Every so often, a great deal on a used car is hiding where nobody would expect. Maybe it’s for sale on a lawn, or in an online ad with no pictures, but whatever the case, sometimes the long-shots are worth it. Here’s another one: Someone just bought a car for $1,800 on Bring A Trailer, the car auction site where reasonable sale prices go to die. And as far as I can tell, this car seems to works perfectly fine. Not a go-kart, not a Power Wheels car, an actual car. How wild is that?
This is the exact inverse of listing a Bugatti Veyron on Craigslist. Over the past few years, Bring A Trailer has played host to some of the most exotic machinery on the planet, and has been where prices of previously-cheap cars tend to go way, way up (see Jeep Cherokee XJs). But the Nissan March in question is — and I mean this in the most non-insulting way possible — a rather regular car. It’s not exceptionally quirky, unusually low volume, or massively desirable. Maybe that’s why it went cheap. For what it’s worth, these cars were sold as the Micra in Europe, and they’re still cheap over there, with models like this facelifted one in Germany selling for less than €1,500.
The K11 Nissan March is not the most imaginative car on the face of the planet, underscored by this one’s official color name of Greenish Silver Pearl. Yep, that’s definitely greenish silver. However, that’s alright. Not every car needs to be super. Besides, there’s something endearing about the March’s soft lines and quaint simplicity. It’s unpretentious, humble, and charming in its own right. You wouldn’t knock on a spanner for being just a spanner, so why knock on the March for being just a car?
This particular March features a one-liter CG10DE 16-valve inline-four capable of mustering up a sufficient 54 horsepower. Although a four-speed automatic transmission isn’t exactly adrenalin-raising, this pint-sized hatchback should be a doddle to meander about town in. Hell, for 1995, a four-speed automatic isn’t bad at all. Remember, Dodge Neons got three-speeds.
Speaking of city driving, street parking shouldn’t be a huge concern with this March because someone’s been playing table hockey with the front bumper. Both front bumpers feature some noticeable scrapes, but that’s okay, because in a cheap car, a little bit of damage is liberty.
So why would anyone import something like this? While there’s a slim chance the importer is a huge fan of these March hatchbacks, an equally plausible scenario is that it was cheap, and there was extra room in a container used primarily for other vehicles. If you already have a container booked and shipping factored in, anything else you can pack in there should be pure profit. There’s a chance the seller actually made money on this March with a Bring A Trailer sale price of $1,800, which is wildly impressive.
Equally impressive is how, if we take a step back, someone scored a fairly clean low-mileage Japanese hatchback for $1,800. This thing’s covered 87,000 kilometers, or about 54,000 miles, in its life. It’s not obviously rotten, its seats aren’t ripped, its headliner isn’t falling down, and it doesn’t look two steps from the junkyard. If insuring a right-hand-drive Japanese import isn’t a problem, and getting used to right-hand-drive sounds more enjoyable than annoying, this is a phenomenal deal on a sensible commuter car. Sure, you probably won’t be able to walk into your local auto parts store and buy everything you need for maintenance, but that’s what the internet is for.
Bravo to whoever scored this March for $1,800, plus a $750 dealer fee, on Bring A Trailer. Even at $2,550, this is a relatively sensible used car buy that comes with an absurd perk. Just like some Ferrari and Porsche owners, the buyer of this March will be able to say they got it on Bring A Trailer.
(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer)
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I drove one of these little cars from London to Mongolia in 2016 with 2 friends, was a wild trip but the car didnt miss a beat. Perfect in the mountains and in the desert – even with oversized tires and a load of stuff on the roof/in the trunk!
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I actually drove a Nissan March in Japan.
My boss had a red automatic sedan that he asked me to drive to Narita to pick up his wife who was arriving from the US and bring her back to Yokota AFB.
It certainly wasn’t powerful, but that didn’t stop me from driving on the chimes for my entire time on the Expressways.
It’s a shame we don’t get smart, affordable & reliable little cars like this in the US anymore.
But hey – Profits Must Be Made. (The customer be damned.)
But hey – Profits Must Be Made. (The customer be damned.)
I think if buyers would stop buying the BIGGEST things available and instead buy the smallest manufacturers would see which way the wind was blowing and make smaller cars.
Instead customers buy the biggest thing because they might, maybe someday have to pick up a bag of nails at Home Depot and they don’t want to look like a f#©£!πg p#$$y.
