A big mistake! (Nissan Almera S in general)

Member Name: lindy

Product:	Nissan Almera S in general
Date:	19/12/00 (410 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small, nippy round town

Disadvantages: High petrol consumption

We purchased a six month old Nissan Almera SI with a twin cam back in 1998. At the time we thought we were making an informed decision. Wrong!! Having spent £10,000 on the car we expected to receive value for money. Yes it look's good, nice and sleek and it handled like a dream. Other than that though it had nothing going for it.

For starter's the car guzzled petrol like it was going out of fashion, faster infact than in the recent petrol crisis!! Round town driving ate up the most. As for motorway driving, forget it. Unless you are going to stick to 70mph all the way (yes I know that's the speed limit but come on you seasoned traveller's how many of us actually stick to it??) it cost an absolute fortune to get from a to b.

The car we had was a 1.4 with a twin cam, plenty of kick? Accelaration? You might think so, but you would be wrong and like we were, sorely disappointed!! This car struggled to get up a steep hill whilst maintaining a decent speed. Put it this way don't try overtaking on a hill, you will only end up embarrassed! (I know I tried to!!!)

The car's gear box was a major problem too. Changing up from 1st being a stumbling point as was putting the car in reverse!! However to be fair here, I think this is a Nissan design fault as we now have a Primera which does the same (though not as bad). The car might be a good buy if you only wanted it for round town driving but certainly NOT for continious motorway useage. I would not recomend the 1.4 twin cam either stick with just a 1.4 as I think this is where we went wrong.

Overall I was disappointed with the car's performance and could'nt wait to trade it in, which we did and having lost money I would say I am slighlty disgruntled. Maybe we bought our Almera too soon, as the design was still very new and had a number of minor problem's and quirk's which may by now have been ironed out. On the whole I would NOT recomen
d the Almera, now the Primera... That's a different story....

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