I totaled my car, need to make a buying decision today HELP

[redpoint5]

My impression is that temperate climates only suffer tragic battery loss, compared to horrific battery loss in hot climates. At least that's what I'm seeing with the '11s in the Portland area.

When you've got a 75 mile range, it hurts to lose 1/3 of it, especially considering you lose 1/3 of the range in cold weather. A 25 mile range Leaf becomes a lot less practical in that case.

That said, I'm still considering a used gen I since they are the least expensive. I'd probably want one that had a recent battery change, or at least can prove battery capacity hasn't dropped much. The Spark can be had for about the same price though, with active thermal management, and has been proven to suffer slower degradation. The downside is I've heard replacement packs are like $20k since they don't make them any more.

[oil pan 4]

My leaf still has all its battery capacity 4 or 5 years later, as far as I can tell the new battery probably spent those 4 or 5 years in Illinois.

[redpoint5]

Yeah, but your new battery would have been the lizard battery too. Get an '11-'13 on an original battery, and it probably degrades unacceptably no matter where it lives. The lizard battery might fair a bit better, but I don't like the idea that my car needs to live in a place that doesn't get hot.

I'm curious what percent of Leafs end up getting new batteries under warranty?

So, what did Kalifornia end up with?

[oil pan 4]

I ruled out getting a 2011 or 2012 with original battery pretty early on.
Nissan claims the warranty replacements are only a few % but they didn't seem that rare.

[ME_Andy]

So what did you end up getting?

[oil pan 4]

I got a 2011 nissan leaf that had its battery replaced in 2014.

[ME_Andy]

I mean the OP. lol

[hayden55]

Uh....
I know that it is caifornia and that gas is expensive. But it looks like with gas and electricity being scaled up at the same percentage, and your electric company wanting to charge you a monthly fee to charge, I would say an EV doesn't make any sense. Thats a lot of head ache to save very little. Unless you have two solid vehicles then go for it.
But I wouldn't buy anything new. The ownership cost would be horrible for the first five years, before depreciation and insurance and taxes finally dropped to an acceptable level. I think a used Prius is probably a no brainer. Me personally the 100% reliability and the shockingly low depreciation rate of my car have really impressed me over the last couple years.
Since I bought my car in 2010 with 92k miles. I now have 144k miles. 0 repairs. One set of tires. a couple diy oil changes. An engine coolant change. Spark plug swap. Blow out the air filters every now and then. And literally 0% depreciation since I had a good deal on it originally.
My honda got similar gas mileage, but the repairs kind of killed it for me.