Super Mini (Nissan Micra S in general)

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Product:	Nissan Micra S in general
Date:	03/12/00 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nippy in town

Disadvantages: Slow on the open road

It’s Friday night and there’s just one set of keys left in the jug where we store such things. Hopes rise for a 200SX, a QX three-litre, perhaps. Get real. Instead, nestled right in the furthest, darkest corner of the garage is a little red three-door Micra 1.0 S.

While the once-cute styling might have dated a bit much for our liking, it’s still an excellent town car, with a light gearbox and clutch. Sitting in traffic isn’t the pain it is in a lot of other cars, for you can creep forward gently without having to pump your left leg like crazy. Power steering would be nice, but isn’t available on this model (although it is standard on the top-of-the-range 1.3 SLX). Even so, the Micra will nip and tuck through traffic along with the best of them. And the engine is quick enough for pulling out of side streets onto busy main roads in safety.

On A-roads, however, the Micra’s pint-sized horsepower becomes more noticeable, especially in the overtaking lane. It struggles to keep pace with faster traffic, especially uphill. Handling is fun on slower roads, but on dual carriageways the Micra lacks that assured, composed and stable feeling of more modern rivals like VW’s Polo and Ford’s Fiesta.

The Polo and the Fiesta are better cars but the Nissan has its strong points, too. In town, it delivers everything asked of it, but out of town it struggles. If it was our money, we’d find a little more and buy the more powerful 74bhp 1.3-litre version.

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