Nissan Exported My Car After Peeing On It! 

It’s probably over here in Ireland. Up until the last days of brexit, 1/2 the 2nd hand cars for sale over here were imported from the UK. Residual values are much higher over here so it was more profitable to stick them on a transporter and ferry them to Ireland than sell them on a UK forecourt.

From a CEO’s pov I think it makes perfect sense. Your video was a PR nightmare for the brand, especially one that’s listed on the stock exchange. The CEO had no idea wether you still thought the car was in good enough nick to continue driving and if not, asking you about it might have come off as insensitive. The only coarse of action left was to swap the car and essentially burying the old vehicle by shipping it overseas. The money spent on this endeavour was quite literally a piss in the bucket for a $14 billion company that’s worried about a potential drop in share prices. Honestly this is not a mystery.

Whatever happened to that car subsequently, is more a matter of interest than importance. Despite the dealership stating that it was subcontractors who did the cleaning, it is the dealership with whom you had the contract so it is their responsibility. I must say that Nissan, the manufacturer acted promptly and were very fair indeed in their response and I suspect that there would be some serious discussions with the dealership about this incident.

I’m gonna say it… This is a real piss take! 😂

It’s like having a prince Andrew in your family, you just don’t want to see it or acknowledge it even existed.

It went back to Japan to commit hara Kiri because of the shame. It had a stain on it's honour after all.

Brilliant work, the BEST way to catch out and embarrass large companies is to catch them with proof and publicly humiliate them.

You win a prize for the best RU-vid video title of the year 🙂

If sold in the UK there would have been a risk of it being identified by its registration causing more reputation damage. "back to Japan?" It was surely built in Sunderland. Ireland is the most likely RHD destination for export.

0:21 ♥ the DINGY green wall ! 🤣

Interesting story, glad Nissan took it seriously. I've heard it said that getting a car removed from the DVLA register by declaring it as 'exported' is an easy way to make a car disappear. I understand that no proof is needed to show that the car has been shipped or where it has gone to. Maybe that was a way of removing its identity, (with all the consequences that others have mentioned) and then possibly reregister it back with the DVLA. That would certainly be a less costly option than really shipping it off. I must admit that I have done the trawl to see the status of some of my previous cars, its a bit of fun especially with all these car history services springing up on the web.

They can actually get good money for second hand cars abroad, especially evs. Certainly malta has a huge market for grey imports as tax is very high on cars and evs are massively encouraged under their system. Car tradesmen (dealers and mechanics) regularly head to UK auctions to purchase UK cars in good condition that Maltese snap up. In fact a friend of my sisters (who lives there) bought a second hand leaf. The whole nation is the size of Manchester so perfect for a leaf.

I wonder if the employee received his PEE-45?

By exporting it to Ireland, it will be sold under a different registration, so the new owner would never be aware that is was the “pee car” if they saw the video or got to hear about it

I nominate EVM for the Nobel Prize in journalism. Such high standard reporting must be rewarded! 🤣

I have played that game and found my 1994 VW Caravelle (T4) was still running and done over 200k miles and my 2005 VW Shuttle (T5) had been scrapped! That says something about VW camper quality!

To me the obvious thing to do would have been to replace all the seats with brand new and give it the most thorough clean inside and out a car has ever got after buying it back. As long as you hadn't disclosed the reg then I'm not sure what could have gone wrong, I suppose the secret history would always have hung over the car. Would a Sunderland built Leaf be homologated on the Japanese market if returned there?

So a few year back i sold an old c180 merc estate to a Nigerian Lad. He was buying it on behalf of his mum and the thing that they often do is fill such cars up (sub £1000) with belongings they want to ship back. Anyway they do this because on balance its cheaper than space in a shipping container and those mercs will have a longer life being repaired out in africa. This is to say you might be surprised on the real cost of exporting cars. I doubt nissan spent to much doing what they did is all.

Could it have been processed as an export and then directly reimported to wipe its Identity? I have no idea how these things work but just getting a brand new identity might have been enough?

Most likely they had a requirement (warranty replacement / gift / Internal use car) for your old car in another country as it met trim/colour/age/mileage etc

Oh that's brilliant. Did you ever get an explanation as to why that bloke felt the need to wee on your car?

Does it show up on a carvertical check? They seem to track a fair amount.

