Would you buy a 2013 FFE over a Leaf?

TLDR: would you buy a ten year old Focus Electric or a ten year old Nissan Leaf for the same money?

I’ve been looking for a cheap second car under $5k which in the electric space means ten year old Nissan Leaf is the bulk of options, but I did find a Focus Electric under budget with a fender bender on its Carfax. I’m really excited about this because I like the Focus a lot better but I have reservations about out of warranty repair costs.

With an early gen EV this old I’m a bit concerned about aftermarket support since dealers repair out of warning have a reputation of being prohibitively expensive. Like, $20,000 to get a replacement battery expensive!
In my area (PNW) I've heard there’s a couple shops that cater to replacing Leaf batteries specifically and have gotten replacement battery costs down close to $5k. I think it works as a business model because of the volume of Leafs sold but I haven’t heard of anything similar for out of warranty Focus Electrics which are much more rare.

Is this something to be concerned about? I don’t want to greet stuck with a brick that I can’t afford to fix.

Also, is there a better sub forum for this question that would still be relevant but get more traffic?

That's a tough one. I do like the Focus a lot more than the Leaf, but if you know of a way to get a Leaf fixed, that might be the better way to go. A 2014 Focus will likely have the 22.5KWh battery that has a bad reputation of leaking. Some people remedy that by bypassing the battery's coolant source and essentially, making it like a Leaf battery, no liquid coolant. Probably not a good idea for hot climate areas. You'll have to investigate that to see if you can live with the restrictions that causes. Or maybe if a 2014 Focus has lasted this long, then maybe it is unique in some way and you wouldn't have an issue; but I don't think I'd take that gamble. I'd only do it if you are willing to work on it yourself or have a shop near you who can work on it for you. I have a 2012 Focus with a 33.5KWh battery. 4 years after replacement, I've had contactor issues. These are the relays inside the battery that disconnect the battery outputs when the car is off. I've had one contactor in the upper battery go bad and 2 in the lower battery pack. I did the work myself, but it isn't something that most people would want to tackle.

The leaf had 3rd party battery options so it will almost certainly be cheaper to fix the battery.

If it's a candy blue '14 it might be my old FFE. The FFE is a better car but there is no support from Ford and it is a throw away if the battery fails. I'd go with the leaf simply due to support for the battery.

Thanks for the responses. I do like the focus a lot better as a car, but I’ll have to do some more searching locally to see if there’s a shop that can reasonably keep it running after a battery failure.

Please let us know what you find, as it might be helpful to others in the same area as you.

Heima said:

Please let us know what you find, as it might be helpful to others in the same area as you.

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Will do I’m going to call around some shops this week.