Soon to be, new Leaf Owner. help please.

[ryadan]

Hi everyone,
Hoping for some help/info on purchasing my first Leaf (upgrading from a Ford Ranger dual cab ute).

So, purchasing it from an importer in Brisbane. Comes with RWC, rego will be organised on purchase day, head unit converted to English, stereo/GPS is being replaced with an english version.  Full 12 bars, 18K on the clock. Nice little car.

Have spoken to my insurer and they dont seem to care that its an import. Is that correct?

Hoping to pick it up tomorrow....

What do I need to check? 

[rusdy]

Jan 5, 2020 16:30:25 GMT 11 ryadan said:

... purchasing my first Leaf (upgrading from a Ford Ranger dual cab ute).

... 

Wow! That's a massive change! Some would say 'downgrade', congrats!!

I don't know about the insurance, but regarding things to check, I only can think the strut. Check the previous thread here. 

[ryadan]

Thank you for your reply, I was beginning to wonder whether this was a ghost forum.
Nah, I dont think of it as a downgrade. Most of my driving is 1 body to work or the shops. I wont miss shelling out $100 a week for diesel nor the negative environmental impacts of the combustion engine

[tomkauf]

Jan 5, 2020 16:30:25 GMT 11 ryadan said:

Hi everyone,
Hoping for some help/info on purchasing my first Leaf (upgrading from a Ford Ranger dual cab ute).

So, purchasing it from an importer in Brisbane. Comes with RWC, rego will be organised on purchase day, head unit converted to English, stereo/GPS is being replaced with an english version.  Full 12 bars, 18K on the clock. Nice little car.

Have spoken to my insurer and they dont seem to care that its an import. Is that correct?

Hoping to pick it up tomorrow....

What do I need to check? 

That's great, congratulations!
We just got our Japanese Leaf a few weeks ago (also in Bris), and absolutely love it. We're not going back to fossil burners again.

Sounds like you know of the most important thing (Battery Health). And yeah the Head Unit being in Japanese is actually more frustrating than you'd think, even with Google Translate. So it's good that you're getting it converted. Ours wasn't done right away, but should be later this month.

The only other things that they're known for is a bit of undercarriage rust. Very easily spotted from underneath the car though. It depends if the area it came from salts the roads in winter (eg. some of Japan does).

Make sure the SD Card is not missing from the Headunit (it won't turn on without an error otherwise), as they can go missing. They are very expensive to replace, as they have to be ordered from Nissan.

One warning I have read, is to look out for cars that have had the Battery Controller Unit reset. This causes it to show Full State of Health Bars for a short amount not time, even if the battery is very degraded. But that is less likely on a car with such low KMs as yours. And I think the only solution is to drive it and watch the State of Charge, which probably isn't possible in most cases of imported cars.

And regarding Insurance, it used to be the case that many companies wouldn't insure imported cars. Just Car insurance was one of the few, but they closed down. So I was worried about that as well. NRMA was still one of the few that advertised that they do, so I went with them. I asked my insurer (AAMI) as well, and they said imported cars are fine. But they were almost double the price.
If your insurer says it's fine, then it'll be fine. They can't go back on their word if you've told them it's imported. The only thing mine mentioned, is that they may have to use aftermarket parts. But imported Leafs are not that different from Australian ones, so that shouldn't be a problem.

[ryadan]

Thanks I picked it up today. What a pleasure to drive. Took it up over the range through Canungra and got home still with 51km to go.

[tomkauf]

Jan 6, 2020 19:29:48 GMT 11 ryadan said:

Thanks I picked it up today. What a pleasure to drive. Took it up over the range through Canungra and got home still with 51km to go.

Good to hear .
We still haven't done the drive through Canungra in the Leaf, but I was wondering how the range would go. We're in Jimboomba, so that's the way we go to the Gold Coast.