2014 Nissan Livina

Nissan Livina

Nissan’s Livina always felt like a bit-part player on South African roads, shadowed by the ever-present Toyota Rumion and Suzuki Ertiga. It gave you seven seats without the baggage of a full-blown minivan, which mattered to families counting every rand. Yet, it was never the car you saw outside every school gate in Sandton or squeezing through the chaos at Randburg taxi rank. Its compact size had charm, sure, but the single lonely listing right now tells the whole story — this MPV has basically vanished from our used car scene. That one survivor, a 2014 1.6 Acenta+ X-Gear sitting at 154,000 km, is marked at R106,500 and runs a petrol engine mated to a semi-automatic box. Perfectly serviceable for the daily grind, if you pack smart. You’re not spoiled for choice — you’re buying a specific car, and that’s the point. The X-Gear badge meant a few extra goodies over the base model, but nothing that ever made it leapfrog the Ertiga for value or the Rumion for badge snobbery. With mileage north of 150,000, you’ll want to check that timing chain and brace for a full service, because maintenance on a rare MPV isn’t getting any cheaper. What old-school buyers loved here was width — just narrow enough for those multi-storey Joburg parking lots where every millimetre counts. No fresh imports, no new stock, so the Livina’s now a niche used buy — and a very slim pick at that.