Getting a Tekna 6.6 (2014+)

goz83

So I am about to take the plunge and buy a Leaf. I am looking at 2014/15 models with under 25k miles. I also want the 6.6kw charger for convenience. My high preference is a Tekna spec, but would consider a bargain Acenta. Colour preferences are Grey, or Black, but I am not really bothered unless it's pink. I don't even mind if it's white :eek:

Looking toward the UK. Budgeting at £11k (€13k). Could stretch a little for the right car, but I have to consider the cost of getting a charger installed.

Have been looking at dealers and seen 2 I am interested in. One is only a few miles from Liverpool. its got 12k miles on her.

The other is 250 miles from holyhead near Birmingham. Its got 27k miles on her. The wife loves the colour

Both are under 11.5k asking and would look to negotiate that down. They are both 2014 models too.

I expect to be able to buy next week, or the week after. I am just waiting for some funds to clear. So, what do I do from here? I don't want to contact the dealership prematurely. Anything I should be asking? Have never bought from the UK and never an EV.

slave1

I'd contact the dealer, the car may be gone for a start, also you will need email traffic with photos of documents etc, do a finance and background check, get a personalised video of the car sent to you also if at all possible.

Most important of all get 100% proof that's it's a 6.6, I looked at a good few before purchasing and eventually bought a 3.3, every one of the 6.6's I enquired about turned out to be 3.3, every one of them.
From what I can gather from sitting on Autotrader since December 6.6's are sold pretty much the same day....

Scottie99

Couple more grand you could get the 30kW

Calahonda52

slave1 wrote: »

I'd contact the dealer, the car may be gone for a start, also you will need email traffic with photos of documents etc, do a finance and background check, get a personalised video of the car sent to you also if at all possible.

Most important of all get 100% proof that's it's a 6.6, I looked at a good few before purchasing and eventually bought a 3.3, every one of the 6.6's I enquired about turned out to be 3.3, every one of them.
From what I can gather from sitting on Autotrader since December 6.6's are sold pretty much the same day....

+1
I would even go as far as saying it is bait and switch.
I have been like slave1 watching and watching and when you call they will often say either of two things: its sold, or the one on the web is only to show we have them, them usually being a 3.3 old higher mileage.

A couple of factors driving the UK market in the wrong direction for Irish buyers these days.

the X rate, leading to higher prices for us when they see we are Irish,

[I had a UK based friend go in and look at a Leaf for me and agreed the price.
I called then and said it was for me: no, that price was for a UK licence holder only.....]

the increase in PCP interest rates and the loss of the 0% BIK in UK on EV's

goz83

Scottie99 wrote: »

Couple more grand you could get the 30kW

If it meets my other specs, show me the car.

goz83

ignore. car i was looking at is marked as reserved

Gumbo

goz83 wrote: »

ignore. car i was looking at is marked as reserved

What one were you looking at?

goz83

kceire wrote: »

What one were you looking at?

http://www.aylesburymotorgroup.co.uk/used-car-details/used-nissan-leaf-tekna-66kw-charger-hatchback-magnetic-red-automatic-electric-id_2021191402362.aspx (I rang them. It's sold, but they have more coming this week).



I am now sending an email about this one. http://www4.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201701311843202?

unkel

Would you not be better off with a 30kWh 2016 Leaf for maybe £1k-£2k more? Like the one slave1 bought (£12.5k iirc)?

goz83

unkel wrote: »

Would you not be better off with a 30kWh 2016 Leaf for maybe £1k-£2k more? Like the one slave1 bought (£12.5k iirc)?

Sure I would consider it. I would rather not stretch the budget out that much if I can avoid it. I am preferring the Tekna 6.6 though.

Soarer

Calahonda52 wrote: »

[I had a UK based friend go in and look at a Leaf for me and agreed the price.
I called then and said it was for me: no, that price was for a UK licence holder only.....]

WTAF??

Never heard anything so ridiculous.

slave1

£13,250, I was in the same boat, either a 24 Tekna 6.6 or 30 Acenta 3.3, I went with the 3.3....

