Purchasing a second hand Nissan Leaf

FOTW

Hi just have a few questions about the Nissan leaf. We are thinking of getting a second hand one maybe a 15 or 16 model as they seem with in our budget.

We currently have 2 ford focus a 07 and a 04 model. However the 04 model is starting to get too expensive in maintenance cost to bother keeping.

We are looking at getting the Leaf for the misses her daily commute to and from work is about 50-60km round trip and our weekend shopping commute is even less so the Leaf would be ideal for about 90% of the driving we do.

One concern is the in laws live about round trip 120km away about half of that is motorway. There is no public charging point near by and she thinks they wont allow us to run a extension lead through a window to the car to top it up. She visits them about twice a month. Would the 24KW leaf be up to the task for a such a round trip or would we need the 30KW Leaf. She might not be able to use the other focus as I would be using it for work.

Other questions I have.

What type charging cable does the 15 and 16 use is it type 1 or type 2

What charging point is best to install for the home? If I get a 32amp charging point will the car always fast charge and if so does that damage the battery?

From what I could gather all Leafs except the very basic spec had 6kw fast charge from 2015 on wards?

How many bars should a 3-4 year old leaf generally have? I'm also aware of battery lease so I'll be looking at owned battery's only.

Is there anything I should look out for when purchasing second hand Leaf?

Gumbo

FOTW wrote: »

Hi just have a few questions about the Nissan leaf. We are thinking of getting a second hand one maybe a 15 or 16 model as they seem with in our budget.

We currently have 2 ford focus a 07 and a 04 model. However the 04 model is starting to get too expensive in maintenance cost to bother keeping.

We are looking at getting the Leaf for the misses her daily commute to and from work is about 50-60km round trip and our weekend shopping commute is even less so the Leaf would be ideal for about 90% of the driving we do.

One concern is the in laws live about round trip 120km away about half of that is motorway. There is no public charging point near by and she thinks they wont allow us to run a extension lead through a window to the car to top it up. She visits them about twice a month. Would the 24KW leaf be up to the task for a such a round trip or would we need the 30KW Leaf. She might not be able to use the other focus as I would be using it for work.

Other questions I have.

What type charging cable does the 15 and 16 use is it type 1 or type 2

What charging point is best to install for the home? If I get a 32amp charging point will the car always fast charge and if so does that damage the battery?

From what I could gather all Leafs except the very basic spec had 6kw fast charge from 2015 on wards?

How many bars should a 3-4 year old leaf generally have? I'm also aware of battery lease so I'll be looking at owned battery's only.

Is there anything I should look out for when purchasing second hand Leaf?

120km round trip in a 24kwh Leaf will be tough.
You would do it in the 30kwh Leaf no problem so look at 2016 cars with the 30kwh battery.


My old 141 Leaf had lost 1 bar.
the 30kwh cars which came out in 2016 should still have all 12 bars.

Calahonda52

kceire wrote: »

120km round trip in a 24kwh Leaf will be tough.
You would do it in the 30kwh Leaf no problem so look at 2016 cars with the 30kwh battery.


My old 141 Leaf had lost 1 bar.
the 30kwh cars which came out in 2016 should still have all 12 bars.

Just to add to this:
I have a 30 and used to commute 166 kms one way at weekends.

Doable at about 87 kph real in summer.

More difficult in rain, wind, cold.
Not doable at higher speeds on motorway.
Leaf is not that aerodynamic

very doable if you slipstream

samih

The reason we traded in our old 24 kWh is that my wife have to drive a 140 km return trip once a week and therefore the car had to be charged every time at the destination. At least half the time the town charging point which is on the other side of the town was ICE'd. I actually eventually installed a power socket near where the car was parked at destinateon and bought a granny charger but if that's not an option definitely go for the L30 instead.

Size the car battery based on the longest frequent trip.

unkel

FOTW wrote: »

the in laws live about round trip 120km away about half of that is motorway. There is no public charging point near by and she thinks they wont allow us to run a extension lead through a window to the car to top it up.

She thinks? Could you not just ask them? All it takes is two hours on the granny cable for her to comfortably make the trip

And all that would cost at full day rates is 2.2kW * 2 hour = 4.4kWh times 18c is €0.80. Explain that to the inlaws and offer to give them €100 cash up front to cover you for all charging for the next few years. Buy a 141 Leaf 24kWh for €9k

Or if you can't be arsed asking and you have lots of money, just buy a 161 Leaf 30kWh for €15k, a new one for €30k or a top of the range Tesla for €200k

...Ghost...