But it’s a Murican sport to buy something ridiculous for your lifestyle then bitch about how much you’re spending in fuel every time a SCUD gets yeeted anywhere in the Middle East.
How dare you insinuate that people should actually analyze their actual needs and figure out if there’s a *SMARTER* way to do things when we can just brute force it?
That is also a thing but a different thing. Buying smaller when smaller will do would be a start to fixing both those issues.
This is a deal. Doubly so because 1st sold on BAT for so little, but 2nd there was a economy minded bidder on Bring An Extra thousand. Maybe someone trying to bid it up and got stuck with it.
I think I saw some 911 seats sell on BAT for $13,000 a few weeks ago.
Would Maine and the various other states that are banning kei cars go after this?
Its sad they can’t just let people enjoy their imported vehicles.
A March is at least one step beyond kei car dimensions. So, no worries there ????
While the issue affects all kei cars, it doesn’t only affect kei cars. I’m pretty sure some states are denying registrations to any car that was never “federalized” even if it over the 25 year period where it’s illegal to import. They justify it by saying that they don’t have crash or emissions data if the vehicle was never sold in the US and therefore the car isn’t safe for road use. No issues with registering American cars that predate emissions and crash testing of course. Those are good, safe and roadworthy because ‘murica.
It’s utter BS, but I’m pretty sure that is their convoluted logic. I may be wrong though. Lord knows it wouldn’t be the first time.
Musing aloud: is that the case for Canadian market vehicles which never made it to the USA?
(e.g. Mercedes B-series, Chevy Orlando, Nissan Micra, etc…)
I would really love to hear the arguments why someone can’t import an Acura CSX or EL from Canada.
That is a hell of a deal for a reliable car, even if the automatic is a mild disappointment. These Micras were sold in Canada, so most parts shouldn’t be *too* hard.
No, the prior generation Micra (the boxy one, I believe the same one that gave some of its internals to Jason’s Pao and the other Pike cars) was sold in Canada (along with the last generation from like 2015-2018), but we never got these ones.
I went through two of these Micras in Europe, 1000cc ones, and the only car better than that would be the 1300cc ones. An absolute little bundle of joy.
They were both assembled in England, so, of course, most rubber gaskets on windshields and such were shrinking, getting shorter every day.
What keeps me mildly puzzled is that people would keep importing these straight form Japan, when they were sold for decades in left hand drive in Europe under the Micra name.
Except for the Turbo, of course.
It’s likely most of the European Micra’s were scrapped a while back and seeing how stringent safety checks are in some parts, plus the cost of repairs could end up more than the car is worth. No-one looks after cheap cars and they’re junked rather than repaired.
The latest K11C’s were built in 2002, which is not that old by any means for such a sturdy car. A lot of these are still in circulation.
And Europe is not only Western Europe – all these live a second, third and n-th life in Eastern Europe where they are rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt again.
The real mother lode for interesting cars currently is Eastern Europe. They gather and keep in running condition all sorts of exotics, all or almost all of them in left hand drive, but not all of them in boring French or German specs.
Yeah, Eastern Europe is almost like Cuba in being able to keep older cars in circulation, which typically would be junked in Western Europe. I can get plenty of new parts for my ’98 Maxima from Estonia and they ship to NZ, whereas some new parts are getting harder to find locally.
My late mother’s 2003 Grand Marquis is sitting in the driveway behind the fence and in front of my garage, and it needs all four tires inflated and the detritus of the cedar tree above it brushed off before I can take it to update the state inspection that expired two years ago. However, there’s nothing preventing me from saying that I got it on Bring A Trailer. It just wouldn’t be true.
Needs more Super Turbo. Honk!
and it’s cooler than the more expensive shit anyway 😀
Every time I read an article by an Anglicized author who mentions a spanner, I wonder with amusement how many don’t know that it means a wrench. I don’t care to admit how old I was before I figured that out. 😀
Nice purchase indeed though.
I learned it the first episode of Top Gear on BBC. It would confuse me when reading because of the way it was used.
I learned “spanner” from everyone’s favorite superhero: Bicycle Repairman.
“Why he’s mending it with his own hands!”
“See how he uses a spanner to tighten that nut!!”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=54CpPlCnM4I
Clearly there are gaps in my MP memories because I don’t think I ever saw that clip before. Hilarious!
I keep my spanners and other kit right in the boot of my car, so I’m able work on it in the car park of my flat..
Under the Bonnet most often I assume?