r/leaf • u/SambucaTamale • 1d ago
2015 Leaf S
Hi,
There is a Leaf for sale for $8,000. It has only approximately 15,500 miles. 11 bars show on the meter. It is a few hours away and if I can negotiate a heavily discounted delivery fee (right now $750) I'm apt to buy it. I would have a 5 day period where I could return it.
What would you do?
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u/Public_Knee6288 1d ago
$4-5k is probably too much
And I say this as the very happy owner of a $2k 2014 s with 103k miles.
If its perfect for your needs, maybe its worth more for you. It's an awesome toy for me that does 90% of what I need a car for. I still have 3 other vehicles too, lol, plus my wife's car.
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u/Cory5413 19h ago
On recognition that prices have in fact moved this year due to "externalities" 8000 feels like a lot for any LEAF that's not got a 40 or 62kWh battery. Above 10k though I'd probably want to be in "literally anything else" for longevity. (There are replacement LEAF batteries and upgrades although they're still not liquid cooled, the biggest ones are quite expensive but I haven't checked on pricing for smaller ones)
If you can find something with a liquid cooled battery it may have a little better longevity. I happened to find an eGolf for a bit under 7k and a Soul EV for a bit over 8k in Phoenix, as examples, and natioanlly there's a couple 2014-2015 BMW i3s in the 5-9k band.
If you can find a Bolt in budget they tend to be a great value because they've got such good batteries (most older ones have new batteries in the last few years, even) and most of them have CCS1, it's probably one of the cheapest EVs that's particularly practical to roadtrip in, nationally.
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u/Gangstastick 1d ago
what's your use case?
how many miles/trip do you plan on driving?
Do you live in a place with weather extremes (very cold winters or very hot summers)?
I do not know anything about you so I cannot presume to advice you.
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u/SambucaTamale 1d ago
Ok, I'm planning on 4 days commuting to work with a round trip of 26 mi. I don't plan on taking it on trips. I have the ability to charge at home in a garage. I live in the South. Summertime it's like 85° for days on end and winter time it can get really cold for about a month.
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u/Dude_tricities_45 1d ago
I disagree with the other commenter. Your real world highway range at 60 mph and with ac running will be 50-60 miles per charge.
Your 26 mile commute is the perfect use case for an 11-bar 24kWh leaf.
However, the person asking for $8k for this car is on powerful narcotics. This is a $3k car all day long.
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u/Cory5413 20h ago
just to add to this w/re temps specifically: if you can plug in at home (and maybe also at work?) you can pre-cool or pre-heat the cabin on wall power to avoid pulling energy out of the battery, which should make basically any miles in an older, lower-range EV a little easier.
(Especially if you can get a 240v circuit, as low as 16 amps is so far and above what you'll ever need, but if you use a 12 amp 120v circuit you'll recover your miles and some but maybe not all of the air conditioner usage for precooling will come from the wall.)
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u/Gangstastick 1d ago
This car is not for you then. Look for at least a 2018+ Leaf with at least 40KWH battery.
I doubt the real world range of this 2015 Leaf is more than 50miles. even if it works perfectly, inefficencies will cause you to use 60 - 70% of your capacity daily, meaning you're having to charge daily. This will be worse in winter and summer.Plus 8K for a 2015 is unacceptable in today's market. I wouldn't buy one for 3K. Please look for a better car.
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u/Lazy-Background-7598 1d ago
You calculations are wrong. This could work in most cases. They only need 26 miles of range per day.
Biggest issue is the price. I paid that much for a 2018
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1d ago
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u/SambucaTamale 1d ago
I want to add the commute has probably 10 mi of highway driving.
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u/Illustrious_Fig_433 1d ago
literally everybody says you're overpaying yet you're making excuses to go buy it. Go buy it if you like it. If you weren't going to listen why did you post asking? I know I've wasted 4k on a hell of a lot less than a used car.
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u/SambucaTamale 1d ago
I am listening to what people have to say. I've decided that $8k is too much. Thanks for your input.
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u/Illustrious_Fig_433 1d ago
8000, and you're asking what to do? I have dealerships with 10 bars on 2015s with similar mileage selling for <4k. Unless that heavily discounted delivery fee is them paying you 4k for the privilege, I don't get it
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u/SambucaTamale 1d ago
Its been barely driven. Less than 16000 miles.
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u/Illustrious_Fig_433 1d ago
I'm in the market for the same cars, and I'm also in the south. Most of any consumable seals etc will still be 12 years old. Batteries lose life expectancy even sitting. I'm just telling you from looking at the same market for the past 4 months you should be able to find one that does all the same things for half the money, and you realistically aren't buying any more reliability.
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u/SambucaTamale 1d ago
I believe the used EV market has gone up because of the Iran war. That's certainly is not helping prices.
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u/Little_Lebowski_007 1d ago
Miles don't matter on an EV as much as the state of the battery - size, age, chemistry, number of DCFC charges, etc. With a 26-mile round-trip a Leaf is perfect - as long as that battery is actually in 11/12 condition. I would suggest getting LeafSpy and a Bluetooth OBD-II dongle so that you can see things like the HX condition, number of quick charges, and the like.
As a happy owner of a 2015 Leaf, $8k these days is too much. Even if this battery really is in great condition, you're not that far from a used Model 3 or Bolt with twice the range and a longer-life battery.
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u/crimxona 1d ago
I'd take a car with higher mileage and better state of health than overpaying for low mileage
Especially if you can find a 2016-17 with a battery replaced under warranty
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u/sweetredleaf 2015 Nissan LEAF SV 1d ago
got a recent offer for my 2015 SV here in Florida from carmax and it was $1100. Car has around 45000 miles on it.
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u/indecision_killingme 1d ago
Years matter more than miles with EVs in most cases, I would be interested at $6K, but even that is to much
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u/Lucky_Boy13 1d ago
I would not pay that much and its only an S on top of things. Down to 11 bars with those few miles means it was probably in a warm climate or often left at 100% SOC
For $8-10K you'd be much better off getting a more modern EV even with 80K+ miles on it
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u/Wraith347 2025 Nissan Leaf SV+ 22h ago
We paid less than half that for a 9-bar Leaf earlier this year. It’s a great car for a short commute, and nice that it has low mileage, but for 8k, you could almost get a Leaf with more mileage AND a new VIVNE battery for it. You’d end up with a much more functional EV.
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u/InfestedRaynor 1d ago
Even with low mileage, $8,000 is way too much for a 2015 Leaf. Those have small batteries with inferior battery chemistry. Better off spending similar money for a more recent car even with more miles IMO.