Newer Car (162)
Longer Range
Longer Battery Warranty
Gonna charge overnight at home and pretty much discount fast public charging

Don't forget the 3.3 or 6.6 is irrelevant when you rapid charge at a DC point

goz83

slave1 wrote: »

£13,250, I was in the same boat, either a 24 Tekna 6.6 or 30 Acenta 3.3, I went with the 3.3....

Newer Car (162)
Longer Range
Longer Battery Warranty
Gonna charge overnight at home and pretty much discount fast public charging

Don't forget the 3.3 or 6.6 is irrelevant when you rapid charge at a DC point

Go again? It takes the same time to charge a 3.3 as a 6.6 at a DC point? So the 6.6 only benefits on home charging?

My main concern is when I need a public charge, I don't want to be waiting longer than necessary

Gumbo

slave1 wrote: »

£13,250, I was in the same boat, either a 24 Tekna 6.6 or 30 Acenta 3.3, I went with the 3.3....

Newer Car (162)
Longer Range
Longer Battery Warranty
Gonna charge overnight at home and pretty much discount fast public charging

Don't forget the 3.3 or 6.6 is irrelevant when you rapid charge at a DC point

So where does the 6.6 benefit over the 3.3 version?
I'm currently looking at one and it's a 6.6 version (131 24kwh).

slave1

As I understand it there are two charging ports on a Leaf.

A DC to the left and an AC to the right, the 3.3/6.6 differential is only relevant to the AC on-board charger.
At public AC charge points (be they 22kw or 7kw) the speed of charge is limited by the on-board Lead charger, so a 6.6kw will take a charge twice as fast as a 3.3kw(ignoring trickle feed towards the end of the charge).
At public DC charge points there is only one (rapid) speed as you will be using the DC port on the left. It has a 'direct' route to the battery not shared with the AC port on the right.

Yes/No

Gumbo

slave1 wrote: »

As I understand it there are two charging ports on a Leaf.

A DC to the left and an AC to the right, the 3.3/6.6 differential is only relevant to the AC on-board charger.
At public AC charge points (be they 22kw or 7kw) the speed of charge is limited by the on-board Lead charger, so a 6.6kw will take a charge twice as fast as a 3.3kw(ignoring trickle feed towards the end of the charge).
At public DC charge points there is only one (rapid) speed as you will be using the DC port on the left. It has a 'direct' route to the battery not shared with the AC port on the right.

Yes/No

Sound. How would you defrentitate on the map which sites have fast charging available?

Edit : when I click on the point on the map, it states AC or DC so that's my question answered.

slave1

For the Leaf the DC (rapid) chargers are called CHAdeMO and coloured blue

Yeah, the difference is that a 6.6kW-24kWh charges from flat to full on any of the green dots in 3 hours. It's a very handy feature when stopping for a lunch etc. in a town. Alternatively an hour gives you en extra 40 km instead of 20 km in case a DC charger is down and there is a AC nearby to take you to the next DC charger.

Also, in the future when the per minute charging will most likely be implemented on the DC chargers the 6.6 kW will be a great option to have.

goz83

slave1 wrote: »

As I understand it there are two charging ports on a Leaf.

A DC to the left and an AC to the right, the 3.3/6.6 differential is only relevant to the AC on-board charger.
At public AC charge points (be they 22kw or 7kw) the speed of charge is limited by the on-board Lead charger, so a 6.6kw will take a charge twice as fast as a 3.3kw(ignoring trickle feed towards the end of the charge).
At public DC charge points there is only one (rapid) speed as you will be using the DC port on the left. It has a 'direct' route to the battery not shared with the AC port on the right.

Yes/No

Interesting. So the benefit of a 6.6 at public charge points is they can use the AC to charge if faster DC is not available, am I right?

Gumbo

God this is going to be some learning curve!
I won't have a home charge for a couple of months so will have to make use of granny cable, work charge point when available and public points.

slave1

goz83 wrote: »

Interesting. So the benefit of a 6.6 at public charge points is they can use the AC to charge faster if DC is not available, am I right?

