The first shock was how well they hold their value, I had thought that as a buyer would have no idea how the battery had been treated therefore the price would fall very quickly. Rapid charging shortens the life of the batteries.
The second shock, came after reading the Nissan Leaf Forum. I have to travel to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge from time to time a round trip of approx.120 miles, the view on the forum was I would have to re-charge the batteries before setting off for home.
The other bit of trivia I turned up was that used car batteries are used in household energy storage systems.