Re : Nissan and their model selection mix - remember the Nissan Micra - the least expensive car in America
Well it is still in production in Mexico and was redesigned and updated in 2021. [ model name Nissan March]
When we spent 5 days in Mexico City in Feb. we took many Ubers and rode in March's; as well as Chevy Sparks & Aveos
and many other small vehicles that are being mfg. but not sold north of the Rio Grand.
Funny! When you mentioned the Nissan Micra, I thought about our son who so far, has seemed to have pretty good luck on all the cars he's bought or sold!
Our son had just been stationed in January 2020 to Aviano in Italy for his military assignment. He bought a used Nissan Micra for $3000 from another US military person who was transferring back to the states. The Micra was fine but pretty basic with crank windows for the passenger windows. But no major repairs/issues, only something with the car radio and he brought it to the base's car repair bay area where someone fixed it in exchange for a beer! He changed the oil at the base and he drove that car around Italy and the surrounding countries during the weekends with no problems for his two years while stationed there. He said the Micra was easy to drive and park since a lot of the roads are pretty narrow in most European towns.
Six months before the end of his Italy assignment, he bought a used BMW Suv for $6000 from an officer who was transferring and needed to sell quickly. Surprisingly, the Micra's value was higher than what he paid and he sold it to an incoming military person for $3,500. When he was being transferred to Germany, the military had most of his apartment packed up and moved his stuff to his new base. He decided and ended up driving the BMW from Italy to Germany which worked out great since he likes to travel and see different countries.
Meanwhile back here in the states, he still had his 2015 Honda Civic EX which my husband and I would drive occasionally but we had asked him if he wanted to sell it since he wasn't coming back for several more years. Since covid and the shortages of parts and all, the car prices were going up like crazy (when he left at end of 2019 his Civic would have only gotten him around $10,000 at most) but around the end of 2021 my husband did the Edmunds used car price quote and he got three dealers calling or emails offering $17000 if we brought the car in if it was as we described when filling out the info. The $17,000 offer was from Car Max and we were near the dealer one day and decided to have them check out the car and sell it for their $17,000 offer. They checked out the car and they offered $16,000; so we asked and showed them their $17,000 offer but they said that had expired, yesterday! The tech said he'd ask the manager if $17,000 was still on the table and they'd call back. Unfortunately, when they called back the manager said only $16,000 (and good for one week!) so we said we'd think about it and call back.
A couple of days later, my husband tried a different online site to get quotes. This was the KBB (Kelly Blue Book) website and again after filling out the car's details he immediately got several emails and phone calls. One dealer called and offered $18000 and my husband thought its was kind of a scam to just get us to come in so he called the dealer to find out. He said the dealer (Huntington Beach Honda) sounded pretty honest and said that if the car was in the condition as he stated, they would pay $18,000. Husband made an appointment and the used car manager at HB Honda was very honest and upfront. After inspecting the Honda, the manager said they wanted it. Probably because the used car inventory was so low and they needed cars to sell and our Honda Civic was really clean and the car was as described - very low mileage, clean.
The dealer cut out the check for us, did all the paperwork and it was a very easy and clean transaction. With all the fraud going on with private sales, we personally didn't want to deal with a private sale and decided that for us it was worth taking a little bit less and selling it to a major dealer than a private party. And we checked the dealer's sales website after we sold the car to them and it was listed that night for way more! And it was gone in less than a week, so they sold our car pretty quickly!
We had also disclosed that it was in one accident. Just a month prior, husband had gotten read ended on the 22 Fwy-car in the left lane did a quick lane change in front of him, traffic in front completely stopped so that car slammed on their brakes. He slammed on his brakes and stopped in time without hitting their car. Unfortunately, a Lexus behind him didn't and slammed him from behind and pushed our Honda into the first car. No major damage in front, but back bumper definitely crushed.
Fortunately we have dashcams in our cars and it was working fine and recorded it all - unsafe lane change from first car, his still stopping in time, then being read ended and pushed into the first car (and his cussing...
), so our insurance agent said we were in the clear and the Lexus driver's insurance ended up paying and covering all the costs and deductibles. The Honda was repaired at a body shop in Laguna Niguel that did a great job on the repairs and paint, so the Honda looked really good!
Anyways, son is happy that he got that much money for his 5 year old Honda. He originally bought that 2015 Civic brand new for $18,000 (plus the obnoxious California tax and license fees!) so he pretty much got most of his money back for a 5 year old car! He then used it to buy a nice almost new, used Toyota hybrid in Germany. And he sold the BMW SUV a few weeks later for $500 more than he paid, so he's been very lucky with selling his cars!