Excellent video. I’ve currently got my 4year old Discovery Sport which I’ve had from new at a dealership because it just died on me. Up to now the bill is apparently just under £500 for diagnostics alone and they still haven’t found the problem. It’s alway been serviced and MOT’d by Land Rover. I’ve just got out of hospital because 4days after the breakdown I had a heart attack.

Sold two less than three year old cars to dealerships in my country and they've both been exported. I guess they just make more money selling them somewhere else. VW Golf Petrol and BMW i3S 120Ah.

Can you search by VIN instead of Registration number? They may have 'exported' it, then 're-imported' it under a new Registration number to get rid of the stigma from your video? Cheaper option?

When i was a driving instructor Got a new Fiesta Automatic on contract in 2012. Three weeks later the car wrnt into limp mode on a lonely mountain road. Got it back to them and they worked on it, told me wasn't a quick fix snd that a replacement with dual controls was on its way from London, good work Ford 👏 Every time i passed the dealership though the car was lying in the yard, until around two years later it was gone. Never retaxed or recorded for MOT when i checked up. Disappeared 🤷🏼‍♂️

I like that story . Brilliant.

you hit the jackpot. it was a car that was going to be in the papers eventually and the CEO saw it and was like lets deal with this now. They wanted it over, can you imagine the disable veteran who buy the car in the UK with poor health that see the video after having the car for 3 months going to the press, my nisson car made me sicker. in the long run it was simpler to just burn the car than deal with the PR nightmare. remember they spend millions of advertising and this was not going to help them it cost them almost nothing and exporting the car prevent it blowing up even bigger as the 2nd time around its not a rouge employe its the CEO at this point. The headline would be CEO sold me a pissed on car

I believe there are sites where you can do VIN check and find out where it is.

Could have gone to New Zealand as many second hand cars (grey cars) are sold there.

Would it of gone to southern Ireland , I think they have a different mot date check than us

I really hate it when dealers unplug my dashcam when my car is 'under their care'. If they have nothing to hide, why unplug it 🤔

Im sure anyone buying a car in the UK can export it. My friend bought and exported a car to her home in Spain.

Could have been bought and put on a pesonalised plate ever since. Export to ireland, or if exported to northern ireland the owner there could have requested it to be flipped over to a local plate.

The car washer should have said he thought the car had been stung by a Jellyfish 🤔

The infamous Balzac Leaf video.

Presumably your expecting some resistance? (Ohm)

Crushed.

😲😖 Can you search for it by the VIN number if you still have a record of that?

It’s probably here in Ireland. A lot of garages here import UK cars.

My theory is that the car itself went back to the manufacturer, and that they crushed it. I would assume that story eventually got heard by Nissan's headquarters, and they wouldn't play around with such a blow (pun not intended) to their reputation.

It won’t have ended up in Singapore as they don’t import used cars but it could have gone to Malaysia where a lot of unwanted used cars with poor colours and low specs end up for sale at a premium to their value in the U.K.

They couldn't sell it again, just in case the purchaser found out and it hit the press.

It probably went off to Ireland. Prior to brexit, a lot of people in Ireland would buy slightly old UK reg cars, pay the VRT and other taxes and get new Irish plates. Even with taxes and transportation costs it was still cheaper than buying locally. That's changed now of course.

They recognised your cunning ways and foresaw a video like this trying to track the car down some months after the exchange and so thought “better stick it on a ship”

I think it may have been sold to export company 'golden rain'...'hair today exported tomorrow'..

Might have just gone to Ireland, Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands.

Just think about it! From Nissans point of view, the video will always be there and that car will always be the one that got pissed on, it will always be an embarrassment for them (even though it was not Nissans fault) so, remove it from the environment and it has less power……I speak from experience I was embarrassed by a computer I built for someone and put a lot of time into supporting the users, it wasn’t paid for and returned, I took it a part and gave the components away…….inanimate objects can have a lot of power.

Run a hpi check on car vertical, it’s a few quid but will make an interesting video.

Pissan Leaf 😂

Do a HPi check using the VIN

It’s probably in Australia, we have allot of old leafs sold by third party imports

Hmmm new brand? The Piss-on Leaf.

Isle of man maybe needed the exact car got sent over there maybe we regularly used to drop cars at the docks to go overseas its not uncommon if someone wants an there none available.

I remember that video

could be that it was exported to jersey or isle of man, doubt it was shipped to japan.

