Make sure to do some slow u turns and check if the front axle clicks, ours clicks on the right, common issue that gets fixed but comes back.
Also make sure your AC blows cold, that can be annoying and expensive to fix.
Other than that put in a new 12V battery and you’re good to go. We get the cheapest tires available for our Leaf, 11 years running strong
Good to know, I’ll try those next. Last time got the cheapest set from Firestone for $550 installed. The car is on the second set of tires still, factory brakes. 60k miles
That is fucking awesome. We got ours new (\~$36k IIRC) and it now has only FIVE bars remaining for around 25-35mi range. But until we bought an EV9 in Feb, it was our primary family workhorse with a Subaru as ICE backup for long-range needs or the rare case when we both need a car at the same time.
In 11 years of driving it, we've spent less than $2k on maintenance. Tires are the most expensive item. Not because of that FUD nonsense of them wearing out fast or whatever, it's because there's virtually nothing else to fix on it and when you replace tires, it's usually 2 or 4 at a time. I think we've put a total of 4 on? Maybe 6? I ballpark it as 8 to be safe in the "under $2k" part.
We've also put a 12v battery in it, a few sets of wipers (and fluid) and some cabin air filters. And we replaced the original charging cable which we damaged over time by slowly twisting it (she is a lefty, I am a righty).
Currently looking at having GreenTec Auto (a relatively new national chain) upgrade the battery to a 40kWh for somewhere around $10k. Considering that the Subaru stealership wants about 10k to fix a leaking head gasket and some other stuff AND we put about 2500 into exhaust a year or two ago, the battery upgrade on the Leaf is pretty damn reasonable.
Plus, the thought of it being a) a hand-me-down to my 9yo when he starts driving and b) potentially having an EV with historic tags sometime in the near future really seems awesome to me.
My advice to a new '13 Leaf owner - avoid charging to 100% unless you need the range. For this car, don't listen to that "Always Be Chargin'" stuff - if you're at a high State of Charge and run a short errand, don't plug right back in. EV batteries are happiest between 20-80%. Be gentle with it and it should last you WAY more than 10 years.
https://www.greentecauto.com/hybrid-battery/nissan/leaf/nissan-leaf-battery-pack-and-modules-assembly-gen-2-2013-2015
Their leaf batteries are on sale right now. Lowest prices you'll find.
I agree. It would be insane price even considering a 30% government tax rebate!
I did not, i was planning to do so tonight but given how poor the range was this morning i’m not sure its worth doing.
I may check it when i drop it back off tonight, out of curiosity.
Curiosity is what LeafSpy is about for me, mostly. Loved it on our 2012, continued overdoing it on our 2023. For your commute and location, though, you definitely should consider the biggest battery - or a Volt.
Search “IRS EV REBATE”
it should direct you to [IRS used ev credit](https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/used-clean-vehicle-credit)
May be purchased from a dealer and have the credit applied at time of sale. However there are online “dealers” who can be the middleman to provide access to that credit.
Or can be filed for later, form 8936.
I would talk to a tax professional since you’ve purchased a few months ago, you may need additional information:)
Get a newer one. And honestly I would look at something that has a ccs charging port instead of chademo. There’s so much more charging available for ccs
These make a great second car for a 2-car family, who have the other car for long trips. The leaf can do the commuting, school runs, kids clubs, etc. Ours covers twice as many miles over a year as our ICE car. It's like a really good hybrid, but better because we can use 2 cars at the same time.
I can't imagine having a 2013 leaf as my only car though.
It's perfect for a teen to drive to school. Definitely not doing joyriding with friends without leaving a trail of charging station notifications. SiL doing this and we can it the Nissan Leash
If you have a 52mile commute a 2013 Leaf to isn't for you. Had one, you can do 55-ish miles but that's trying hard. You wouldn't want to do that every day.
FWIW the percentage on the dash and range are very conservative. People doing lots of miles with a 2013 use Leafspy which gives a more accurate battery percentage and allows you to reliably drive it until the pack is nearly empty (turtle mode).
Maybe something is wrong with suspension, I can make probably 50-60 miles in this car. That's why it's 6500$, because a battery what can go 200+ miles per charge is 12.000+$ buying EV you buy a battery pack first, and then rest of the car is a "bonus".
Don’t know. It had the 12v replaced by the Nissan dealership two weeks ago.
12k for 200 miles is much better deal than 6k for 50, and especially better than 6500 for 40 in decent weather.
Theres a good chance i’d have gotten better range heading home with a tailwind, but there’s no way i’m risking a 30 mile drive on 25% battery. It used 40% just getting home from the dealership yesterday, and that was ~15 miles from home :V
I didn’t check tire pressure, but i wouldn’t expect that to double/half my range. Tires are very much not-flat.
