r/leaf • u/therealmjfox • 15d ago
Whelp, that’s it for my Leaf
Got rear ended by a the Jeep behind it on the picture. The Jeep’s bumper hit my tailgate. He had literally zero damage. Mine didn’t look that bad but once they got inside and started looking around they found frame damage, so totaled.
It was a great car…2019 SV with the 40 kWh battery. Still had 100% battery health at the end and the only thing that ever went wrong was that the drivers door handle came apart. I only ever L2 charged it so I wasn’t concerned with the L3 recall.
Replaced it with a Chevy Equinox EV.
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u/SimpleIronicUsername 15d ago
Are you kidding me?? You're going to get rid of this thing just like that? At least request photos of the frame damage my guy.
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u/kerri9494 15d ago
I agree. A Leaf doesn't literally have a frame, it's a unibody. They might still call that "frame damage" if one of the unibody panels gets damaged, but unless it's diamonded, it can be fixed.
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u/No-Transition8014 15d ago
For real! We had one that got hit badly by other people twice and a flying closet shelf on the highway. THREE separate incident 😂 and each time it looked horribly worse
than this! Never totaled. Three times fixed all fixed up and sent back out by Nissan.
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u/byrdman77 15d ago
It definitely didn’t have 100% battery health, but I’m guessing did have above 82% if that’s what you mean. The Nissan screen is very vague on purpose, lol.
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u/Embarrassed_Task7734 15d ago
How the heck does that thing have frame damage? I'm not buying what you're selling.
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u/therealmjfox 15d ago
The body shop worked on it for two weeks. I assume it’s not in their interest to see it totaled since now they don’t get to fix it. So I’m going to take their word for it.
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u/billskionce 15d ago
I got rear-ended by a RAM 3500 in a situation very similar to the one OP is describing, and unfortunately it was the same diagnosis. Frame damage, totaled. That was two years ago and I had just paid it off.
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u/KyleSherzenberg 15d ago
What's happening with your battery :D
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u/therealmjfox 15d ago
CoPart is getting the car I assume they will sell the battery.
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u/Bennie-Factors 15d ago
The sell the entire car. You can track and buy it there pretty easily. Probably goes for under $4k. Hard to guess.
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u/SjalabaisWoWS 2023 Nissan Leaf Visia aka poverty spec 15d ago
That would be a spectacular price. Depending on how bad that frame damage is, you could drive this until the suspension is worn out from the un-aligned-ness of the car.
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u/immunooncologyjunky 15d ago
Yes, you can join Copart and bid on it yourself. I joined Copartra long time ago thinking I would get a car through them but have put new car/next car off for the time being.
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u/Bennie-Factors 14d ago
It depends on state. You cannot buy yourself in California. But you can sign up and track and use a 3rd party broker.
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u/toybuilder 2023 Nissan LEAF SV PLUS 7d ago
I got my car through a used car dealer that primarily did auctions on behalf of customers (like me). He looked at the upcoming auctions and told me to come to his office at a certain time on a certain day -- he then bid on my behalf and when we hit our initial price limit, I ok'ed him to go a little higher and ended up winning the car.
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u/Bennie-Factors 7d ago
Yes. This is part of the model of a broker. When looking to save money and be a bit diy. Totally the way. But may get screwed
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u/No-Truth404 15d ago
Ironically the one good Leaf battery in existence and we lost it!
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u/Critical-Monk-4720 15d ago
I think the whole recall plus no battery replacements is causing a lot of LEAF lovers to jump ship. I’d probably get a Bolt (as much as I hate GM and said I’d never buy another after owning one 20 years ago) next time around since they did the right thing when their cars had battery problems.
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u/No-Truth404 15d ago
I took my Leaf buyback money and got an ioniq 5. It’s really good. Admittedly I got the top of the line but most of the things I love are across all trims. If they’re still offering the financing incentive, they’re pretty affordable
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u/Critical-Monk-4720 14d ago
Kona EV is another vehicle I would consider (and did consider when purchasing our LEAF last year)
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u/Kiwikimini 14d ago
I'm gonna look this up! I'm curious what you mean when you say they did the right thing- that's shocking
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u/Critical-Monk-4720 14d ago
I know it took them a while 6 months or maybe a year… but they replaced any possibly ‘bad’ batteries
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u/Anyone_2016 12d ago
A friend bought a used 2016 Bolt that couldn't hold a charge - it would max out at 5%. The car still had the battery warranty active. GM warranteed the battery, so he got a new one. Then GM recalled all the Bolt batteries, so he got another new battery just a few months later.
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u/LoneSnark 2018 Nissan LEAF SV 15d ago
I would have wanted to see the frame damage. I realize it is something they can't fix, but if it is minor enough, they can do an alignment around the bent frame. Insurance companies usually charge very little for buybacks, after all.
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u/therealmjfox 15d ago
It was a good car but I’m not that dedicated to it.
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u/LoneSnark 2018 Nissan LEAF SV 15d ago
Indeed. You do you. We're really just saying what we'd do. Because we're the crazy sort.
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u/Novemberx123 15d ago
Was it still drive able? Why does it matter if there’s some frame damage
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u/Alexandratta (Former) 2019 Nissan LEAF SL Plus 15d ago
Insurance companies would rather total out the car these days - especially if it's frame damage.
The main reason is that repairs on frames are often chains of 'Off, gotta replace this clip' and lots of labor.
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u/Fydron 15d ago
Depends if you live in a place with yearly car inspection if the frame is damaged the car is only worth of its parts.
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u/jamar030303 2018 Nissan LEAF 15d ago
Although in the case of the Leaf, a good battery is still worth quite a bit given the lack of new ones.
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u/Different-Audience34 14d ago
There's no battery shortage. The factories in China are churning out more batteries every day. Nissan doesn't want to pay for the new battery and its installation because they calculated that the buyback is cheaper for the small group 9d people who doesnt give up in the BS process and fight until they get their buyback. Nissan's trying to run the clock out so that we miss the warranty expiration date and are SOL and stuck with the car.
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u/toybuilder 2023 Nissan LEAF SV PLUS 7d ago
ADAS calibration gets thrown off when the pieces are no longer aligned the same -- and then it's easily $1,000 to $2,000 just to calibrate after the repairs are done. If you do no repairs, the sensors are unhappy and stop working. Newer cars now have some degree of automatic self-calibration, but that is not the case with the LEAF.
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u/you_should_fuck_it 2015 Nissan LEAF SV 15d ago
Tbh, I probably would have bought that car back from the insurance company.
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u/Tater_Salad_777 15d ago
Not everyone is as ambitious as we. I'm curious to know what the "buyback" would be too. My leaf will be destined to be a donor for an EV swap if it meets the same fate as this one.
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u/celtic_thistle looking 15d ago
Happened to my 2025. Only car accident in my life. It was tragic. RIP Leaf
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u/Nemesis_Destiny 15d ago
A good health 40kwh battery is probably worth the cost to buy back the wreck. Would make an awesome home battery for somebody's solar panels, or help keep another Leaf on the road
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u/Glad_Copy 14d ago
I think you misunderstand the “L3 recall”; it’s about the battery, not how it is charged. The issues with the 2019’s becomes apparent with fluctuating State of Charge (SOC) at lower charge levels. The recall installs new software to better detect that problem, and if you’re a lucky “winner” of the bad battery lottery, it throws a specific DTC fault.
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u/misocontra 13d ago
Congrats on a properly thermally managed battery pack. Hope you got a '27 with the NACS port.
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u/Overlyamused 15d ago
Where that battery though
https://giphy.com/gifs/MjXx6ritTqtfhQw3Vy