Which Nissan Micra trim holds its value better?

The Nissan Micra has had a checkered history with the South African market. The first generation to arrive here in the mid-2000s proved to be very popular, but its guppy-faced successor (from 2011-on) only really found some success when it was restyled and re-launched as the Micra Active in 2017. 

Fortunately, the latest Micra is back on track, with a sharp suit, fresh cabin design, and decent available engines. While the current-generation Micra first appeared here in 2018, the line-up was only completed when the 1.0T (84 kW) engine and some expanded trim levels arrived late in 2019. 

Related: Shop for new and used Nissan Micra cars for sale here.

Are these advances enough to ensure good value retention for the current range? To find out, we rounded up all the 2019-vintage Micras listed on AutoTrader, and imposed a mileage limit of 40 000 km to our search results. We then compared their current market values to what they cost when new, to express their value retention as a percentage of their new-car prices.

2019 Nissan Micra 66 kW Turbo Visia

New Price: R 252 800

Current Market Value: R 188 000

Value Retained: 74.4%

The entry-level new Micra doesn’t perform brilliantly on initial depreciation, shedding more than a quarter of its value after only two years. A current market value of only R 188 000 represents excellent value for a two-year-old supermini with (on average) less than 30 000 km on the clock, though, which will make it a great used buy.

2019 Nissan Micra 66 kW Turbo Acenta

New Price: R 279 400

Current Market Value: R 217 442

Value Retained: 77.8%

The mid-level Micra 66 kW scores a fair bit better than its less-expensive sibling, retaining 77.8% of its new-car value after two years. It still makes for great-value used-car shopping, however, as there’s a decent amount of kit included in this variant’s current market value of R 217 442.

2019 Nissan Micra 66 kW Turbo Acenta Plus

New Price: R 295 400

Current Market Value: R 236 811

Value Retained: 80.2%

The high-end 66 kW Micra performs considerably better than its lesser siblings, and retains slightly more than 80% of its value after two years. This is roughly in line with value retention of its class competition as well, making it a good buy both new and used.

2019 Nissan Micra 84 kW Turbo Acenta Plus

New Price: R 305 900

Current Market Value: R 298 900

Value Retained: 97.7%

Don’t get too excited by this apparently excellent value retention, because the data set for this variant is much too small to be statistically relevant: there was only one Micra 84 kW Turbo Acenta Plus listed on site at the time of writing, and its indicated mileage shows that it’s practically brand-new as well. For these reasons, we’ll disregard this trim level’s calculated value retention.

2019 Nissan Micra 84 kW Turbo Tekna

There’s even less information available about the mid-level 84 kW Micra from 2019, because there wasn’t a single example listed on AutoTrader at the time of writing. This is easily understandable when we remember that the 84 kW variants only arrived very late in 2019, and most of the ones that were sold, were likely only registered in 2020.

2019 Nissan Micra 84 kW Turbo Tekna Plus

The same applies to the top-spec 84 kW Tekna Plus, of which there were also no examples in our listing pages. There weren’t even any 2020 examples on site at the time of writing, and with only 4 examples from 2021 in our listings. Lovely car though it is, it seems as though the higher-power (and better-equipped) Micra still struggles to find traction in the marketplace.

Verdict

While slow sales and a late release of the 84 kW Micra variants render those variants irrelevant to this comparison, it would appear that higher trim levels retain their value much better than the lower-trim examples. Among the 0.9-litre turbo (66 kW) variants, the Acenta Plus trim clearly has the value retention advantage, while the entry-level Visia trim makes for high-value used-car shopping. It will also be interesting to gauge market acceptance of the 84 kW derivatives in years to come.