Nissan equity release

What does Nissan equity release actually mean?

Nissan equity release is a loan secured against a Nissan you already own. The car stays with you and you carry on driving it. A lender advances a share of what it is worth, takes security over it for the term, and releases the money to you or into your business.

The distinction that matters is between this and buying a car. Ordinary car finance pays a dealer and you end up with a car. This runs the other way: you already have the Nissan, and the finance turns part of what it is worth back into money you can use. Nothing is sold, nothing is handed over, and the car does not go anywhere.

We arrange it and we are not a lender. There is no minimum advance and no maximum, and the Nissan range we cover runs from £75,000 to £150,000, so the sums involved differ by a factor of 2 across the 2 models on this page alone.

How much equity is there in a Nissan?

Equity in a car is what it is worth now, less anything still owed on it. Own a Nissan worth £112,500 outright and the equity is £112,500. Owe £33,750 against the same car and the equity is £78,750. That subtraction is the whole calculation, and it is worth doing before you speak to anybody.

Positive equity means the car is worth more than the debt against it, and it is the position you need to be in for any of this to work. Negative equity means the debt exceeds the value, which happens on cars that fall faster than the balance does, and no amount of restructuring releases money from a car in that position. It can still be worth refinancing to reduce a payment, but that is a different piece of work and we will say so rather than take you through an application that cannot end well.

A lender does not advance the whole of the equity. Expect 50 to 70 per cent of the car's value as the working band, which on a £112,500 Nissan is £56,250 to £78,750 before anything owed is deducted. The gap between the value and the advance is the lender's margin for the cost and the uncertainty of selling the car if the payments stop.

What decides how much a Nissan will release

Four things, in roughly this order: what the car is, what condition it is in, what the paperwork looks like, and who is borrowing. The model matters less than owners expect, because a lender is pricing your specific car rather than the name on it.

Every Nissan model on this page is still in production, which makes the valuation straightforward. There is a live market and a lender can establish a defensible figure quickly, so the conversation moves to the borrower rather than staying on the car.

Mileage, service history, originality and specification all move the figure, and on a Nissan the specification can move it a long way. So can the number of owners and whether the car has been kept in the United Kingdom. None of this is unusual to be asked about, and having it ready shortens the process considerably.

Every Nissan we release equity against

All 2 Nissan models below, with an indicative value and the band a lender would typically advance against it. Every one of them is in the same class of car, which keeps the valuation approach consistent across the range.

Read these figures as indicative and nothing more. They are the market position for the model, not a valuation of your car, and no lender has seen it. A GT-R Nismo at £150,000 and a GT-R Premium at £75,000 sit at opposite ends of what Nissan ownership costs, and the sum releasable differs accordingly.

1. Nissan GT-R Nismo 2014 to date
   3.8L VR38DETT Twin-Turbo V6, 592 bhp
   £150,000
   £75,000 to £105,000
2. Nissan GT-R Premium 2007 to date
   3.8L VR38DETT Twin-Turbo V6, 562 bhp
   £75,000
   £37,500 to £52,500

How Nissan equity release is arranged

Four steps, and the first one is short. We ask what the Nissan is, what you believe it is worth, what is still owed on it and what the money is for. That conversation establishes whether there is a deal at all, and it happens before anything touches your credit file.

We then approach the lenders whose appetite fits rather than all of them, because a credit file full of searches is worth less than a clean one, and the lenders who will advance against a car of this type are not the same ones who write ordinary motor finance. You see the terms in writing, with the total cost across the term and the early settlement position set out rather than buried.

The lender then values the car, which on a Nissan usually means an inspection rather than a desk exercise. Documents follow: identification, proof of ownership, the service history, and for a company application the filed accounts and bank statements. Security is registered, the money is released, and the car stays exactly where it is.

What Nissan equity release costs

Take a Nissan at £112,500, owned outright, with £78,750 released against it at 70 per cent of value. Over 48 months at an indicative 8.9 per cent, that is about £1,956 a month, and £93,886 in total across the term.

That total is the number to look at, and it is the one most comparisons leave out. Two offers at the same monthly payment can differ by a substantial sum once the term length, the fees and the early settlement terms are set beside each other. A longer term always looks cheaper monthly and is almost always dearer overall.

The rate itself follows the car, the borrower and the loan to value. Ask for 50 per cent of the value rather than 70 and the rate generally improves, because the lender's exposure falls. That trade is usually worth more than negotiating the rate directly.