Unveiled: Nissan Micra - The brand's small car for India

deepakhon · 3rd March 2010, 11:27

Looks good.

I did not see any the car's dimensions anywhere. Does this fall in the i10 or the Polo-Punto segment, size-wise?

Also, having no diesel engine is a bad idea. Nissan is planning to sell it in Europe, and India too.

Actually, the interiors have a tinge of Fiat 500.

jkdas · 3rd March 2010, 11:39

Looks very upmarket. Forget the supercharger stuff for us. Just give the same interior with the Auto box for a good price.

Amartya · 3rd March 2010, 11:43

Hideous. I hope they do not launch this car in India

Caramelo · 3rd March 2010, 12:34

nissan is a world class car manufacturer, but as with every japanese car companies they design cars which cheap and cheerful look in mind but it turns out cheap and fugly. take any of the models in india. first no way they are cheap but they are not cheerful either. and the micra i think is A-star redefined. i just hope there is something good about this model. other than the interiors which i doubt will ever make it to india. nor will the CVT transmission. to be honest if i had to choose i like the A-star better! atleast there is no brand premium attached to it. and the suzuki engines are awesome!

Latheesh · 3rd March 2010, 13:27

Looks like younger sister of Etios and A-Star. Previous generation Micra interior is better than this in my opinion.

grules · 3rd March 2010, 13:51

Nissan should bring in the Altimas and Maximas to India if they are targeting a wide range of market. The hatch market is already hot and the buyer has numerous choices. I doubt if the Micra with its ugly form factor can move big numbers.

aaggoswami · 3rd March 2010, 14:32

1) Interior design : I fail to understand reason behind those bad looking interiors, and this is under the tag of " Not cheap ", " sporty or Funky ".
Why cant we have simple straight graceful lines ? IMHO, those simple straight lines have one more added advantage and this is ease of use. These rounded and curvy patterns are too much to tolerate and they do look cheap IMO.

Look at Swift or GP. Things are easy to use and not bad looking. They look more graceful than the Micra design.

2) Why are they making such a fuss for three cylinders ? Why cant they bring in four cylinders ? Three cylinder for Rs. 5 lakh ? We have seen better motors. Its clear that three cylinders will not have the smoothness of 4 cylinder, so why a three cylinder. They have spent so much developing a car and end up coming with three cylinder unit ? IMHO, there is a scope for small four cylinder units so its worth investing in that.

3) Exterior looks. Weird. The front end, though looks OK, is not in league of Swift, which surprisingly looks fresh and good even after 5 years. Even tall boys like Wagon R and Xing have their own class, but this car looks like a mix of many cars. The front end has headlights that look evolution of A-star. From dead front, the resemblance to A-star is too much. Its as if the small front grille above bumper was added to A-star.

The rear end looks as if the design team was changed after the car was designed till B-pillar. Afterwards the car looks old, from late 1990's. And the rear end makes the A-star's rear end look great.
I expected much better.

4) Dealers. The dealers are very few, which will not bring in sales. Nissan has entered the mass market for small cars, so the niche value for Tenna and Xtrail will come down. It would have made sense to bring in a small car head on to i20 segment slightly above Swift.
Nissan cannot expect sales from just a few dealers they have right now. And the low sales might give the tag of failure to Micra.

5) Spares and service cost. We are not sure about this for Micra, but Maruti is a leader here, and second comes Hyundai and Tata. If Micra fails to match the low price of spares/service/maintenance offered by Maruti, Tata and Hyundai, then again Mirca will earn the tag of expensive to maintain car.

Fact is, India's small car market is very competitive. Here having only a good product will not be enough to get success. The company has to offer low maintenance cost ( including both spares and general service ), low running cost along with low buying price. Then you have a winner. Look at Santro, it offered these things and success followed. Maruti small cars are proof enough of this.
IMHO, first the car ( Micra ) is not that good as far as interior and exterior design are considered. Next, the engine in petrol format is three cylinder, which again is a not a positive point.
Dealer network is yet to be expanded, maintenance cost is not known as of now.
At the end of the day, picture is not yet clear.