If the issue is running an extension cable through the window, you could offer to have an outdoor socket installed. This would benefit them, as well as you. Use the granny charger to top up and the 24 Leaf will do the job.

The one issue is that once you change the 04 focus...you will want to get rid of the 07 too

n97 mini

If they don't like the out-the-window idea, a regular 13A plug will fit through a standard letterbox and there are no security concerns. We charged our Leaf for the first year on the granny cable plugged into a plug board in the porch, which in turn was plugged into the socket in the hallway via the letterbox.

Soarer

If they won't shout you a charge out the window, maybe don't visit?

jarrieta

n97 mini wrote: »

If they don't like the out-the-window idea, a regular 13A plug will fit through a standard letterbox and there are no security concerns. We charged our Leaf for the first year on the granny cable plugged into a plug board in the porch, which in turn was plugged into the socket in the hallway via the letterbox.

I did exactly that for my leaf until I had my charger installed, definitely not a bother twice per month

Shefwedfan

What sort of cash do you have to swap is hugely critical to question

FOTW

Hi sorry I haven't responded earlier.

Thanks for all your feed back we decided to go for a 2016 30KW leaf, will be collecting it this Saturday. Main reason we needed the extra range it offers, not only are her parents about 120km round trip however most of her childhood friends live around there as well so it would be good to know we can do the round trip with ease.

I think her parents will come around to us charging it eventually.

Any ideas what the best electricity supplier would be I'm looking to switch to Energia day/night rates?

OO7FITZY

Hi All,

Studying the valuable info posted in these threads - I am looking for a Leaf 30kw as I we will have to do a 140km round trip in the summer months.
Looking online I see limited choice in Ireland and the price seems to have increased not decreased in the last 12 months.

Could I get a Leaf 30kw for 14K - or will I have to wait a while for the price to come down further?

unkel

OO7FITZY wrote: »

Could I get a Leaf 30kw for 14K

No not really. Someone posted in this forum that they picked one up in the North for GBP12k last week, but he got an exceptionally good deal.

Check all for sale sites here and in the UK daily, you might get lucky. Make sure you can do the deal immediately when you see it. Cheap L30 do not hang about.

Shefwedfan

unkel wrote: »

No not really. Someone posted in this forum that they picked one up in the North for GBP12k last week, but he got an exceptionally good deal.

Check all for sale sites here and in the UK daily, you might get lucky. Make sure you can do the deal immediately when you see it. Cheap L30 do not hang about.

To clarify that, cheap electric cars do not hang about

...Ghost...

OO7FITZY wrote: »

Hi All,

Studying the valuable info posted in these threads - I am looking for a Leaf 30kw as I we will have to do a 140km round trip in the summer months.
Looking online I see limited choice in Ireland and the price seems to have increased not decreased in the last 12 months.

Could I get a Leaf 30kw for 14K - or will I have to wait a while for the price to come down further?

I'm the one who got an exceptionally good deal. It was £11,750 for a 30kWh 6.6OBC Acenta

But you can find good deals and jump on them when you can. The real luck for me was not having to go to the UK for the third time in 2 years to pick up a good deal.

There is a dealer who was good at getting back to me and checking in. The dealer is based in Portsmouth and if you want an email address, pm me. He contacted me yesterday to say he has some more 30kWh Leafs coming in. What you ideally want is one with a 6.6OBC rather than a 3.3.

Here is one with higher mileage, but looks to be a cracking car and well within budget.

http://ecarlogical.co.uk/used/nissan/leaf/car_30kwh-tekna_4769.html

£11,995. Can get that down to £11,800.

OO7FITZY

Thx for the link and congrats on the great deal you did
Do you mind me asking what millage the car had?

The L30 link u shared has fallen further in price to 10995 and I guess the >100K millage is a put off for most people

http://ecarlogical.co.uk/used/nissan/leaf/car_30kwh-tekna_4769.html

I will monitor the NI and UK websites and see if I can spot a deal but budget is tight

Thx again!

...Ghost...

OO7FITZY wrote: »

Thx for the link and congrats on the great deal you did
Do you mind me asking what millage the car had?

The L30 link u shared has fallen further in price to 10995 and I guess the >100K millage is a put off for most people

http://ecarlogical.co.uk/used/nissan/leaf/car_30kwh-tekna_4769.html

I will monitor the NI and UK websites and see if I can spot a deal but budget is tight

Thx again!

The mileage was just under 75k (120k klms).

When it comes to an EV, mileage matters a lot less, but it's a bonus to get lower mileage of course. I prefer under 30k miles for a 2/3 year old Leaf, but it's far from a deal breaker if the mileage is higher and the price is lower.

