. The cabin heater failed and killed the dc dc converter(12v battery charger). The car wouldnt go into drive and I had to have it towed home. The first car thats ever left me high and dry in my 45 years of car ownership.
Then came the real pain. Nissan are covering 50% of the cost of parts. My 50 % plus labour and vat is looking like 4500 euro or thereabouts. If it had happened in Feb 17 it would be 3000 more. The pain doesnt end there. The car has been in the garage for a month now. A week to diagnose and after 3 weeks, no expected delivery date for the dc dc converter yet.
So if youre considering buying a used leaf I would suggest doing your homework around the unbelievable cost of replacement parts. Another factor is the incredibly high devaluation rate, thus car was close to 30k new and should be 15k now but the trade in is 7k if youre lucky.
So from my experience, be sure to understand whats covered in the warranty as the car ages. I personally am so jaded now I wont even look at any vehicle that has anything to do with batteries.

 

[Prg350]

Sorry don't mean to be a doubter here but 9000 Euros (4500 for your 50%) for a dc-dc converter inc labour or have I misunderstood? I think you are being ripped off and I would try another dealer. I can't see small the part costing anything like that much.

Also not sure about the prices where you are but here you should be able to private sale a decent spec and condition 2 year old leaf for £11-15k.

The residuals are low in comparison to other cars though. I suspect that's because of uncertainty over battery duration (which many of us owners know is a dud) combined with the rapid rate of increase in capacity resulting in people preferring new.

Edit just realised it's actually 4 years old. So probably not far off then. 2 years ago it should have been about 11-15k, now 8ish

 

[SteveMalta]

You would be better off finding one from a breaker - indra.co.uk (Mike Schooling) would certainly be able to help you out I am sure.

 

[smartie]

Gen 1 Leaf hence low residuals.

 

[richtrash]

Don't forget the parking brake

Parking brake error "Visit Dealer" - £2,172 bill

Mu BMW i3 seems to be in freefall depreciation wise so much so that I won't be selling it anytime soon, probably just run it into the ground, at the current velocity I reckon in a few years I will probably have to pay someone to take it off my hands

 

[SteveMalta]

Also did you check the price of a new diesel engine? A new Qashqai diesel engine is €10,000

 

[donald]

Also did you check the price of a new diesel engine? A new Qashqai diesel engine is €10,000

This is through the halcyon-EV-owning-optimist's rose-tinted spectacles.

Engine's are known things and yes they can go wrong, but really very rarely these days. When they do, it is virtually unheard of to need a whole new engine.

Happy to be proved wrong, but one example alone isn't going to do that.

EVs are at a very early stage in their 'commercial maturity'. It's a really big huge problem waiting to happen.

EVs out of warranty are basically going to be written off with the first significant fault. Get ready for a lot of grumpy 2nd hand EV owners.

I do seriously think a lot of EV owners are underestimating the enormous problems of the out-of-warranty future, not simply in the cost of replacement parts but finding anyone at all, including dealers, to actually fix them.

What we need is to legally mandate the per-car warranty costs to be published for each model. I bet it would be an order of magnitude, at lease, for the Leaf over any other Nissan product.

 

[MART1N]

Also not sure about the prices where you are but here you should be able to private sale a decent spec and condition 2 year old leaf for £11-15k.

In August this year I bought a 14 plate Leaf Tekna with 2 years free servicing and a free home charge port for £10,000 from my local Nissan dealership. The market is awash with 14 and 64 plate Leafs coming off lease contracts.

Remember we are still in the early adoption phase of EV's and most folks haven't twigged on to the benefits of the plug over the pump.

 

[knoxie]

Yes you are being ripped off for that part try a breakers yard, all cars can go wrong if you dont want to have this problem in the future you are far better to lease the car wether its electric or ICE.

Faults and high repair prices like this are not exclusive to electric vehicles, this is why I always lease and dont buy, I have had no problems with any Leaf in 5 years of ownership, I have many friends with ICE cars during the last 5 years that have had money pit nightmares.

 

[Mr_G]

Sadly it is a rigged market where extended warranty deals look very good value in comparison to taking the risk personally for a fault repair by forgetting that the trade prices for spares are a fraction of the counter price. And I do mean like 500% mark-up on spare parts for non-trade purchase.

However the inherent reliability of electronics in comparison to the insidious wear of mechanical components means a broken BEV with one sub-system beyond economic repair should have a high (relative to ICE) breaking value for all the other functional sub-systems. The manufacturers seek to counter this by having parts that need coding to pair them to work together. They are determined to make cars a disposable item like TVs are already.

So knowing a skilled third party repairer like @Mike Schooling who can supply salvaged sub-systems and sensors to keep an older BEV on the road sounds essential to running a BEV beyond the five year point.