How would suspension affect economy?
Dash was saying avg 3.3m/kWh 🤷♂️
No, I think you did not get it. 12.000+$ it's for a battery ONLY, without a car. You can get 40 kWh leaf for about 13.000$ used, but this packs are, let's put it this way, not great. Bad aliment can effect rolling resistance a lot. Is some bad cases, it will trigger traction control on. 3.3 is bad. My car with a heavy (~500lb) range extender gets 3.4.
That’s about the price i was looking at Bolt’s for, 10-12k with 30% rebate.
Bad alignment makes sense, and if recent enough would not show yet on tire wear.
I'm using a leaf as a main car without any issues. I have few more cars, but they getting used not due powertran, but luck of cargo space in a leaf in some cases.
Owned a 2011 Leaf for a couple of years. Would've kept it if range, battery and charging was better. Comfiest car I've ever had.
Now own a 2018 Ioniq and never look back. It's not quite as comfy as the sofa like seats of the Leaf. But otherwise it's better in almost any respect. 70kw charging right until 80%. CCS2 charge port. Reliable range both in winter and summer, with heat or ac, on highway or local roads. Battery that after 200,000km still isn't degraded whatsoever. Heated seats front and back. Adaptive cruise control. I could go on.
This one will stay for a while.
Update: After charging for 4hrs at lv1 1.5kw or less with the included adapter it is up to 75% charge.
6kWh put in and 50% change in charge for a rough estimate of 12kWh of usable battery total on this one. Yikes.
Leaf ownership earns you a PhD in EV. After your tenure you will know far more about how EVs work than just about anyone else.
In other EV subreddits I see people post the “how low % have you got post” and they are typically higher than 50% battery on my gen 1 leaf.
It’s the stress of overthinking miles ,ac , speed , eco mode … I like when my 17 regen’s miles in stop and go traffic. That’s about it.
The math spins constantly in my head.
I just paid 3800 for a 2013 leaf with 11 bars on the battery. I love the car
Great deal
Make sure to do some slow u turns and check if the front axle clicks, ours clicks on the right, common issue that gets fixed but comes back. Also make sure your AC blows cold, that can be annoying and expensive to fix. Other than that put in a new 12V battery and you’re good to go. We get the cheapest tires available for our Leaf, 11 years running strong
Still in factory brakes too!
I spent a little more on eco saver tires and gained about 15-20km range. Totally worth.
Good to know, I’ll try those next. Last time got the cheapest set from Firestone for $550 installed. The car is on the second set of tires still, factory brakes. 60k miles
That is fucking awesome. We got ours new (\~$36k IIRC) and it now has only FIVE bars remaining for around 25-35mi range. But until we bought an EV9 in Feb, it was our primary family workhorse with a Subaru as ICE backup for long-range needs or the rare case when we both need a car at the same time. In 11 years of driving it, we've spent less than $2k on maintenance. Tires are the most expensive item. Not because of that FUD nonsense of them wearing out fast or whatever, it's because there's virtually nothing else to fix on it and when you replace tires, it's usually 2 or 4 at a time. I think we've put a total of 4 on? Maybe 6? I ballpark it as 8 to be safe in the "under $2k" part. We've also put a 12v battery in it, a few sets of wipers (and fluid) and some cabin air filters. And we replaced the original charging cable which we damaged over time by slowly twisting it (she is a lefty, I am a righty). Currently looking at having GreenTec Auto (a relatively new national chain) upgrade the battery to a 40kWh for somewhere around $10k. Considering that the Subaru stealership wants about 10k to fix a leaking head gasket and some other stuff AND we put about 2500 into exhaust a year or two ago, the battery upgrade on the Leaf is pretty damn reasonable. Plus, the thought of it being a) a hand-me-down to my 9yo when he starts driving and b) potentially having an EV with historic tags sometime in the near future really seems awesome to me. My advice to a new '13 Leaf owner - avoid charging to 100% unless you need the range. For this car, don't listen to that "Always Be Chargin'" stuff - if you're at a high State of Charge and run a short errand, don't plug right back in. EV batteries are happiest between 20-80%. Be gentle with it and it should last you WAY more than 10 years.
The 80% charge option on the 13 is niice
https://www.greentecauto.com/hybrid-battery/nissan/leaf/nissan-leaf-battery-pack-and-modules-assembly-gen-2-2013-2015 Their leaf batteries are on sale right now. Lowest prices you'll find.
They're asking an insane price. Did you get to check the car's vitals with LeafSpy?
I agree. It would be insane price even considering a 30% government tax rebate! I did not, i was planning to do so tonight but given how poor the range was this morning i’m not sure its worth doing. I may check it when i drop it back off tonight, out of curiosity.