Bang on, twice as fast as a 3.3

goz83

slave1 wrote: »

Bang on, twice as fast as a 3.3

I would be more open to a 3.3 so if I can fast charge off of DC.

slave1

goz83 wrote: »

I would be more open to a 3.3 so if I can fast charge off of DC.

Exactly, for my peace of mind I'm thinking Granny cable is trickle charge, AC chargers are fast charge and the DC is rapid charge

KCross

goz83 wrote: »

Interesting. So the benefit of a 6.6 at public charge points is they can use the AC to charge if faster DC is not available, am I right?

Sort of!!

You can only AC charge from the green coloured charge points on the eCars map. There is AC on the blue rapid chargers as well but the leaf can't use those.

So if DC is not available you would have to drive to an AC charger and connect up there.

The bigger benefit, imo, is being able to charge at home at twice the speed. Every week I come home at least once where I need additional charge for later in the day and a 3.3kW charger is too slow for that.

goz83

I have a couple of cars on the radar now. So I am thinking of calling and getting the info I need, but not sure what to do from there really.

I assume I need to pay a small holding deposit (£100?). Do I haggle on price before paying a deposit? I assume I do.

Should I use the RAC to check everything? They do a basic check for £100. Is this what I should get, or do I need their more comprehensive checks?

I'm just waiting on funds to hit my account this week and I am then ready to buy.

edited to add:

I am looking at a 2014 tekna 6.6. its a 24kw model for 11k. I might put in an offer. What cable needs to come with it? The sales rep just said "whatever cable came with the car". I want to be sure I am getting a rapid charge cable (is that the right name) and a granny cable. Or do they usually only come with a granny cable?

Soarer

Ring them.
Tell them you'll give them £500 deposit over the phone "right now" (subject to inspection) if they can do the following....
Then tell them what you want (cables, mats, etc.)
Have your figures worked out what you'd like to pay all-in, and then work backwards.
Car £11k = ~€13k.
Travel over and back = ~€500
Home Charger = ~€500
Tax = €120.
Total = €14,200k.

If you try get £1000 off the price, that'll round down to about €13k. So that's your budget.

Then finally tell them taking into account currency, registration tax, travel over and back, etc., and with your budget is €13k, that you can "only" give £10k for the car. But remind him that you're prepared to do it "right now", and you'll be over at the weekend to collect it or whatever.

Would be very surprised if you didn't get the guts of the £1000 off.

slave1

Soarer wrote: »

Would be very surprised if you didn't get the guts of the £1000 off.

I would be extremely surprised if you get £1,000 off a £11,000 priced car, the UK market is very competitively priced with asking prices, if you get £250 you'll be doing well IMHO.
If you get £1,000 off then that would be great to say the least.

Also, I could be wrong but I'm not sure do RAC cover EV's, I remember some time back they didn't.

EDIT Get explicit photographic proof it's a 6.6kw charger model, the public charging cable should be 32amp (sticker on it) and the dash readout where it says 'time to full charge' should give both 6.6 and 3.3 times.

goz83

Thanks lads. I put in an offer of 10750. I didn't think offering less would yield favourable results. I set some conditions in my email. I wrote:

Good Afternoon Sales Rep Name.

Thanks for taking my call about the Nissan Leaf (reg no). The asking price is a bit above my budget and I had planned to wait for the new plates to come out tomorrow and watch prices come down a little more. However, the car seems to be a well cared for example and I have thought about it.

I would like to make an offer on the Nissan Leaf (reg no), subject to some conditions. The offer is £10,750.00 subject to the following:

1) The car is a 6.6KW charger as stated in your email. I am awaiting a photo to confirm this.
2) The car comes with the 2 required cables (13 Amp and Type 2). Both are a necessity for me.
3) The offside front bumper paint damage is touched up and there is no other damage to the car.
4) There is no outstanding finance on the car.
5) The car is made available to an RAC (or similar) inspector to check the vehicle.

