Nissan Leaf versus Subaru Forester

The cost per mile winner - Nissan Leaf.

Starting in 2015, I decided to do a 5 year experiment.  For this time, I had two cars.  The first car, the Nissan Leaf, was bought with the idea that having a relatively simple and new car would save money.  Being a 2013, it is still new enough that most parts have not worn out.  If they did break, they are under warranty.  At the bargain after tax price of $13,800 it was more than I had ever paid for a car.  However,  I anticipated the per-year cost should be lower than a gasoline car.  First, being electric, it lacks many of the things that are typically expensive repairs on regular cars.  For example, there is no muffler to rust, gas tank to leak and so on.  The engine and transmission are also very simple and have been cited as statistically being around 25 times as reliable as a gasoline car. Oh, and I would not need to buy any gasoline for the life of the car.  As for energy use, I found it used about as much electricity as a small window air conditioner.  That is, it has apparently added about $20 to my monthly electric bill.  It would eventually need a new battery pack, but if I junk it anytime after 6 years, I anticipate that I would be ahead of what I would have paid to drive a regular car over the same period of time..

The second car, my winter rat, was a used 2007 Subaru which I acquired at a slightly below market price of $5900.  I expected this car to have higher operating costs, but I thought it would still be overall cheaper due to the low acquisition cost.  At first, that was true.  During the winter of 2015-2016, I plowed through the snow with no problems other than adding a starting battery costing $130.  So far, so good.  Then, mid winter, the muffler needed to be replaced.  Also, I needed a new set of tires and oil needed to be changed.  Again, expected repairs.  Taken together, they were around $800.  As winter turned to Spring, the Subaru mostly sat in the driveway.  Due to driving the Leaf, the Subaru sat so much that I became concerned that I might need to put gasoline stabilizer in it's tank!  Also, staying in one place it was starting to cause four tiny tire indentations in my driveway!

Meanwhile, the Leaf continued to operate, requiring nothing more than a daily charge which was hardly noticeable on my utility bill. When I first got the leaf, I was concerned about the range.  So much so that I insisted the dealer deliver the car. However, I quickly realized my driving habits fit well within it's round-trip range.  Looking at my odometer, I found that I only drive around 20 miles a day to work (sometimes 30 on the weekend) and this is well within the Leaf's range even with heat or air conditioning operating.  I also noticed a nice surplus in my weekly budget due to not needing to buy gas.  It's only major repair was for a universal joint problem that created an occasional grinding noise but didn't disable the car. There was also a software upgrade for brakes, a defective seat heater and an air-conditioner pipe adjustment.  All replacements so far have been covered under the factory warranty. 

When I took the Subaru on it's first long trip, the real cost of maintaining an ICE car became apparent. During that drive, oil consumption suddenly became around a quart every 100 miles!  Once I got home, my mechanic traced the cause to a leaky oil pressure sensor gasket (one of three that this model car has). The gasket was cheap.  Replacing it was not - at close to $300 dollars.  Then, a few weeks later, the dreaded check-engine light appeared again and it started burning oil rather than leaking it!  Buying a car scanner $89 revealed a misfire in one of the cylinders.  A compression test, then removal of the heads, revealed the exhaust gasses had eroded some paths through the metal around the exhaust valves.  Fixing that required extensive and lengthy repairs, to the tune of two months of being off the road and a monetary cost of $3200!  

So far, the before-tax Forrester costs are...
Acquisition cost of Subaru(with tax) - $6500
Starting battery $130
Muffler & tire replacement ~ $800
Oil temperature gasket leak ~ $300
Bulk oil jug purchases to replace oil lost to leak ~$40
Scanner $89
Compression diagnosis $130
Engine head repair, including timing belt and serpentine belt replacement $3200
Total cost so far are approximately $11,189

if I had not had the leaf, I would have had  rental car costs in too.

Although the Forrester repair costs were abnormally high, the reviews for the 2007 model year show that I am hardly unique in having them.  Nor was I done with them.  Next,, my Forrester has developed a new power steering shudder and the struts developed a creaky sound.  As for insurance and registration savings,  the rates are comparable on either car.  Due to my bundling of insurance, it looks like I would gain around $500/yr savings if I gave up either one of the cars.  

As for miles driven, the Leaf clocked just over 10,000 miles that past year versus the Forrester at just under 2,000.  However, before concluding the Leaf was clearly the superior car on a cost-per-mile basis, consider that many of the Forrester's miles have been earned during very bad conditions.  The Forrester's winter performance has never been in doubt.   On several early mornings, when the temperatures were below zero and nary a snowplow was in sight, the Forester plowed through the cold snowy roads perfectly.

Unlike the Forrester, the Leaf's winter reliability depends heavily on snowplow clearing and a nightly opportunity to thaw in a warm garage.So, in my geographic area, it looks like the Nissan Leaf can fill a meaningful transportation niche for 3/4ths of the year. Unfortunately, my transportation choices are defined by peak performance demands.  That is, I still need a car that can go through deep morning snow (only 4 or 5 days a year) and survive roads covered with corrosive roadway salt.  Unfortunately, for now, that still requires a petrol car with AWD.

* Update: This April 2017, the Subaru had another large oil leak from a defective freeze plug.  That made my car briefly totally run out of oil. Fortunately, I had the common sense to stop the car before the engine seized and have it towed to the shop.  After a  $300 repair, the car is again mobile.  However, I found the rings are now shot and it's not cost effective for me to repair.  The car still worked but it needed to be topped up with oil every time I bought gasoline! I decided to sell it for $2300, ending the  experiment early.