Three cars wear the Niro badge. We start by naming yours.
A buyer who does not stop to sort the Niro EV from the Niro Plug-in and the Niro Hybrid ends up pricing whichever one they assumed you had.
We establish which car is actually in your driveway, and then read its battery rather than guessing at it.
- Battery electric
- Australia wide
- Finance settled directly
4.9/5 from 500+ sellers across The Car Buyers group
One badge, three cars
The name on the boot lid is the least useful thing about it
Our own list carries the Niro three times over, as a battery electric car, a plug in hybrid and a hybrid. Those are not three trims of one number.
This is the most common muddle we see on a Kia, and it moves the money in both directions. Somebody putting a price on a Niro without checking which Niro it is will reach for whatever the name means to them. Assume the hybrid and the fully electric car gets read as something it is not. Assume the electric one and a hybrid quietly collects a discount that was aimed at a car it is not.
Correcting that is not really the seller's job, but it is the seller who pays when nobody does. So we ask two or three plain questions before anything else, and not one of them needs you to know a specification. Does it plug in. Is there a port, and where. What does the badge on the back actually say. That is a short conversation on the phone, and it means the number you are given belongs to your car instead of to the one somebody had in mind.
The other thing worth saying about this car is that it is usually somebody's sensible choice rather than their statement, and the ones we are offered have generally been used properly. The commute, the school pickup, the dog in the back. None of that is a fault to be talked around. A car that has done ordinary work and been looked after reads as exactly that once the battery has been measured, and measuring is the only thing that ever beats an assumption.
Sorting out which one
What we ask about a Niro
The first few are about establishing which of the three we are talking about, and none of them ask you to look anything up.
- Does it plug in at all?
- This is the quickest way to sort the three apart and you already know the answer. If it does plug in, we work out next whether it is the fully electric one or the plug in hybrid, and that decides what the inspector is coming to read.
- Is there a charge port, and where is it?
- Say where you put the plug in and what is behind the flap when it is open. Between that and the badge we can be certain which Niro we are pricing without asking you to go hunting for a build plate.
- What does the badge on the back say?
- Read it out exactly as it is written, including anything sitting after the model name. It is the fastest confirmation of the lot and it usually settles the question outright.
- Which charging cable came with the car?
- The one that goes into an ordinary power point at home, the one for a public charger, or both of them. Whatever is in the boot is part of what you are selling and gets priced that way, and it is the first thing to go missing between selling one car and collecting the next.
- Who has been servicing it?
- A main dealer, the workshop down the road, or a mix of the two as the car got older. We are not looking for a flawless book. We are looking for a history that matches the car in front of us, so if there is a gap in it, tell us why and it stops being a question mark.
Whichever one it is
Three things that are true across all three Niros
- We buy the whole family. The fully electric one, the plug in hybrid and the hybrid. Getting the identification right changes what the car is worth, never whether we are buying it.
- The battery is read rather than assumed. On the electric one that reading is the main event. On the other two it still gets looked at properly instead of being used as the excuse for a discount.
- Finance never decides whether we buy. A loan or a novated lease still running on it is ordinary here, and so is one with more owing than the car is worth, whichever of the three Niros turns out to be yours.
Three questions
What Niro owners ask us first
How do I know which Niro I have?
Tell us whether it plugs in and read out what the badge on the back says, and we will tell you. If it is still not clear, the inspector settles it at your place, and nothing about the offer depends on you working it out first.
Do you buy the Niro Hybrid and the Niro Plug-in as well?
Yes, all three of them. They are three different cars to us, which is exactly why we ask which one you have, and each is valued on what it actually is rather than on the badge they happen to share.
It has been the family runabout for years. Does that count against it?
No. Ordinary use is what a used car is. What matters is the condition it is in and what the battery reads on the day, and both of those get measured at your home or your work rather than assumed from the odometer.
Tell us which Niro is in the driveway and we will price that car.
Or call us on 03 9000 0075 and talk it through first.