I will not be trading a car, so this is a straight swap. I can pay a £100 refundable deposit within 24 hours of acceptance of the offer, which would be refunded in the event the inspection shows anything not already covered in the advert, which I am not happy with. I would expect to collect the car within 10 days, or as soon as I receive a charge card.

I await your reply and photo to show the car is a 6.6KW charge.

Regards,

Goz

00353xxxxxxxxx

He has already got back to me with a photo to confirm its a 6.6 and he sent photos of some light scuffs and mentioned some stone chips on bonnet.

I have said my offer stands if the paint work is made right, including any door dings that were eluded to.

If all that is sorted, I think it's a good deal and within budget.

The home charge point is outside the budget.

I suppose I should also get a photo of the cables being supplied if/when they accept my offer?

Soarer

Well that's what I do when I buy from the UK.

I ring with card in hand, ready to give the deposit. More often than not, they have to ring me back 'cause they need to clarify things with their manager.

I know it's too late now, but definitely start with £1000 off. All they can do is say no. If you start with £250, that's the most you're going to get off.

goz83

Soarer wrote: »

Well that's what I do when I buy from the UK.

I ring with card in hand, ready to give the deposit. More often than not, they have to ring me back 'cause they need to clarify things with their manager.

I know it's too late now, but definitely start with £1000 off. All they can do is say no. If you start with £250, that's the most you're going to get off.

I see where you're coming from, but it's hard to find a 6.6 version and this one is in a colour that doesn't make me want to puke on it. It also has a chrome pack, which makes the car less ugly.

My angle of £250 off is to secure the car AND get the little body scuffs sorted. I reckon I could have got £500 off, but I would have had no room for getting anything else done on an already competitively price Tekna. There are very small scuffs on a couple of areas on the driver side on both bumpers, plus a small scuff on the front arch and a light scrape above the rear arch. Some stone chips on bonnet I am told. I want all that sorted before buying anything, because they would annoy me otherwise.

Have you bought a leaf from the UK?

slave1

goz83 wrote: »

He has already got back to me with a photo to confirm its a 6.6 and he sent photos of some light scuffs and mentioned some stone chips on bonnet.

I actually don't mind this at all, shows the seller is being straight/honest/up front, if they have an body shop in the dealership then it's just internal labour and some time/effort so they should cater for it.

Gumbo

Soarer wrote: »

Ring them.
Tell them you'll give them £500 deposit over the phone "right now" (subject to inspection) if they can do the following....
Then tell them what you want (cables, mats, etc.)
Have your figures worked out what you'd like to pay all-in, and then work backwards.
Car £11k = ~€13k.
Travel over and back = ~€500
Home Charger = ~€500
Tax = €120.
Total = €14,200k.

If you try get £1000 off the price, that'll round down to about €13k. So that's your budget.

Then finally tell them taking into account currency, registration tax, travel over and back, etc., and with your budget is €13k, that you can "only" give £10k for the car. But remind him that you're prepared to do it "right now", and you'll be over at the weekend to collect it or whatever.

Would be very surprised if you didn't get the guts of the £1000 off.

In the UK, that won't happen. I've bought quite a few over the years and I've never gotten that off anything, even in the deepest part of this recession!

I got 250 off an 05 Avensis in Birmingham and the following week I went in and bought an E90 320d advertised for 13950 for 10,100 in airside dealers.

Totally different markets but hey, I'd still chance my arm!

slave1

Best of luck also mate, 6.6kw are harder and harder to find, there's a good few ads that say 6.6kw but that has generally been seller error in my experience.
Strangely the 6.6kw option is €900 here on a new car but £1150-1200 in the UK so I can see why guys just don't go for it, especially if they are home charging on night rate

slave1

kceire wrote: »

In the UK, that won't happen. I've bought quite a few over the years and I've never gotten that off anything, even in the deepest part of this recession!

I got 250 off an 05 Avensis in Birmingham and the following week I went in and bought an E90 320d advertised for 13950 for 10,100 in airside dealers.

Totally different markets but hey, I'd still chance my arm!