I dealt with shelbourne motors up north. I found them to be genuinely great to deal with. We got a train and the sales guy called and offered a lift.....we were picked up in a Leaf 40 :P

The other one I linked I also found the sales guy to be on the ball and kept in touch with any updates, or new stock coming in. Stuff like that is a big plus, as I won't touch dealers who can't do something as simple as post a photo of the charge timer display.


Apologies about the price of the car I linked. It was actually 10,995. You would get £200 off that price, or delivery to holyhead. If buying there, take the money off and enjoy the drive. Easier in a 30kWh....I did similar distances in a 24kWh twice.

OO7FITZY

Agree, and I bought an ICE car up there many years ago and the customer service was top notch also

Another thought occurred to me also
I could put 9K deposit on a L40 under a PCP plan and in 3 years time there would be a balloon payment of 11200
But if 3 yr old L30s with average millage are going for 14-17k now depending on where you look, it might not be a bad investment as my deposit for next car could significantly go up

Yes there is a monthly repayment of 330 (11,880 over 3 yrs), but once you net off the cost of my monthly petrol/diesel, service charges I currently pay on my ICE car then its more like 250 per month payment net net (I can charge for free at work).

And I believe it will hold its value over and above the currently quoted GMFV as EV adoption rate increases further so I could sell it on for 14/15k. So over a period of 3 years it will be a good bit of business?

Also factor in the extra range etc, warranty, peace of mind etc, it could be an option?
Am I just playing with numbers or does anyone on the forum think it is an option to consider?

Shefwedfan

OO7FITZY wrote: »

Agree, and I bought an ICE car up there many years ago and the customer service was top notch also

Another thought occurred to me also
I could put 9K deposit on a L40 under a PCP plan and in 3 years time there would be a balloon payment of 11200
But if 3 yr old L30s with average millage are going for 14-17k now depending on where you look, it might not be a bad investment as my deposit for next car could significantly go up

Yes there is a monthly repayment of 330 (11,880 over 3 yrs), but once you net off the cost of my monthly petrol/diesel, service charges I currently pay on my ICE car then its more like 250 per month payment net net (I can charge for free at work).

And I believe it will hold its value over and above the currently quoted GMFV as EV adoption rate increases further so I could sell it on for 14/15k. So over a period of 3 years it will be a good bit of business?

Also factor in the extra range etc, warranty, peace of mind etc, it could be an option?
Am I just playing with numbers or does anyone on the forum think it is an option to consider?

You have to remember what people think they can sell a car on done deal for and what a garage will offer is two completely different things.

I know I talked to garage before, if they used donedeal they would take the car details, load it in and more or less take the price of the cheapest one and offer that. Didn't matter about mileage, extras etc....


That might be a good plan if you can afford the balloon payment and buy the car, then sell it on.

unkel

OO7FITZY wrote: »

Thx for the link and congrats on the great deal you did
Do you mind me asking what millage the car had?

The L30 link u shared has fallen further in price to 10995

That's a cracker of a bargain. If you are serious, you need to ring them first thing in the morning and commit by immediately putting down a non-refundable deposit (after a quick negotiation)

FOTW

OO7FITZY wrote: »

Hi All,

Studying the valuable info posted in these threads - I am looking for a Leaf 30kw as I we will have to do a 140km round trip in the summer months.
Looking online I see limited choice in Ireland and the price seems to have increased not decreased in the last 12 months.

Could I get a Leaf 30kw for 14K - or will I have to wait a while for the price to come down further?

Yep I have noticed that the price has gone up a little since we purchased our car. Ours was done through a Nissan dealer the other half wasn't keen at all getting one imported from the UK. It ended costing 16.5k for 2016 with 42k km on the clock. Both charging leads were included, as well as a 1 year warranty.

We do about 120km round trip to her parents and usually have about 25-30% left after the trip, the motorway section really uses the battery especially if we do 120kph. Usually I sit at just over 100kph just to reserve the battery a little.

If you can get access to the car I would recommend using leafspy phone app and OBD connector to check the state of health on the battery (Plenty of videos on youtube). I didn't know about this when I purchased our car, however got one and tested battery it shows how many standard charges and quick chargers your car has done and current health of the battery ours is at 92.75% which I think is average for a three plus year old 30kw leaf.

Doing a 140km round trip would be cutting it pretty close with a 30kw leaf if anything goes astray such as a detour due to motor accident you could be left having to find a charging point. Happened once to us going to the inlaws.

Any way best of luck and if you have anymore questions just ask.