Overview & Reviews

The 2011 Nissan Leaf is an all-new model.

• Intelligent navigation system.
• Spacious, quiet cabin
• Snappy acceleration
• No more gas stations

• Home charger is a necessity.
• Limited recharging points
• Limited cruising range

User Reviews:

Showing 1 through 10 of 20.00

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  <50% battery capacity at 90,000 mi & more issues - 2011 Nissan Leaf
  By Rick SantAngelo - September 10 - 8:52 am

  The gauge is wrong, though I am missing only 4 bars my battery is under 50% of original capacity, a maximum charge from one bar to full is less than 10Kwh, my driving experience is 40 mi or less on a charge at this point in time. At 60,000 miles the dealer checked and told me that 3 bars down (which was my state at the time) was to be expected even though I experienced under 50 miles. My brakes pulse wildly at high speeds and I am on my third set of tires. Based on the revised battery warranty, a buyer should be well aware that their car will be worthless after 5 years and no one in their right mind should buy one used. All along the way my dealer (and the designated technician) demonstrated a total lack of knowledge and expertise on this car, and to this day has no idea about replacing a battery. As recently as this year (5 yrs after introduction) Nissan still does not have any description of what is covered ON A LEAF under their own extended warranty which demonstrates that they have not figured out yet how to deal with this technology.

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  Love this car, but man it cost me. - 2011 Nissan Leaf
  By Zac Held - June 1 - 11:57 pm

  Its a great car. The car itself is completely vanilla, but I love how smooth and quiet it is. At stoplights I think my other gas car has something wrong with all the vibration. The acceleration is linear and totally smooth. Not visiting gas stations is awesome. Its fun to sneak up on people in parking lots. The range anxiety went away after a month of owning the car, although its starting to come back. The BIG HOWEVER, I have had the car for over five years now, it has less than 60k miles and my battery capacity is now half of what it was when new. I was a responsible battery charger, and live in a mild climate. Since it is just out of warranty (4 years) its up to me to cover the cost of the replacement battery. I can currently go about 40 miles if I dont use the heater, and my work is about 40 miles roundtrip. I know all batteries degrade over time, and I was comfortable of having to replace it. What totally caught me by surprise is the cost of a new battery; quoted by my dealer is $8000. A quick blue book value of my car is about $6000. The horrible depreciation of the car combined with the cost of a replacement battery, completely make the economics of owning this car a terrible deal. For $8000 I could buy nearly twenty thousand gallons of gasoline! At 25 miles per gallon I could travel 500,000 miles! All these leafs are going to have to be converted to golf carts in retirement to get any value out of them. Update 2-18. Car has about 68,000 miles now. Still gets me back and forth to work, but due to battery degradation the heater is only allowed for small spurts to defrost the windows in the winter. It is a great car durability wise since I have only had to change the tires so far, and drives like the day it was new. We tend to drive it less miles now because the range anxiety of driving to new places is resurfacing. Bad news is that battery degradation and the cost to replace it is crazy. Buying a used one that doesnt need to go very far makes sense. Today a 2011 leaf in my area goes for 5000-7000. Not sure what a battery costs today, if its still $8000, no way that makes sense. The battery needs to be closer to $1000 to even think of changing it.

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  No battery capacity warranty leaves owners with worthless cars - 2011 Nissan Leaf
  By azdre - May 20 - 6:39 pm

  The lack of a battery capacity warranty has left dozens of warm-climate owners with cars that are no longer useful, and that are unsellable. There are no dealers in Phoenix, AZ that will take these cars as trade-ins because of the issues with the battery. After getting positive battery care reports, we can travel no more than 50 miles in our car that should go 80-100 miles. Nissan is changing its story at every turn, and refuses to acknowledge a problem. Google: Real World Battery Capacity Loss, and youll see the real deal with how Nissan treats its customers. They do not stand behind this product. They got their 1.4 billion dollar loan, they dont need the LEAF anymore.

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  Hard to work with Nissan support. - 2011 Nissan Leaf
  By Lloyd Dawson - August 28 - 12:31 am

  Nissan keeps a lot of information closed to the public. Replies to questions get "canned answers". After a battery replacement the vehicle needed many other repairs. Even when I purchased a 5 year 100000 mile extended warranty the in service date caused me to lose 6 months on the warranty I paid for. We love using our EV but Nissan has been a pain.