Agreed, I got £300 off a CMax, £250 off a CRV and £250 off my Leaf last week.
I think if you go to a UK dealer looking for £1k off they won't take you seriously and will consider it a waste of time supplying video, photos, paperwork or any other request you might have so they'll just string you along.

goz83

Hoping he gets back to me today, because I would like to start planning the journey and organising the card from e-cars. I suppose I should contact those guys now, because I know I am buying a leaf in the UK anyway.

Soarer

kceire wrote: »

In the UK, that won't happen. I've bought quite a few over the years and I've never gotten that off anything, even in the deepest part of this recession!

I got 250 off an 05 Avensis in Birmingham and the following week I went in and bought an E90 320d advertised for 13950 for 10,100 in airside dealers.

Totally different markets but hey, I'd still chance my arm!

slave1 wrote: »

Agreed, I got £300 off a CMax, £250 off a CRV and £250 off my Leaf last week.
I think if you go to a UK dealer looking for £1k off they won't take you seriously and will consider it a waste of time supplying video, photos, paperwork or any other request you might have so they'll just string you along.

Well that's yere experience.

I've gotten £650, £750 and £900 off the 3 T-Spirit hybrids I've purchased over the last few years.

And why wouldn't they take you seriously? How many people, per day, do you think are emailing them looking for info? I reckon dozens.
I ring and give a big deposit over the phone there and then. If they don't think that's a reason to take you seriously, they're in the wrong game.

But each to their own.

@kceire: You need to get better at negotiating.

@ slave1. How much discount did you look for off the Leaf?

goz83

Not having any luck on a discount. They've agreed to sort out the bumper scuffs and polish out the other marks. Not sure now. Might just walk on this one.

listermint

Never gotten a grand of in the UK in my life and I don't think I'll ever get one. Purchased three vehicles there including a motorcycle.

DrPhilG

I got £400 off the car I bought in the UK. It was listed at £14,000. I paid £13,600.

I just asked them to price match a similar car I had seen elsewhere.

goz83

More searching today. Tired of it. So, have provisionally agreed deal with the garage selling the 14 Tekna 24kw with 6.6 OBC. The agreement is that the body work is tidied up at their body shop....I am fussy that way. Also the 13amp and 32amp charge cables will be included. It's a busy day there with the new plates, so I am waiting for confirmation of the acceptance of my terms before going ahead. I have the funds at the ready and feeling good about the pick.

I now have to sort out the home charger.

I've noticed a few posters in recent weeks are reluctant to post their cars until the deal is sealed

So, let me post this health warning:

If you try to swoop in on my new car, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you :pac:

Here's the car.

Gumbo

Nice, has the chrome pack too.

KCross

goz83 wrote: »

More searching today. Tired of it. So, have provisionally agreed deal with the garage selling the 14 Tekna 24kw with 6.6 OBC. The agreement is that the body work is tidied up at their body shop....I am fussy that way. Also the 13amp and 32amp charge cables will be included. It's a busy day there with the new plates, so I am waiting for confirmation of the acceptance of my terms before going ahead. I have the funds at the ready and feeling good about the pick.

I now have to sort out the home charger.

Nice! Well presented, looks clean.

Are you going to go get it or have it transported? Looks like a bit of a trek but the M4 is a very easy run to Pembroke with lots of rapid chargers. I did that run in mine.

goz83 wrote: »

I've noticed a few posters in recent weeks are reluctant to post their cars until the deal is sealed

So, let me post this health warning:

If you try to swoop in on my new car, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you :pac:

Its good to see. There certainly is alot more activity on this forum in the recent weeks which is encouraging.

isnottheword

Have you offered asking?

goz83

KCross wrote: »

Nice! Well presented, looks clean.

Are you going to go get it or have it transported? Looks like a bit of a trek but the M4 is a very easy run to Pembroke with lots of rapid chargers. I did that run in mine.

Going to go get it myself. Plan to bring the wife and make a night or two of it. Of course, I am just waiting on the confirmation email and invoice.

isnottheword wrote: »

Have you offered asking?

