I work 7 miles from my house. If my beater PT Cruiser dies I would try a Leaf or something like that.

I don't know, I've never looked into it. Our Leaf is 8 years old and the battery still has about 90% capacity so I'm not worried about replacing it.

Yeah, 7 miles to work would be perfect for an electric car, even a short range car like the first generation Leaf. You can buy the older Leafs for under $5000 now and they are super cheap to operate. A 7 mile commute would be a piece of cake even if the battery was degraded some.

It costs me $3 to charge at home or $5 to charge at a public charger. Lots of places now offer free charging to employees or guests so that is another option.

You are off on something, if it has 90% battery left you have more than a 10 mile radius range.

If you only have a 10 mile radius range, you do not have 90% capacity left.

So which is it?

myself, i think the free, cheap charging will change once they get a grip on the majority of the public's cajone's. maybe the demand for gas will drop lowering the price

I'm not understanding this, it costs $3-$5 to go 10 miles?
What does "10 mile radius" equate to?

The total range on a $3 charge is about 70 miles which works out to roughly 100 miles/gallon at today's gas prices. The 10 mile radius is just a practical limit if you are going to be out running errands. With a short range EV you have to think ahead. The 2nd and 3rd gen vehicles out now have a lot longer range so you don't have to think about it so much but they are much more expensive vehicles.

If you are shopping for one of the earlier model year Nissan Leafs,
can the dealership run a scan
and give an estimate of the % capacity left in the original battery?

Are there other “known maintenance issues” to have a dealership check?

Does a Leaf have a OBD-II plug that an aftermarket reader can see diagnostics on?

I also have a leaf - a 2011 I bought just before the pandemic as my new teen driver wanted on. I paid $3,600 and the prior owner had just replaced the battery for $6K. This is the worst year - look for at least 2013 or up if you are in the market. They are harder to find now due to the vehicle shortages and high cost of gas. The battery capacity can be seen on the dash. After a full charge it will show you how many bars are left and the range. There is also LeafSpy app for your phone (with an OBD2 interface) that gives you lots of info.

For the money, I am thrilled with the car. I put tires on it and wipers and that's it. It was weird buying a car and not changing oil, plugs, antifreeze, etc... There is virtually nothing to do for maintenance. The early Leaf batteries have no cooling so they don't do great in hot climates. The range is short - mine is about 70 miles in town. When I hit the freeway, drop the range by almost a third. The newer ones, Leaf "Plus" have range over 200 miles so they would be more practical, but they cost real car money. My 2011 is a great extra car as it costs almost nothing to operate compared to my other vehicles. Also, if you are constantly chased by beautiful women, the Leaf will save you from that inconvenience.

Yes, there is a OBD plug in that you can access from a phone app that will tell you all of the details on a Leaf.