 

[Brian10]

As the cars age faults will occur we need people other than dealers to repair them at low cost. So any parts the dealer change ask for them back sell them on eBay so we can learn about the faults it may not help you other than a small return on the parts but will help to fuel a low cost repair route in the future. If Nissan are letting Ev die after 4 or 5 years due to supper height repair costs I am sure Nissan will also become very unpopular well done putting it on this forum tell Nissan tweet there twitter accounts I am sure they will repair it at a lower cost and please keep us all informed good luck

 

[Brian10]

2012 dcdc converta on eBay £540

 

[Mr_G]

As the cars age faults will occur we need people other than dealers to repair them at low cost. So any parts the dealer change ask for them back sell them on eBay so we can learn about the faults it may not help you other than a small return on the parts but will help to fuel a low cost repair route in the future. If Nissan are letting Ev die after 4 or 5 years due to supper height repair costs I am sure Nissan will also become very unpopular well done putting it on this forum tell Nissan tweet there twitter accounts I am sure they will repair it at a lower cost and please keep us all informed good luck

If the BEVs are becoming uneconomic to repair at the five year point then that is the polar opposite of being 'green' because in the UK at least the annual non-diesel mileage is about 7000 so the car is being potentially scrapped after only 35000 miles. All that extra CO2e being produced to build a replacement vehicle all but cancels out the CO2 reduction in a BEV compared with a 10 year life modest petrol ICE.

ULEVs makers should only get support if they produce low emission AND long lasting vehicles that are not scrapped quickly because of eye-watering repair costs. It needs at least transferable 10 year or 100,000 mile warranties for the product to be really 'green'.

 

[GTE]

Hmm odd thread. £540 doesn't sound uneconomic to me. Let's hope the OP returns to add some more information.

 

[BSven]

This is through the halcyon-EV-owning-optimist's rose-tinted spectacles.

Engine's are known things and yes they can go wrong, but really very rarely these days. When they do, it is virtually unheard of to need a whole new engine.

Happy to be proved wrong, but one example alone isn't going to do that.
...

What about Mazda's oil problems. One woman at work had this on a 2 year old car and she said it was not covered by warranty as they thought she had been negligible with oil checking.

Here are some links seemingly related:

HonestJohnn: Mazda 6 engine failure

HonestJohn: Mazda 3 engine failure

HonestJohn: Mazda 6 engine failure

HonestJohn: Complete engine failure

Consumer Action Group

Mazda Engine Repair specialist: "The Mazda 6 is well known for its engine failure..."


I have also heard of big problems with Audi TDi or tsi engines from very experienced Audi mechanics but don't know how common. Seemingly cam-chain arrangements of very low quality design and piston oil rings which don't work.

 

[ngodima]

Thanks for all the comments, some very useful. Ti be clear Nissan pays 50 % of the cost of parts. I oay all the kabour and vat, the cast of my 50% for parts is around 3000 euros. Ther are about 10 hours labour at 90 euro an hour, then you add 23% vat.
Having calmed down a but I figure that in future I will try tp make repairs myself. On the replaced components there will be 1 year warranty.
The thing is this car is perfect for me. I drive about 5km to work and it is nice to know I am not wearing out a combustion engine on the short trips. The programmed cabin heating on winter mornings is really nice and I love the electric power steering.
Thanks for the links and tips for spares. I will attempt to recover the old parts. There is a good article on u tube where a guy has extracted the HV battery and dc dc converter and worked out the signals that control the dc dc converter. Might be something ridiculous like a blown diode.

 

[GTE]

Thanks for all the comments, some very useful. Ti be clear Nissan pays 50 % of the cost of parts. I oay all the kabour and vat, the cast of my 50% for parts is around 3000 euros. Ther are about 10 hours labour at 90 euro an hour, then you add 23% vat.
Having calmed down a but I figure that in future I will try tp make repairs myself. On the replaced components there will be 1 year warranty.
The thing is this car is perfect for me. I drive about 5km to work and it is nice to know I am not wearing out a combustion engine on the short trips. The programmed cabin heating on winter mornings is really nice and I love the electric power steering.
Thanks for the links and tips for spares. I will attempt to recover the old parts. There is a good article on u tube where a guy has extracted the HV battery and dc dc converter and worked out the signals that control the dc dc converter. Might be something ridiculous like a blown diode.

What are the parts they want to change for Eur 6000 and where are you based? Are you going to do this yourself now instead?

 

[ngodima]

Part 1 is dc dc converter (12 v battery charger) that is an Hv part. It shoul be covered hy the 5byear HV warranty, except that is was damaged by part 2, the heater element for the xabin heating that is a low voltage component, not under warranty. Part 1 is around 3000 euro and part 2 is slightly less. Nissans good will policy means they will cover half the cost of the parts. This repair will be done at the dealer. Its about 1.5 hours labour to replace the dcdc converter, but over 7 hours for the heater, suggesting it may not be trivial to replace, I am committed to attempt my own repairs in the future. Hopefully I have a few event free years to come and this incident was real bad luck.

 

[GTE]

Part 1 is dc dc converter (12 v battery charger) that is an Hv part. It shoul be covered hy the 5byear HV warranty, except that is was damaged by part 2, the heater element for the xabin heating that is a low voltage component, not under warranty. Part 1 is around 3000 euro and part 2 is slightly less. Nissans good will policy means they will cover half the cost of the parts. This repair will be done at the dealer. Its about 1.5 hours labour to replace the dcdc converter, but over 7 hours for the heater, suggesting it may not be trivial to replace, I am committed to attempt my own repairs in the future. Hopefully I have a few event free years to come and this incident was real bad luck.

I'm no expert but the warranty bit doesn't sound or feel right; contract law could be in your favour but you would need the will to challenge this. You didn't say where you are based but if you haven't committed to the repair yet there is at least one member here that I'm sure could help you out for a fraction of that cost (and avoid you having to invest in a pair of HV gloves for the next time).

 

[MikeProcter]

You didn't say where you are based

No the OP hasn't but he has been quoting euros so guessing not in UK so not so easy for @Mike Schooling to assist.