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Nissan ditches diesel on Micra

New look and stop-start for petrol-only baby

Micra

By Nick Gibbs

05th March 2010

The new Micra is all fired up! Nissans’s latest supermini was revealed in Geneva – and one of its ultra-frugal engines will use a supercharger to boost output.

The five-door, now built in India instead of Sunderland, will rely on petrol power only after bosses decided that EU emissions regulations have made diesel technology too expensive.

The new three-cylinder 1.2-litre 79bhp engine emits 115g/km of CO2, while a direct-injection supercharged version with 97bhp is given stop-start tech to slash the figure to 95g/km. The car is between 35-80kg lighter than before, dropping the entry version to 945kg.

The styling echoes that of the current model and keeps the prominent roofline arch, but the front has been softened.

The newcomer is also packed with kit, including on high-end versions a device that measures street parking spaces, and ranks them for difficulty.

The all-new platform will also spawn an MPV that will eventually replace the Note. Sales of the new Micra start in October priced from ÂŁ9,500.

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6 Comments

Diesel ditched? Nothing to do with Renault engines?

I'm not surprised Nissan have ditched diesel in the new Micra - since being forced to use Renault parts, the model's reputation for reliability has been destroyed.
And how does a car that's obviously been styled to copy the Mini (from the front at least) manage to look so bad?

By gavsmit on 10 March, 2010, 6:17pm

Interesting to see that Nissan has not given up on the Almera's 'surf tail' roofline

By caley14 on 11 March, 2010, 10:02am

Poor effort.

All of Nissan's cars look horrendous. In OZ we get the Micra, Tiida, Dualis (Qashqai), X-Trail, Pathfinder, Patrol, 370Z and the GTR. The latter is the only nice one. Nissan have lost the plot with styling. They even reduced the Tiida's (Focus size) price to that below a Fiesta and they still don't sell. Nissan's designs used to be ok and then the 21st century started and they forgot how to build nice/desirable cars. So sad!!

By aplads on 11 March, 2010, 11:09am

Interior's no bad

The front reminds me more of a cross between the Mk1 Toyota Yaris and the Mk1 Daihatsu Sirion. No very pretty! The pictures of the interior (some on Autocar's site) suggest rather more flair and imagination though.

By RogerWillis3 on 11 March, 2010, 11:19am

ugly look

The Micra styling go backward, Auto express's own predict image by far better looking.

Alexchu

By a8flc on 11 March, 2010, 12:27pm

Nissan needs to rethink this one

Indian built, ugly and no oil burner option to boot. How to go from the top end of the supermini market to the bottom dross in one fail swoop.

By davidlivermore on 11 March, 2010, 12:42pm

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