Daewood · 3rd March 2010, 15:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by coldice4u

It seems to be a A-star sized hatch. We all know thats not a good thing. You can have a fair idea of how narrow the car is by looking at the dashboard shot.

Actually it's bigger.

It's comparable in size to an Indica or Swift.

The pre-launch testing of this car has been happening in Chennai roads for quite some time, mostly after 10 pm.

Mafia · 3rd March 2010, 15:12

I too personally feel that the new look look like a down grade compared to the previous model. Hopefull the previous model will be launched in India.

aditya116 · 3rd March 2010, 16:09

Doesnt it look like a cross between the punto and A star? Exterior fit and finish actually looks decent from the pictures.

vigneshA · 3rd March 2010, 16:14

the car seems to be designed to appeal to feminine senses from both exterior and interior. The pink color seems to accentuate that.

extreme_torque · 3rd March 2010, 17:05

Another japanese contraption on wheels! yawwwn!

nkrishnap · 3rd March 2010, 17:21

The interiors of the car is really funky. The centre console and the meters looks very interesting. If they launch the 1.2 litre with AT at a reasonable price, there will be quite a few takers subject to increase in the number of dealerships which should atleast triple to bring in some respectable numbers. Else this car will end up selling a few hundred units a month.

sandeepduggal · 3rd March 2010, 17:46

It is surely a japanese master piece in mid size segment cars. I was desparately waiting to see Polo on road. I think now I need to wait till July to decide which car is best to buy. Can anyone confirm the price range it would be in?

Cheers
SD
Team BHPian

HammerHead · 3rd March 2010, 18:56

Looks good to me

I hope they don't waste their time an efforts making a 3 pot diesel engine for this. Lets have it with Logan's 1.5 ltr diesel if not better.

IMO it will be as big/small as a i10. Any information on dimensions?

