The New & Nippy 1.4 (Nissan Micra S in general)

Member Name: upton66

Product:	Nissan Micra S in general
Date:	05/12/00 (407 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nippy, Economical, Fun

Disadvantages: None

I am the lucky owner of a new style 1.4 S automatic Xreg Micra, this replaces my 1.3 SLX Mreg auto which was also bought new and for which I was offered an excellent trade in value.

My main interests in a car are legroom and economy for stress free town driving and longer distance pleasure trips. This car exceeds all expectations and is highly recommended.

It is worth pointing out the improvements and changes.

Impressive additional power with the small increase in engine size makes the car surprisingly nippy.

One downside is that this automatic car creeps in neutral like a traditional automatic whereas the older car with the same NCVTransmission completely disengaged when stationary, which was much safer. This car will involve wear on the handbrake at traffic lights which needs to pulled up to the maximum, and I need to get back in the habit of keeping the foot hovering over the footbrake.

There is now a footrest for the left foot, small thing but without one there is abnormal stress put on the foot of automatic car drivers on long journeys.

New model provides a "sport" button on the auto gear stick that provides gentle but very effective engine braking. The older model only provided an L gear setting that was far to raucous to ever use as an engine brake, meaning you had to apply continuous footbrake pressure whenever going downhill.

High-level rear brake light set in ridge of roof and rear windscreen. Very bright headlights with adjustable beam which, when set to low level, allows you to drive on full beam giving you impressive extended night visibility without any glare to oncoming cars.

Rear windscreen wiper now rests at bottom of screen rather than previously perched at an irritating angle.

Impressive sound from tuner and tape, new model has only two front speakers but the quality is superb, very relaxing. The RDS for traffic reports is received at set volume, whereas
before I never used it as it was factory set to blast you at full volume.

Car has power steering as standard, never thought it necessary before in a small car, but this makes cornering and parking a pleasure and there is a much tighter turning circle.

Car insurance is as cheap as you can find it; the tax disc next year will be at the cheaper rate; with steady long distance driving I have touched 50 miles to the gallon, 32 sitting in traffic jams trying to get to work.

New car came with free one year insurance, not a huge perk as it is so cheap to insure anyway, plus the usual free RAC and one year tax disc.

Regular annual servicing on my old car averaged £150 per year at local Nissan dealer with free MOT usually thrown in. The only additional costs incurred on my old car was replacement of suspension mountings (which I suspect was a manufacturing fault), an occasional rattle finally identified as rear seat mountings working loose, one set of brake linings and two new tyres.

As an ex Honda owner I am now a committed Nissan fan, we also have a trouble free Kreg Nissan Primera estate in the family, also bought from new.

The new Micra is highly recommended

Summary: