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    How to sell your Nissan – the ultimate guide

    Nissan is a Japanese car brand, known around the world for its stylish and reliable range of passenger cars. The Nissan Qashqai is one of its best-known models. It has been described as a ‘small SUV’, before that became a class in and of itself, and a ‘high-performance hatchback’, rivalling both the Ford Kuga and the Audi Q3. 

    Nissan’s range in the UK extends from small city cars (Nissan Ariya, Nissan Leaf, Nissan Juke) to the crossover Nissan Qashqai, to an SUV (Nissan X-Trail). In 2018, the car manufacturer announced its global leadership in the sector, ahead of Tesla, having sold over 300,000 units of EVs that year. However, in 2022 Nissan has dropped a little further down the EV leaderboard.

    If you have a Nissan you’re looking to sell, read on to answer any questions you may have.

    how to sell your nissan
    Nissan’s range is designed around drivers’ lifestyles, making them a market trend leader.

    Value my Nissan

    Nissan is known for reliability and safety, but it’s not officially a premium or luxury brand; that would be their sister luxury brand INFINITI. However, Nissan’s models come in a range of specs. At the top, they offer premium add-ons such as a Bose sound system, a glass roof, and massage seats. As such, Nissans can be bought across a wide price range both new and used.

    No matter the spec of your Nissan, you should find a buyer with a good price as long as the condition is desirable. Nissan cars are not too expensive to care for, as they share a lot of parts with other manufacturers such as Renault. They’re sold in high enough numbers not to need speciality, hard-to-find  maintenance.

    To value your Nissan for free now, enter your reg and mileage on the Motorway valuation tool.

    Do Nissan cars hold their value?

    Valuation data from Motorway.

    Nissan cars sold through Motorway have varying depreciation rates at the two-year and five-year points. However, after ten years, the Nissan Micra, Nissan Juke, and Nissan Qashqai all typically sell for an average of 23% of original purchase price.

    According to Motorway data, Nissan Qashqais show the biggest drop within the first two years, falling by close to 30% of the purchase price, while the Micra and Juke both fell by closer to 15%. The difference in class of car could partly explain this. Nissan Qashqais are expected to fit a lifestyle involving daily driving, whereas the smaller Micra and Juke models make good city cars or runarounds for multi-car households. 

    Five year-old Nissan Micras on Motorway have held their price slightly better than five-year old Nissan Jukes and Nissan Qashqais. Again, this could be explained by the type of driving or market demand associated with these models.

    This is based on Motorway’s internal data, and may not be indicative of the value of your Nissan vehicle. 

    The best way to retain the value of any car is to keep it in great condition on the inside, outside, and under the hood. Read our guide to learn more about how best to care for your car, to keep its resale value as high as possible.

    How to sell my discontinued Nissan?

    Nissan has recently discontinued one of its best-known models, the Micra. An affordable small car, the Nissan Micra has been very popular across the UK for decades. The Nissan-Renault alliance announced that they will be replacing the Micra with an all-electric model built on the same platform as the Renault 5, which is being relaunched. This new model should be ready by 2024, along with further new, all-electric platforms the brands are collaborating on. 

    If you’re looking to sell a Nissan Micra, don’t be put off by the discontinuation. The used car market in the UK holds up for cars in good condition, especially when they’re popular and reliable. Nissan Micra is a well-known and trusted model, which works in its favour.

    value my nissan
    Nissan Micras may be discontinued, but we can expect to see them in the used market and on the roads for years to come.

    How to sell my Nissan?

    There are many options when it comes to selling your Nissan on the used car market. If you have marketing skills to flex you may find success selling to a private buyer. This could be someone known to you, or someone you find through a local or nationwide network.

    For an easier experience, the trade routes you can go down include selling or trading in your car directly with a dealership. Nissan does not have an official buy-back or part-exchange scheme, but on their website you can find approved dealerships across the country. Many of these will likely buy your used Nissan car.

    Selling your financed Nissan 

    If you have a financed Nissan vehicle on a Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) or Hire Purchase (HP) contract, and you’ve made a certain minimum of payments (pursuant to your contract) you can sell the car and use the proceeds to clear the outstanding finance. Learn more about this in our guide to PCP finance. 

    Equally, you can part–exchange a financed car – and in fact this can be a common practice on certain financing contracts. Read more about part-exchanging your Nissan below.

    Selling your Nissan privately

    You might consider selling your Nissan to a private buyer. In the easiest case scenario, somebody approaches you with a satisfying offer without you having to do a lot of marketing. If this happens, you can proceed to working out a safe method of payment and transferring ownership.

    However, if you need to find a buyer for your Nissan, this takes a lot of time and considerable effort. You have to list your car, and handle the incoming interest and queries. You can advertise your car locally, i.e. on a noticeboard or mailing list. This might make the enquiries more manageable as you will primarily hear from people in your area.

    Otherwise, you’ll have to list your car online on a free advertising site such as Auto Trader, Facebook Marketplace, eBay Motors or Gumtree. You have to advertise the key features and information about your car, making it sound exciting and desirable, but not too good to be true! Nissan cars are popular, so it shouldn’t be hard to get interest. However, depending on your model, there could be a fair amount of competition. For your car to stand out, you’ll have to offer a fair price based on the condition and mileage. 

    Selling privately might seem straightforward at first, but there’s a lot of work involved in finding buyers, negotiating a deal, and finalising the sale.

    Once you have fielded enough interest to organise visits and test drives, you’ll hopefully get an acceptable offer. At this point, you have to finalise your negotiation, handle safe payment and transfer the ownership of the car. A significant worry for some people may be the risk of being scammed, especially when it comes to payment. Read our guide for tips on how to avoid being scammed when you sell your car privately.

    When all is said and done, and the money is in your account, the work may feel worth it. But, if you end up having to negotiate hard, or have your time wasted, you may wish you had gone down a simpler and quicker route.

    Selling your Nissan to a dealer

    If you’re looking for a quick deal for your Nissan, you might take it to a few local dealerships looking for the best offer. You’ll still need to clean your car, gather the relevant information, show all the service history, and have an idea of your car’s valuation before you go in. However, you won’t have to handle such an active sale as you would if you were selling privately. 

    Typically, you can negotiate a little bit with a dealer. While you’ll have an idea of your car’s valuation, you shouldn’t necessarily expect this to line up with a trade price. For one thing, dealerships have far more considerations to put into the price they will pay for your car. They have to consider their market, their stock already on the forecourt, their margins, emissions policy changes, industry trends, etc. So, you could be surprised at offers that seem low. You might be able to get the price up a little, but it’s unlikely you’ll achieve the full valuation figure.

    Some dealers have been known to engage in ‘price chipping’. This is where they agree to a price initially, but then find faults with your car and knock the number down. While in many cases, unknown damage does legitimately call for changes to the offer, this can be alarming for sellers. For this reason, if you sell to a dealership it’s worth having your car serviced and valued ahead of time so you have a realistic expectation. 

    Part-exchanging your Nissan

    Another way to quickly sell your car to a dealership is to trade it in, or part exchange, against the value of your next car. This is one of the quickest ways to sell your car. You can drive to a dealership in your outgoing Nissan and drive back home in your next car. However, it is rare that you will achieve as much money for your car as you would if you sold it outright – even to the same dealer. 

    There are a few reasons for this. When it comes to part exchange, some dealerships will not be looking to sell your car to their regular customers. They will, in fact, plan on auctioning it, so their markup will be higher than if they bought your car outright. Since your ‘payment’ is a discount towards another model, rather than a cash price, there is little transparency in the numbers.

    Part exchange is commonly offered by manufacturer-specific dealerships, with return buyers who are loyal to the brand or even model. However, in the majority of cases, it pays to take the extra steps to sell the outgoing car in a separate transaction.

    Selling your Nissan to an instant car buyer

    For a speedy, online experience, you can consider selling your car to an instant car buyer. There is variation in how they work, from the well-known firm We Buy Any Car to the online services provided by traditional dealerships such as Evans Halshaw and Arnold Clark. 

    Typically, you can enter your reg and mileage on their websites to get a first valuation. The next step is to have your car profiled. Many of these companies do this in person, meaning you have to drive to a local hub. When you and the company agree on a final price, they’ll keep (or pick up) your car, and pay the funds.

    Selling your Nissan will likely require a compromise between the best possible price and least time-consuming or most convenient method.

    The best way to sell your Nissan

    If you’re thinking about selling your Nissan quickly and easily, at Motorway we offer a simple – and completely free – method of getting the best price when selling any car, whatever the model.

    Get a valuation you can trust, based on current activity in Motorway’s nationwide marketplace.

    Just enter your reg on the homepage and you will be provided with an instant estimated sale price based on up-to-the-minute market data. We’ll then ask you a few easy questions about your car and guide you through the photos you need to take to complete your vehicle profile. It can be done right from your phone – in a matter of minutes.

    If you choose to enter your car into a daily sale, it will be shown to our nationwide network of more than 5,000 verified dealers looking to add to their stock of used cars. Interested dealers will then compete to buy your car, offering you their best price.

    In as little as 24 hours you will receive your best offer – and, if you choose to go ahead with the sale, your car will be collected for free by the dealer and the money will be quickly and securely transferred to your bank account.

    Thinking of selling?

    Want to learn more about selling your car? Check out more of our guides here, covering the most popular cars on the road, from Ford to Ferrari, Audi to Mercedes, and everything in-between.

    Sell your car the Motorway way

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