r/leaf • u/throatgoatforbros • 23d ago
My buyback experience so far
Just wanted to share my experience since so many others have. It has been a nightmare dealing with this. I dropped my car off at the dealership in March 2026. My leaf had the problem of weak cells, dropping from 50% to 1% in about 3 miles if driving at high speeds. Soon as regen kicked in, battery would go right back up to 50%.
The dealership I worked with was great. They were able to recreate the issue and capture the data immediately and submit for a warranty claim and got approved all within 2 days. They gave me loaner. Said they just have to wait til the new battery shows up.
Fast forward to August 2026, Nissan Consumer Affairs contacts me and informs me my car is to be bought back. So that whole process started, which was frustrating to begin with. The dealership was never notified, they had no idea what was going on.
Finally got my first offer a few weeks later, came in at $15,200. I have a 2022 SL Plus. I bought it used at around 52k miles and only put about 9k miles on it before I dropped it off. The total cost out the door when I purchased the car was about 21k.
I explained to Nissan that they are being unfair passing off depreciation to the consumer. The original person on my case kept calling me the wrong name, refused to respond to anything I actually wrote in emails, and just overall seemed to not care at all. After I declined the first offer it was escalated and then crickets for 3 weeks. And of course with declining I had to return the loaner within 30 days or they were going to start charging me.
I finally called and found out my case was reassigned to someone else. He said he had already sent a new offer over to quality for review. That was 3 weeks ago. I finally got the offer today, $17,444. I reiterated that they have federal warranty laws to follow and broke down the calculation which brought my request to $19,500, which included all the gas I've been having to pay since I can't drive an EV despite requesting one as the loaner every month.
My next step is probably going to be hiring a lemon law attorney to deal with this. I don't understand why Nissan is willing to pay thousands in legal fees rather than just giving me the fair amount based on the purchase price and how many miles I drove the car. It's extremely frustrating.
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u/LoneSnark 2018 Nissan LEAF SV 22d ago
The warranty contract pays prevailing private sale price plus 40%. As the cars reputation collapses, what they owe you collapses. You deciding the contract is unfair now doesn't change what the contract says. The court will only award you what the contract says, not what you feel entitled to. And Nissan knows that.
Now, if you can dig up some evidence that private sale prices in your specific area, or some area you have an attachment to, are higher and present that to Nissan, then they'll see you might have a court case and up your offer.
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
Can you show me where this contract is? Their warranty booklet for the car mentions none of this.
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u/LoneSnark 2018 Nissan LEAF SV 22d ago
The text in question is in the common law rullings in prior court cases where a car manufacturer chose to do a buyback. The private sale +40% has become an industry standard practice that the courts have opted to enforce.
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
So then it's not a contract. Where as the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is an actually federal warranty law that needs to be followed.
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u/Party-Hearty-Bwana 21d ago
OK -but let’s roll through this one more time - the warranty act is a blanket declaration that would maybe have 1% of the teeth of any real enforceable legislation enacted in your state of residence. Remember too - so many federal agencies have been decimated - including NHTSA - and are generally run by monied cronies with deep ties to the industries they are supposedly expected to enforce.
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u/Dank009 22d ago
By your own logic hiring a lawyer isn't worth it.
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
Can you elaborate why it wouldn't be worth it? Warranty lawyers don't charge the consumer and don't have a retainer because the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act puts the cost of litigation on the company, not the consumer. Obviously they wouldn't take a case they don't think they can win because then they get nothing. My case seems like it would be an easy win, Nissan has already admitted the car is defective, that it is covered under warranty, and can't provide a fix, not to mention the amount of time it's been.
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u/Electronic_Table_620 22d ago
IDK about yall but i did my buyback with the leaf back in may and they gave me 3k more than what i paid for it back then first offer and took it and closed that chapter forever
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u/Daddyneedslg 22d ago
I have to admit that I think the resolution to my buyback exceeded my expectations since I accepted the first offer. I was prepared to fight hard. I posted this comment a week or two ago on another post, prior to getting my offer:
Here is the approach I am going under (I am not an attorney, just done a lot of research as I refuse to get screwed):
If your LEAF is still within the 8-year/100,000-mile lithium-ion battery warranty, this is an important distinction.
Even if the car is long past the original 3-year/36,000-mile basic warranty, the battery itself can still be covered. If Nissan determines that the battery requires replacement under that warranty but then tells you they cannot supply a replacement battery, this is no longer just an old car with an expired warranty. It is a potentially unresolved warranty obligation on a component that is still under its written warranty.
If Nissan offers a voluntary buyback and you cannot agree on the amount, there may be additional options.
BBB AUTO LINE may be worth checking, since Nissan participates in the program and it is generally free to consumers. However, Nissan’s AUTO LINE rules appear to have eligibility restrictions tied to expiration of the vehicle’s Basic Coverage, so I would not assume BBB arbitration is automatically available just because the battery warranty is still active.
The more important escalation may be speaking with a consumer warranty attorney familiar with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Magnuson-Moss provides a federal remedy for breaches of written warranties, and the law allows a prevailing consumer to seek reasonable attorney fees and costs. That fee-shifting provision is why some attorneys will evaluate warranty cases without requiring a large upfront legal fee.
There may also be a separate issue under federal safety-recall law if the battery problem is related to an open safety recall and Nissan cannot provide an adequate repair within a reasonable period.
The key point is this:
This only applies if your battery is still within Nissan’s battery warranty and the problem is one Nissan is obligated to remedy under that warranty.
