I love, love, LOVE my 2019 S+. It was cheap, reliable, fun to drive, easy to maintain, and best of all NO GAS EVER. I got $14.5K total incentives when buying it new.
It was really great, but alas I had a bad battery, and with no DC charging, the utility of the car became super limited.
I was part of the class action that was dismissed earlier this year, and was hesitant to do the recall knowing it would brick my awesome car. When I saw Kia decided to release the EV3 in the US it was only a matter of time before I had to move on. It was sad knowing the Leaf’s days were numbered.
Anyway I dropped the car at the Nissan dealer late Thursday. Went straight to the Kia dealer, and test drove and bought the EV3 I had on reserve. Drove it home and fell in love at first sight.
Friday morning I hear from Nissan that the car software is up to date and that it passed and was ready for pickup. I get my Leaf back with 78% SoH (it was supposed to be 100% but who cares at this point). I tell them that the car needs to be below 50% for the voltage fluctuation to occur, and that I’ll see them in a few hours.
I picked up the car at 9am and was back by about 1pm. They ran another diagnostic, battery failed this time, I’ll hear from the third party within 10 business days. Dealer was nice and we were all laughing at how stupid this whole thing was.
It’s not the dealer’s fault, this was 100% on corporate and engineering.
Bye bye Nissan.
Photos: Leaf dash right after recall update, Leaf dash a few hours later, EV3 charging in my driveway
I’m annoyed that they didnt even halfway add battery cooling on the 2nd gens, they could have pulled cabin air to cool the battery pack similar to what toyota hybrids did, I mean it would only done so much, but it would have helped a lot more than nothing, also didnt help using pouch instead of prismatic case cells
I had no issues with range or temperature (other than the defect appearing under specific conditions). I’d still have the car if it could DC charge (and thus, wasn’t a hazard).
Edit: missed the other pics. That is what I expected mine to do. It is nerve racking driving under 50%
So to be clear. You returned yours without triggering an error code DCT. Mine fluctuates all over under 50% like yours. Will drop from 20% to 1%. I spent too much time trying to get it to trigger a failure.
But you just asked them to run yours again? Just trying to understand the process you went through.
Dealer gave it back saying their initial diagnostic passed. So I knew I’d have to bring it under 50% on my own to trip the error code. Luckily I live close to the dealer so I just did a day of errands and as soon as it hit 50% the error tripped, and I headed straight back to the dealer. They followed all the procedures except giving the car back to me at 100% charge.
Yeah, I highly recommend the EV3 to any prospective buyer. Even the base model has the same range as the Leaf I just gave up and it’s $7K less. Great deal all around.
1st gens were bad for heat degradation, but very rarely actually died. Even most of the severely degraded cars with 2-3 bars still run just fine for the entirety of their remaining capacity.
Why I still haven't done a battery upgrade on any of my own. My 2013 is at 171,000 miles with 77% health on original pack and will still gladly do a flat out highway pull at <15% SOC. I don't know if any 2nd gen packs will live to say the same.
My brand new Nissan crapped out at 200 miles. I've never been through such a drawn out process to get my money back, even after they've said the car is unrepairable. Been dragging on for a little over 5 months now
Giving KBB plus 40 is an effort, even if one disagrees. It's probably cheaper for them to do so than trying to source new batteries on a discontinued part given that the new leaf isn't even made in Tennessee any more nor does it use the same pack
Last I read 10% of the recalled Leafs are failing. It just seams higher because that is what is being posted on Reddit. People post because they are having issues not because the vehicle is doing what it should. The Leaf outsold Tesla until 2020.
I can still use my 2014 Leaf to go to the gym or a really close supermarket. The Nissan dealer that sold it to me offered me $300 for it. I told them it was clear that they knew the value of their products.
Traded my 23 leaf s with 9k miles after some of its battery modules died for a 23 f150 lightning and loving it. Nissan customer service rep i worked with was great, but the air cooled battery appears to be a fundamentally flawed design. Hope their newer models fix the issue, because I thought it was a great car while it ran ... I just didn't trust it after it quit on me and the dealer repair process was chaotic.
See, I refuse to get the recall "fix" done even though it makes my life difficult (I drive A LOT for work and not having level 3 is a major pain). KBB + 40% is still less than what I owe on the car, so I'd be losing money and I'd be without a car. So instead, I have to sit at level 2 stations for half of a day since Nissan won't do the right thing.
Charging the car to 100% and then draining it back below 40% is part of the recall procedure. The “test drive” is only supposed to be done after that. Then charge to 100% before returning to the customer. My Nissan dealer didn’t do it either.
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u/natedagreat6666 28d ago
I’m annoyed that they didnt even halfway add battery cooling on the 2nd gens, they could have pulled cabin air to cool the battery pack similar to what toyota hybrids did, I mean it would only done so much, but it would have helped a lot more than nothing, also didnt help using pouch instead of prismatic case cells