At first, I offered 10750 and expected I would get it at that. I'm generally a good negotiator and get something off as well as stuff added to sweeten the deal. In this case, no discount, but bumper scuff and a couple of bonnet stone chips are to be made right.

If it falls through, I have another one on standby for 500 less.

KCross

goz83 wrote: »

Going to go get it myself. Plan to bring the wife and make a night or two of it. Of course, I am just waiting on the confirmation email and invoice.

I used all ecotricity chargers for that run on the M4 to Pembroke. Get your account setup online with them and you need to register a credit card and download the app to your phone. There is no RFID card involved with them anymore, just the app, so you need internet access on the phone to do it.

Look at the middle of this post:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=99372631

You'll see the stops I made and how much charge I'd left etc and it was a 24kWh as well so you'll have a good yardstick to work with if you are going to Pembroke. I drove at 75mph(on the clock) which is a real world 70mph.


Are you going to Pembroke or Liverpool or Holyhead?

unkel

goz83 wrote: »

Here's the car.

I just bought that this morning! Couldn't wait any longer for the delayed Ioniq and got my deposit back. Sorry man!



















This may not be true

goz83

KCross wrote: »

I used all ecotricity chargers for that run on the M4 to Pembroke. Get your account setup online with them and you need to register a credit card and download the app to your phone. There is no RFID card involved with them anymore, just the app, so you need internet access on the phone to do it.

Look at the middle of this post:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=99372631

You'll see the stops I made and how much charge I'd left etc and it was a 24kWh as well so you'll have a good yardstick to work with if you are going to Pembroke. I drove at 75mph(on the clock) which is a real world 70mph.


Are you going to Pembroke or Liverpool or Holyhead?

I'll be doing Holyhead, because I live in Dublin. I was looking at Liverpool, but it's only a bit of extra driving to Holyhead and I can cover the extra distance in the car, rather than the Ferry. So I would be driving the M1>M6>A55.

Nice one for the heads up on the APP. I may well use that.

isnottheword

goz83 wrote: »

I'll be doing Holyhead, because I live in Dublin. I was looking at Liverpool, but it's only a bit of extra driving to Holyhead and I can cover the extra distance in the car, rather than the Ferry. So I would be driving the M1>M6>A55.

Nice one for the heads up on the APP. I may well use that.

Factor in if you can do an overnight sailing from Liverpool, it's cheap as chips mid-week. Also, it leaves you with an excess of time (in case something goes wrong and you're behind time).

Just something to bear in mind.

goz83

isnottheword wrote: »

Factor in if you can do an overnight sailing from Liverpool, it's cheap as chips mid-week. Also, it leaves you with an excess of time (in case something goes wrong and you're behind time).

Just something to bear in mind.

Will be going on a weekend. She can't get time off work. I'm more flexible that way, but she wants to come along....besides, I will need a second driver because my back would be in bits with all that driving.

isnottheword

goz83 wrote: »

Nice one for the heads up on the APP. I may well use that.

I see that CYC have an app now also. Can we use this or will it demand a UK address/card details, etc?

I got mine home with just access to Ecotricity's network. However, you may need to cover your bases just in case there's an outage at one of the Ecotricity chargers...

KCross

goz83 wrote: »

I'll be doing Holyhead, because I live in Dublin. I was looking at Liverpool, but it's only a bit of extra driving to Holyhead and I can cover the extra distance in the car, rather than the Ferry. So I would be driving the M1>M6>A55.

Nice one for the heads up on the APP. I may well use that.

OK, you need to do your homework on the charge network on your route then. All the various providers have good and bad patches. Motorways are usually good but you better have it well mapped out to be sure. I'd start with ecotricity, they have a good map of their network and dont require any money up front. Some others do.

I'd also agree with @isnottheword, that you dont run a tight schedule to make it to the ferry. It will be your first jaunt in an EV so give yourself plenty of extra time to be sure. Whatever about running out of power at home, on a motorway in the UK will seriously rain on your parade!