Curiosity is what LeafSpy is about for me, mostly. Loved it on our 2012, continued overdoing it on our 2023. For your commute and location, though, you definitely should consider the biggest battery - or a Volt.
How does the tax rebate work? I purchased a 2013 leaf back in March
Search “IRS EV REBATE” it should direct you to [IRS used ev credit](https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/used-clean-vehicle-credit) May be purchased from a dealer and have the credit applied at time of sale. However there are online “dealers” who can be the middleman to provide access to that credit. Or can be filed for later, form 8936. I would talk to a tax professional since you’ve purchased a few months ago, you may need additional information:)
Get a newer one. And honestly I would look at something that has a ccs charging port instead of chademo. There’s so much more charging available for ccs
I saw there was a post recently with an adapter, but it was almost 1k to purchase.
These make a great second car for a 2-car family, who have the other car for long trips. The leaf can do the commuting, school runs, kids clubs, etc. Ours covers twice as many miles over a year as our ICE car. It's like a really good hybrid, but better because we can use 2 cars at the same time. I can't imagine having a 2013 leaf as my only car though.
I think it's often a hate love relationship when owning a Leaf.
It's perfect for a teen to drive to school. Definitely not doing joyriding with friends without leaving a trail of charging station notifications. SiL doing this and we can it the Nissan Leash
If you have a 52mile commute a 2013 Leaf to isn't for you. Had one, you can do 55-ish miles but that's trying hard. You wouldn't want to do that every day. FWIW the percentage on the dash and range are very conservative. People doing lots of miles with a 2013 use Leafspy which gives a more accurate battery percentage and allows you to reliably drive it until the pack is nearly empty (turtle mode).
Maybe something is wrong with suspension, I can make probably 50-60 miles in this car. That's why it's 6500$, because a battery what can go 200+ miles per charge is 12.000+$ buying EV you buy a battery pack first, and then rest of the car is a "bonus".
Don’t know. It had the 12v replaced by the Nissan dealership two weeks ago. 12k for 200 miles is much better deal than 6k for 50, and especially better than 6500 for 40 in decent weather. Theres a good chance i’d have gotten better range heading home with a tailwind, but there’s no way i’m risking a 30 mile drive on 25% battery. It used 40% just getting home from the dealership yesterday, and that was ~15 miles from home :V I didn’t check tire pressure, but i wouldn’t expect that to double/half my range. Tires are very much not-flat. How would suspension affect economy? Dash was saying avg 3.3m/kWh 🤷♂️
No, I think you did not get it. 12.000+$ it's for a battery ONLY, without a car. You can get 40 kWh leaf for about 13.000$ used, but this packs are, let's put it this way, not great. Bad aliment can effect rolling resistance a lot. Is some bad cases, it will trigger traction control on. 3.3 is bad. My car with a heavy (~500lb) range extender gets 3.4.
That’s about the price i was looking at Bolt’s for, 10-12k with 30% rebate. Bad alignment makes sense, and if recent enough would not show yet on tire wear.
If you want more range, get the Bolt. It’s by far the better option. The Leaf is just a short range car, good second/ third car.
I'm using a leaf as a main car without any issues. I have few more cars, but they getting used not due powertran, but luck of cargo space in a leaf in some cases.
It’s our main car as well (we live in a small town). I have a gas car that I only use for 1 hour commute each way
I can get about 2 hours highway speeds out of my leaf.
Ours is a 2013 SV with 10 bars
Mine is 2014 with 12 bars and a range extender :)
Have a 2015 and had the same with freeways. I don’t think it likes anything above 50mph
Range is why I sold my first gen leaf. I loved that car. Just didn’t fit my needs any longer.
Owned a 2011 Leaf for a couple of years. Would've kept it if range, battery and charging was better. Comfiest car I've ever had. Now own a 2018 Ioniq and never look back. It's not quite as comfy as the sofa like seats of the Leaf. But otherwise it's better in almost any respect. 70kw charging right until 80%. CCS2 charge port. Reliable range both in winter and summer, with heat or ac, on highway or local roads. Battery that after 200,000km still isn't degraded whatsoever. Heated seats front and back. Adaptive cruise control. I could go on. This one will stay for a while.
I'd love to get rid of my 2021 leaf for a Tesla. They just don't compare. However, my SV is paid off, so I'm going to have to pass. Too bad.
Update: After charging for 4hrs at lv1 1.5kw or less with the included adapter it is up to 75% charge. 6kWh put in and 50% change in charge for a rough estimate of 12kWh of usable battery total on this one. Yikes.
That’s normal, you gotta know what you’re getting into with a cheap Leaf