3rd March 2010, 11:27	#16
deepakhon Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,441 Thanked: 65 Times	Looks good. I did not see any the car's dimensions anywhere. Does this fall in the i10 or the Polo-Punto segment, size-wise? Also, having no diesel engine is a bad idea. Nissan is planning to sell it in Europe, and India too. Actually, the interiors have a tinge of Fiat 500. Last edited by deepakhon : 3rd March 2010 at 11:45. Reason: More info
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 11:39	#17
jkdas Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Thiruvananthapu Posts: 9,687 Thanked: 1,492 Times View My Garage	Looks very upmarket. Forget the supercharger stuff for us. Just give the same interior with the Auto box for a good price.
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 11:43	#18
Amartya Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Evanston Posts: 1,748 Thanked: 736 Times	Hideous. I hope they do not launch this car in India
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 12:34	#19
Caramelo BHPian Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: ahmedabad Posts: 769 Thanked: 16 Times	nissan is a world class car manufacturer, but as with every japanese car companies they design cars which cheap and cheerful look in mind but it turns out cheap and fugly. take any of the models in india. first no way they are cheap but they are not cheerful either. and the micra i think is A-star redefined. i just hope there is something good about this model. other than the interiors which i doubt will ever make it to india. nor will the CVT transmission. to be honest if i had to choose i like the A-star better! atleast there is no brand premium attached to it. and the suzuki engines are awesome!
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 13:27	#20
Latheesh Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: CNN/BLR Posts: 4,243 Thanked: 10,089 Times	Looks like younger sister of Etios and A-Star. Previous generation Micra interior is better than this in my opinion.
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 13:51	#21
grules BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Chennai Posts: 174 Thanked: 7 Times	Nissan should bring in the Altimas and Maximas to India if they are targeting a wide range of market. The hatch market is already hot and the buyer has numerous choices. I doubt if the Micra with its ugly form factor can move big numbers.
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 14:32	#22
aaggoswami Senior - BHPian Join Date: May 2007 Location: Vadodara Posts: 4,982 Thanked: 2,931 Times	1) Interior design : I fail to understand reason behind those bad looking interiors, and this is under the tag of " Not cheap ", " sporty or Funky ". Why cant we have simple straight graceful lines ? IMHO, those simple straight lines have one more added advantage and this is ease of use. These rounded and curvy patterns are too much to tolerate and they do look cheap IMO. Look at Swift or GP. Things are easy to use and not bad looking. They look more graceful than the Micra design. 2) Why are they making such a fuss for three cylinders ? Why cant they bring in four cylinders ? Three cylinder for Rs. 5 lakh ? We have seen better motors. Its clear that three cylinders will not have the smoothness of 4 cylinder, so why a three cylinder. They have spent so much developing a car and end up coming with three cylinder unit ? IMHO, there is a scope for small four cylinder units so its worth investing in that. 3) Exterior looks. Weird. The front end, though looks OK, is not in league of Swift, which surprisingly looks fresh and good even after 5 years. Even tall boys like Wagon R and Xing have their own class, but this car looks like a mix of many cars. The front end has headlights that look evolution of A-star. From dead front, the resemblance to A-star is too much. Its as if the small front grille above bumper was added to A-star. The rear end looks as if the design team was changed after the car was designed till B-pillar. Afterwards the car looks old, from late 1990's. And the rear end makes the A-star's rear end look great. I expected much better. 4) Dealers. The dealers are very few, which will not bring in sales. Nissan has entered the mass market for small cars, so the niche value for Tenna and Xtrail will come down. It would have made sense to bring in a small car head on to i20 segment slightly above Swift. Nissan cannot expect sales from just a few dealers they have right now. And the low sales might give the tag of failure to Micra. 5) Spares and service cost. We are not sure about this for Micra, but Maruti is a leader here, and second comes Hyundai and Tata. If Micra fails to match the low price of spares/service/maintenance offered by Maruti, Tata and Hyundai, then again Mirca will earn the tag of expensive to maintain car. Fact is, India's small car market is very competitive. Here having only a good product will not be enough to get success. The company has to offer low maintenance cost ( including both spares and general service ), low running cost along with low buying price. Then you have a winner. Look at Santro, it offered these things and success followed. Maruti small cars are proof enough of this. IMHO, first the car ( Micra ) is not that good as far as interior and exterior design are considered. Next, the engine in petrol format is three cylinder, which again is a not a positive point. Dealer network is yet to be expanded, maintenance cost is not known as of now. At the end of the day, picture is not yet clear. Last edited by aaggoswami : 3rd March 2010 at 14:38.
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 15:12	#24
Mafia BHPian Join Date: May 2007 Location: BLR MCT Posts: 962 Thanked: 900 Times	I too personally feel that the new look look like a down grade compared to the previous model. Hopefull the previous model will be launched in India.
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 16:09	#25
aditya116 BHPian Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: calicut Posts: 317 Thanked: 51 Times	Doesnt it look like a cross between the punto and A star? Exterior fit and finish actually looks decent from the pictures.
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 16:14	#26
vigneshA BHPian Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Chennai Posts: 213 Thanked: 93 Times	the car seems to be designed to appeal to feminine senses from both exterior and interior. The pink color seems to accentuate that.
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 17:05	#27
extreme_torque Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Melbourne Posts: 4,376 Thanked: 5,105 Times	Another japanese contraption on wheels! yawwwn!
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 17:21	#28
nkrishnap Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: May 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 3,983 Thanked: 7,407 Times View My Garage	The interiors of the car is really funky. The centre console and the meters looks very interesting. If they launch the 1.2 litre with AT at a reasonable price, there will be quite a few takers subject to increase in the number of dealerships which should atleast triple to bring in some respectable numbers. Else this car will end up selling a few hundred units a month.
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 17:46	#29
sandeepduggal Newbie Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: New Delhi Posts: 2 Thanked: 0 Times	Marvellous Beauty It is surely a japanese master piece in mid size segment cars. I was desparately waiting to see Polo on road. I think now I need to wait till July to decide which car is best to buy. Can anyone confirm the price range it would be in? Cheers SD Team BHPian
	() Thanks

3rd March 2010, 18:56	#30
HammerHead Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Goan in Pune Posts: 1,247 Thanked: 641 Times View My Garage	Looks good to me I hope they don't waste their time an efforts making a 3 pot diesel engine for this. Lets have it with Logan's 1.5 ltr diesel if not better. IMO it will be as big/small as a i10. Any information on dimensions?
	() Thanks