It is at a huge Chevy dealer and shows 51 mile range but good price and pretty

Suchadeal · Oct 29, 2022

It all started when a bear broke into our FIAT 500e and had a tantrum. AMFAM insurance calls it total loss. I found a 2016 Soul EV+ at a huge Chevrolet dealer in Denver CO usa about an hour away. It seems to be a great price and in very nice shape. Charged in the 90 something percent range it showed 51 miles on GOM. We did the short test drive anyway and it seemed to behave as it should. I don't want to buy dongles and apps to check out their car. And it seems I don't want to believe that it probably is at a good price for a month because the battery is degraded. I am going through the city today so had the thought of just doing a longer test drive and seeing if the battery charge goes down fast per mile?

Suchadeal · Oct 29, 2022

Has anyone tried Carvana or the like for EVs?

IanL · Oct 29, 2022

Suchadeal said:
. And it seems I don't want to believe that it probably is at a good price for a month because the battery is degraded.

Believe it. Unless the battery is still under the KIA warranty, that 51 will be 30 in a short time. Check the price of a replacement battery, add it to the sticker price; do you still want to buy?

EVDee · Oct 30, 2022

Is the warranty worse in America than it is in Canada? Lots of these get their battery replaced under warranty and I don't have any doubt that the Soul here will need one too. If it's out of coverage, wouldn't touch it. If it still is, you better get a dongle - cheaper than losing out on a HV battery replacement.

IanL · Oct 31, 2022

If you really want that car, the best thing to do would be to take it out for another test, drive to a KIA dealer who does EVs, and get the battery parameters read. See this post for important warning. Then, assuming the SOH is below 70%, wait until KIA Corporate have confirmed they will replace the battery free of charge. Then buy the car.

JejuSoul · Oct 31, 2022

-
Drive to a steep mountain. Accelerate hard while going up.
If the car turtles despite being fully charged you have a very degraded battery.
Do not buy the car unless it still has warranty coverage of the battery.