Leaf got away
 

Went to a dealership today to check out a 2013 Nissan Leaf SL with 73,000 miles. It was in good shape, and the guess-o-meter showed 25 miles range at 50% charge. There were 7 bars (out of 12) left on the battery health. Asking price was $7,000.

I had the fortune of working with an older salesman, and those guys either read their customers better, or just don't have the energy to give the sleazy, manipulative, high pressure sales pitch. When asked what I thought, I threw him a tentative number, and he said it sounded like something they could work with. Then he came back and said it just sold to someone else that had come just prior to me.

Oh well, I didn't know how to use Leafspy since I had just downloaded it prior to going, and it seems to me SOH stands for State of Health. If that's true, the battery capacity is at 57%, which is not great on an 80 mile range vehicle. Maybe I don't want such a worn out EV, though 50 miles of range is fine.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1581221185

They had a 2016 with 30,000 miles with all 12 bars and 85 miles showing. Leafspy seems to show 86% capacity remaining. Kinda shady that Nissan has the first bar represent 15% capacity, and then other bars represent half that. The asking price on this was $12,000, but I don't think it was a top trim level since it didn't have a heated steering wheel or rear seat.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1581221185

These used vehicles qualify for the $2,500 Oregon rebate for low income families. It's for my parents, so they would qualify. Oregon subsidizes this by charging 0.5% tax on new vehicle sales.

Did they have Bluetooth? :)

The first one, the 2013 was a top trim, so I expect it had BT. It had rear seat heating and a heated steering wheel. The 2016 said the words Blue Tooth on the infotainment screen I think it was. No rear seat heating or heated steering wheel, but it did have a backup camera, something which I didn't see on the top trip 2013.

An old leaf with 50% battery capacity is only like a $2,500 to $3,500 car.
I had mine shipped 900 miles and it had 90% capacity, was still less than under $7,000.

Agreed. After Oregon rebate, it would have been $4,000. Don't know how many more years it has left in it though. Parents probably should have a 40 mile minimum range.

If I can get a used Bolt for $14,000 as was mentioned in another thread, that seems the best option... then again I could get a new Bolt or maybe even Ioniq or perhaps Leaf for about $20k after subsidies.

Can I drive a Power Wheels to work?

Do it. More oil for export. It's the American thing to do.

How do I install a Viper alarm on a Power Wheels? :)

I think you call these guys who appear to be expert installers.

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...ze=1200%2C1601

I a way it seems that rebate sort of sucks because all the Oregon dealers are doing is adding $2500 to the price. I suppose maybe it will suck in all the EVs from surrounding states by encouraging higher bids for Oregon dealers at the auctions. Then it will even drive the used EV prices up outside of Oregon. I would be all over a few $6500 EVs I have seen if I could get another $2500 off.

Like Audio Express, home of the $1 wire fire?

Can I just take one to Pep Boys for a brand-new 12v battery?

Hey OP, sorry for your loss, and for turning this thread into "Xist asks stupid questions about Power Wheels."

Pow-pow-power wheels!

Not quite, but that's generally what subsidies do. You have to meet a certain "median or below" income threshold to get $2,500 off, so the prices aren't increased the full amount. You are right that it's pulling in CA vehicles though. Once those HOV stickers expire on the older EVs, the value plummets. Then you get an artificially high market up north. That 2nd vehicle I looked at had just been received and wasn't detailed yet, so it had the CA HOV stickers still attached. I asked where it had come from, and the salesman told me Fremont auction. Probably a lease return. I still don't know why manufacturers would rather sell their lease returns for pennies on the dollar when they could simply offer a more enticing residual, or even selling the vehicle themselves on the used market. How does the auction add value?

I put an address in the Oregon caculator for the rebate for a $300,000 house for sale in Eugene, and for a family of 4 it said I could make $77,000 and still qualify for the $2500 used credit. That's not just low income, but middle income.

I mistakenly said low income first, but then I amended that in a following post saying median, which still isn't accurate, but getting close. It's median income for your zip code plus some marginal %. The point is, it's a progressive subsidy that excludes income brackets above some amount.

I don't qualify, but my parents do. The state offers $2,500 for anyone purchasing a new EV, so that combined with the federal tax credit gives me $10k off.

The current plan is to get my parents into a used EV to supplement their 2003 Toyota Corolla. Mom has a 14 mile daily commute, and she sometimes doubles it. EV would be perfect for this. 95% of their driving is within 40 miles roundtrip.

I'm holding out for the Model Y and RAV4 Prime to drop to see what the market does. I may purchase a new Bolt, Ioniq, Leaf, or RAV4 Prime, or a used EV, or just wait a bit longer. I've got 2 more years left with the company car and I get unlimited use including fuel. I probably won't get another car for myself unless I can sell it for around what I bought it for a couple years later.

Gas cars do this too. When Cadillac introduced digital fuel gauges for the first time, they got a number of complaints that the gauge dropped from 18 (full) to 17 too quickly. The next model year, they changed the programming so it displayed 18-18-16, skipping 17 entirely. The complaints went away. Gas gauges aren't linear, and I suppose manufacturers don't want to make battery reserve gauges linear either for the same (entirely psychological) reasons.

I can think of one reasonable explanation besides that too. Capacity decline occurs more rapidly at first, and then slows over time. They could program the bars to decline at a more linear rate of time rather than a linear rate of capacity loss. It might take the same amount of time to lose the first 15% as it does to lose the next 8%. Obscuring the rapid initial capacity loss from the customer probably makes sense. Other cars have built in reserves to cover the initial capacity loss, and I bet that helps to insulate the customer from feeling that their car is rapidly wearing out.

One of the reasons I was interested in the Model 3 standard range is that it has the same battery as the standard+. That means it naturally has a buffer that will maintain full range for a longer period of time. At some point not too far into the future, both the standard range and standard+ will have the same usable range even though people paid more for the standard+

Because the manufacturers aren't retailers. They want to sell new units, and they're happy to get as much as retailers are willing to give them for the lease returns.

An auction is the free market at work, and lets the manufacturer get away clean. After the auction, the used car lot has to go through the car and make it ready for sale, then convince someone that it's worth the auction price + however much he's had to put into it + a profit. That's one headache the manufacturer is happy to not have. It's hard enough convincing people that new car prices are worth it.

Pretty sure that car's being returned to OEM to maximize resale.

The used car lot said they had a Cobra for $9,999.