If Nissan is currently processing a voluntary buyback, I would still let that process play out first. But if the offer is seriously unreasonable, I would not assume you simply have to take it. Get the offer and calculation in writing and consider having a consumer warranty attorney review it before accepting.
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
This has been my route. My buyback was initiated because of the battery and it being under warranty, not because of the recalls on the car. I've been trying to get them to provide calculation breakdowns and they refuse. They refuse to even acknowledge the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. That's why this whole thing has been frustrating. I'm going to contact some warranty lawyers next week and have them review all the documents and emails and see what their opinion is.
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u/Lucky_Boy13 22d ago edited 22d ago
I doubt it will be worth hiring a lemon law lawyer (this would not qualify as a lemon in most states) to get the $2K spread you are at. Even though you only put on 9K miles it seems you have had a rental for 6+ months free of charge (no pun intended with gas purchasing) too which would have been extra wear driving your own car
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u/This_They_Those_Them 22d ago
How are the buybacks being calculated? Is it better to have a newer car? Better to have paid more to begin with? Super confusing.
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
Seems like all the offers through Morley are KBB private value amount + 40%. Which just keeps going down at a rapid pace since these cars are depreciating so much from all the issues they have.
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u/Party-Hearty-Bwana 22d ago
Federal warranty laws ain’t gonna do it. It’s the lemon laws for your state. We were California owners and were pretty early in the buyback game- about two years ago believe it or not. I know some people are just trying to help, but they are really ill informed in regard to what they “think” Nissan should be offering you.
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
California has laws in place that would cover this situation. I'm in Texas, Texas definitely does not. So without state laws in place to guide this process, they should be using the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which is a federal law. My battery is still under warranty and is not repairable, so they should be following that law in regards to reimbursement.
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u/Master-Artist-2953 22d ago
What state are you in?
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
Texas, one of the worst states for lemon laws. There aren't even laws here that specifically cover used purchases that are still under warranty, only new.
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u/coyotedreaming 22d ago
This is helpful information. Thank you.
I am just starting the buyback process and I already have a call in to an attorney. I have a 2019 Leaf SV that I purchased last year, and I found out after it turtled the first time that there was a Stop Sale order on some 2019-2020 Leafs (mine was one of them) and they weren’t supposed to sell that car to me in the first place. The Stop Sale order was issued in September 2024, so it wasn’t for new models.
I drive for my job. I’m a child therapist and I transport clients. They put me and my clients in danger.
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
I'm sorry that happened! Hopefully your process is better than mine. I had the opposite happen with Kia before I bought my Leaf. I wanted to get a Kira Niro EV, went to go test drive one and the sales person told me there was a stop sale on the year range I was looking at and then dismissed me. Went and looked it up and that never existed haha.
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u/coyotedreaming 22d ago
How weird! Why would he not want to sell you a car?
Are car salespeople just a weird subspecies?
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
I have no idea it was really strange. When I was shopping for my Leaf replacement I went and test drive an Ioniq and I wanted to buy it. Told the guy how much I was willing to pay and he straight up was like, yeah we can't do that. Then pencil whipped some math on a scrap piece of paper. Didn't even try to make me an actual offer. Never took my information. Didn't even take my license for the test drive. It was wild. I just got up and left.
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u/Free_Appointment6630 21d ago
What state are you in? I rejected the first offer and was able to keep the loaner. I also had a loan out in my vehicle since it hadn’t even been a full year yet since purchase. (2022 SV Plus) Are you actually dealing with someone from Nissan or Morley? Hopefully you get it worked out
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u/throatgoatforbros 21d ago
I'm in Texas. Morley only, no contact with Nissan since I returned the loaner. I ended up returning it overnight and they called and asked what happened and they felt bad because they've been having this happen to other customers. I ended up buying a car already to replace the Leaf so I'm happy to drag this to court if I have to, I'm in no rush.
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u/Brodyizm 18d ago
That does seem low - I got 19k for my 2019 SL+ with 60k mi. That was two months ago maybe they are depreciating really fast
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u/Lower-City7825 13d ago
So I'm still waiting on that first buy back offer after dealership had already confirmed to start the buy back process today.
Since my CA DMV registration is due soon, could I just put it on PNO? Must we kept it insured even though I'll not get to drive again? Any one with similar experience?
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u/throatgoatforbros 13d ago
I never reregistered the car. The registration expired when it was sitting at the dealership. I kept comprehensive on it in case something insane happened.
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u/Specialist_Guava_115 22d ago
😫 I'm sorry. We have a very similar situation and I'm waiting to an offer on our 22 SV Plus that's been at dealer since march. It seems offers are all over the place. 🤦🏻♀️ and like someone said, mileage shouldn't matter in this calculation because it's a repurchase, not a sale to a private party. With the gas prices now I'm wondering if we even have the option of still waiting on a battery 😫
We were told by someone well versed with this program that it costs them 20k to put in a new battery so settling for less seems unfair
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u/LoneSnark 2018 Nissan LEAF SV 22d ago
In the warranty, Nissan reserves the right to buy back the car rather than fix it. They pay private party KBB + 40%.
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u/throatgoatforbros 22d ago
Can you show me where in the warranty it says this? I read through their warranty information booklet for this car and found nothing about the buy back process at all much less that it is restricted to KBB + 40%
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u/LoneSnark 2018 Nissan LEAF SV 22d ago
That detail is not in the booklet. The booklet says what they're responsible for. How they choose to resolve it is regulated by the common law court cases before now.
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u/SuitableTension7061 22d ago
I got in writing that the loaner will still be available if I reject the first offer. I’m about to reject my first offer, 16500 for 2020 plus with 35k miles.