Buyers BEWARE!!! This is a MUST READ!!

This concerns a purchase of a used 2011 Nissan LEAF VIN 222 from Tacoma Nissan in July of this year.  The car came with 34,000+ miles and 12 capacity bars on it. This is not unusual for the Pacific Northwest as I turned in my 2011 LEAF VIN 258 with nearly 45,000  miles and all 12 capacity bars intact.  I was at 57.11 ahr so still had a few thousand miles to go on bar 12. ( most report losing first capacity bar in the mid to low 54's)

But the honeymoon did not last as she recently lost bar #10 (3 bars gone) a few days ago. How could this have happened.  She posted on Facebook about her dilemma and a 2011 is a rather rare model and the interest of such a model was great so my first thought; "What is your VIN?"  and as luck would have it; it was a very well known VIN.

It took a bit of searching (and help) but found this posted Jan 15, 2014

I had a SoCal 3 bar loser:

Car 222 omkar Irvine, CA
3 bars lost at 35 months (11/19/2013) / 33,700 miles
2 bars lost at 29 months (5/25/2013) / 29,500 miles
1 bar lost at 20 months (9/5/2012) / 19,000 miles

Previous owner verifying 3rd bar lost 8 months before Tacoma purchase

This is a major problem and no less heinous as rolling back an odometer to increase a car's resale value. But that is really the only clear part here. Who is to blame? The car came from out of state so it was likely a auction purchase. What did Tacoma Nissan know about the car's history? It is conceivable that they were as much in the dark as anyone else. The owner said there does appear to be several entries in CARFAX but was unable to get details of the report without paying for it.

The VIN in question is JN1AZ0CP6BT000222.  Knowing the details of that report might shed some light on how duplicitous  Tacoma Nissan's role is in this scenario.

Either way, this is an issue that needs to be resolved ASAP and I encourage everyone who reads this to pass it around as much as you can. We need to get the word out! This is something that cannot go unnoticed!!

I will be posting MUCH more about this as it comes in!!


**Update; We shall soon have the warranty history and carfax info which hopefully will tell us what was known, when it was known and who knew what was known.


Here is a pix of her car taken Aug 3, 2014 after a few days of ownership. Notice all 12 bars are showing??

Stay tuned!!

**UPDATE**

Ok, a VERY GOOD LEAF tech advised that the capacity bars being reset is an unavoidable consequence when performing several functions with the pack.  So the ultimate act could be happening without any malice intended

BUT

This in no way removes the dealership's responsibility to provide full disclosure to a potential buyer.  LEAF Spy has grown from a "garage" app to THE  de facto standard for monitoring and recording LEAF Pack performance.   Maybe its time to add to the CARFAX report?  I now see reputable Nissan dealers offering to give LEAF Spy readings to potential customers which is awesome but this does not address shady used car dealers and maybe its time that new laws are enacted to require verified battery status reports including dates of any all BMS resets.