Before you said exported I was saying it got re registered on a new number plate.

Generally what happen, the car will go to Ireland. (South)m where the used market price is much high and nissan will sell it on making a profit.

Nissan couldn't take the chance that this car and its story would re-emerge into the public eye with an owner ignorant of and displeased with its micturition history

Hopefully it was gifted to a politician or royal, journalist or banker or some other deserving character.

Id guess whoever bought it at the time possibly exported it themselves

How to piss off your customers - literally

They flushed away.

I ALWAYS opp out of dealers washes… more so for swirls and damage….but piss! 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

The new importer owner complained that the "new car" smell was different.....almost like someone had peed in it........nouveau new car aroma I believe.

you usually pay extra for Supeeeguard

This is why my car comes back from servicing with the dash cam unplugged.

Probably went to Ireland or one of the islands. They obviously couldn't risk any associated number plate or any way of that car been linked. Damage limitation.

Oh no... I own a Leaf about that age... It was imported into Australia. Oh no! Mine has Japanese text on everything though, so unless they went to incredible effort, I don't think mine's the pee car.

Use a site called carvertical to look up where it was exported to (you’ll need the VIN number) it will show a fairly good history of where its been but not owner. Im a brit living in Sweden and had just sold my Volvo xc70. I was curious to see what had happened to mine after it was no longer on the government car records and marked as exported also. So using that site found it had ended up in Finland.

If you still have or know the vin number try car Vertical, they seem to be the go-to of choice for the motor industry and check car databases from around the world. That's if you are still keen to find out what has happened to your old motor, sorry EV, we can't call them a motor nowadays can we…LOL…

Back to Japan NO only a handful of the very first leafs were made in Japan it cost them a fortune but they could not wait

I remember that!

Nissan is taking the Piss 🤣

Exported it because like most old EVs no one wants to buy them. Therefore exported for parts/ materials.

I guess they don’t have the ‘expertise’ to take the piss out of a Nissan leaf in the UK ….

Possibly weighed about 10 ½ stone more with a broken boot lock when it left the country.

Back then Nissan UK were selling year old Leaf's for £10,500 along with a full 5 year warranty these were supposed to be ex demonstrators I know because because I bought one Your car probably ended up in one of the UK offshore islands or Ireland

Somewhere in Ireland. Sadly only logical

Scrapped for parts? Then if it hit the papers then nobody can be seen to still own that car.

I'm surprised that they didn't charge extra for the pee treatment, to be honest. Quite the VIP service, if you ask me.

We sold our 2015 24kw Tekna to webuyanycar in 2018. It has never been back on the road in the U.K. Still on an app for all our vehicles. I think maybe its on private land. Ours was thankfully urine free.

Nice to see the podcasts (again). Please can we have a new one?

Lots of comments on this but none mentioning the fact that the car was traded at just one year old. OK odd circumstances but is there not a motivation to actually be less damaging to the environment?

Maybe checks to see if urine is a good for cleaning the car…lol

It's in Ireland 100%, Ireland prior to Brexit bought more 2nd hand cars from the UK than the residents themselves. Then gets a new plate in Ireland. You could pay for a report and see where it went 🤣

If the car was 'perfectly fine' (5' 33"), then why did they take the car back from you and give you a preferential rate on a new car?

I guess the car cleaner is no longer employed cleaning Nissan cars, but which other dealer is he now taking the p…. ?

Exported to Malta or Cyprus

It's been exported to pee Island.

where is the muppet who did it?

As a petrol head, I symbolically pee on electric cars as well. But not for real of course.

Maybe it was purchased by somebody with special interests. 😂

Dishonoured, a loss of face!? The Japanese would not be amused, not one bit!🤨

Most likely in Ireland. Until Brexit, a lot of cars in Ireland were second hand from UK because it was better value to buy those cars

Japanese. Saving face. Huge embarrassment. Bury it (scrap the car & (almost) give customer new car).

100% was sold cheaply to an Irish dealer

That means your car is a bio hazard and should be written off by your insurance company

I wonder if it became a dealership pool car - IIRC they don't always show MOT and tax status online. EDIT: Another possibility it was sold to someone who believes in all the freeman of the land/common law stuff who think they can change the status of their car to exported to get out of paying tax.

What a load of fuss. Over nothing worse getting on the car during normal driving.