[W.A.G.7]

An update after one year!


Life and other priorities have kept me busy, so I didn't get time to update this thread. The Micra is still doing great. It is nearing 38,000kms mark, and is due for servicing. I will get it serviced at Tune up Plus in Pune. The car is absolutely trouble free, not even a squeak or a niggle anywhere.

To sum it up, it takes away a lot of headache from your life. I don't remember even a single instance when the car caused a question mark, with regards to whether it would give up on me or not. The tires were changed to Michelin Energy XM2 at around 30,000 kms, and the ride has become much better and silent. The previous MRF's had gone hard and caused sounds and rattles; plus they were very much worn out.

It has seen a long trip (to Malvan) but apart from that it is mainly being used in Pune city and a couple of trips to Satara. F.E consistently is around 14-15 kmpl, and has never dropped below 13.5 kmpl; no matter how hard it was driven or in how much traffic it was driven.

Trivia - There are lots of misaligned parts inside/outside the car, but in-spite of the misalignment, they don't rattle or even utter a squeak! I fail to understand why they couldn't get the alignment correct, when they could fix all those parts so tightly!

In short, it is the 4 wheeler version of the Hero Honda - fill it, shut it and forget it. I will post more updates soon, but for the time being, this post will suffice.

[jagzrk]

Beautifully kept car sir!

We too have a Honda City ZX (aka Dolphin) and my wife has the Micra XV 2010 as her daily drive. We bought it in March last year pre-owned at 50K. Now, it's at 63K. This little wonder has really left everyone in our family impressed. The little is only in it's name, the car itself is big and the quality supreme. It's hard to find such sturdy doors that close with-a-thud at such price. My Honda City ZX had punier doors!

When we did an audio install, we found the damping and sound insulation superb. It's hard to find cost cutting at all. There was a squeaking noise from rear door that was immediately fixed by Nissan during regular service otherwise there are absolutely no niggles or rattles / noise.

Upgraded tyres to 185/65 R14 when the tyre change was due and the ride comfort is supreme.

Add to that, the service costs of Nissan, I am thoroughly impressed. This is easily the cheapest car to maintain in the family by a really large margin. Even the un-common spare part costs are way lower than competitors. It's a shame Nissan doesn't have a good part of their portfolio in India and also not many people look at Nissan as an option.

[W.A.G.7]

After 8 years, the car finally seems to have suffered it's first electronic problem!

It has covered 37.8k kms so far and for some reason the check engine light shows up. I have had it checked twice - once at Tune-up plus and once at a private garage. Both have checked with OBD scanners and each time the stored fault code shown is P2101 - "It is a generic code for the engine control module (ECM) detecting the throttle actuator control (TAC) went out of the range of the circuit causing an open circuit to be detected in the TAC motor" https://www.yourmechanic.com/article...by-jay-safford

Strangely when the scanner is connected no problems are detected and we end up resetting the code. After resetting the fault code twice it has come up again the third time. The second electronic problem is that the remote central locking has stopped working - which means I have to lock the doors manually. The auto locking and unlocking however works correctly without any problem.

Apart from these two electronic related problems, it is working absolutely fine. Though seems unlikely, but could these two problems be related? Anyways, the car is due for the 40k service in the next 2-3 months and I plan to get this cleared up at that time. In-spite of the throttle related fault code, the car accelerates like normal, no drop in performance noted.

Fuel Efficiency is consistently steady at 14.9kmpl; with the A/C on. Will post the pictures later.

Originally Posted by jagzrk

Beautifully kept car sir! It's a shame Nissan doesn't have a good part of their portfolio in India and also not many people look at Nissan as an option.

Thanks! What you said is absolutely right - not many people would consider buying this car as a daily drive. But in reality it is a fantastic car, if you want a trouble free ownership experience.

[jagzrk]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

I have had it checked twice - once at Tune-up plus and once at a private garage. Both have checked with OBD scanners and each time the stored fault code shown is P2101

Fuel Efficiency is consistently steady at 14.9kmpl; with the A/C on. Will post the pictures later.

Any bad experiences with Nissan service why you're not visiting them? Of all the car manufacturer's A.S.S. I visited in Pune (Maruti, Tata, Honda, Ford) I found Nissan ones the best. They should be able to diagnose and fix this even if they take a day or two. I stick to Landmark Nissan in Bavdhan which is newly opened, earlier used to visit Shiv Nissan which is now closed.

My wife drives 10 kms to work one way through city traffic and gets 14 kmpl with A/C on which I find acceptable.

[tchsvy]

Congratulations on completing 8 years with the Micra. As an owner of Micra Active XV-S, 2015, it's really reassuring to go through your thread. In the last two and half years I have covered 22k kms without any fuss. I've been getting indicated FE of 16.5, I guess the real time FE will be little less, but I am happy with that.

It's due for service tomorrow and I am planning to get few things done, top of my list is changing the OEM bulbs as I feel they are a bit lacking, especially on highways, any suggestions in this regard?

[W.A.G.7]

On 7th Feb 2019, at exactly 12.00 AM, the car completed exactly 40,000 kms!



Two new issues have cropped up, one is fixed and one is to be fixed.

Issue 1: While coming back from office one day, the brake check light came on. I drove back ~5-6 kms very slowly and carefully. The coming Saturday when I got it checked at Kotkar automobiles on Karve road, they checked the brake level and it was low. On further analysis, they found out that the master brake cylinder had developed a crack. Total damage = 7,632/- INR. They were quite prompt in diagnosing the issue and fixing it quickly. I got the car back in the evening and noticed the issue was completely fixed.

Issue 2: The remote central locking has gone completely kaput. The remote does not work at all. At first I thought it was a battery problem. But even after changing the batteries in both remotes neither of them was working. This was diagnosed to some problem in the signal receiver, but no further analysis has been done. To add some more in that, the auto locking feature stopped working. I haven't had the time to get this issue completely fixed/analyzed but will do so sometime in the next few weeks. Till then it's good old manual locking with your hand.

Apart from these niggles, it continues to soldier on consistently. The engine is as responsive as it was on day 1 and the real world F.E. with A/C on continuously is approx. 14.5 - 15.00 kmpl. I believe this is good enough for a hatch back that's driven in moderate to heavy traffic 2-3 times a week.

I changed my job in January and now the commute has increased to 20-21 kms one way, as I now travel to the Hinjewadi I.T. park in Pune. Earlier it was 5.5 kms one way. So, the car is clocking more kilometers in a week.

Apart from the two niggles I have nothing more to report. I will update on this thread once the central locking issue is resolved.

[EDIT] I would really be grateful if there are any pointers as to fix the central locking issue. Someone suggested Bafna automobiles or Sunny car decor but I haven't checked them out. I will search the directory but if anyone has direct known resources who can fix the central locking issue it would be great.

[W.A.G.7]

Updating the thread after a long time. The latest update here is that the Micra has been sold off day before yesterday. With only two members in the family driving now (as compared to 4 years ago, when all 4 of us were driving), it didn't make financial sense to keep 3 cars running.

My father already drives a 2002 Honda City, and with the Ecosport joining last year in July, one car had to face the axe. Also, with a Nissan dealerships closing down and a probably uncertain future for Nissan in India, the decision was made to sell it off.

Initially we approached Cashmycar from OLX (who had a tie up with Dhone Ford), and we were promised a good price (read 1,80,000/- ). The next stop was Cars24. Cars24 declined to give a price and said that it would take two hours to reflect in the system. We went home and the guy called us after 3 hours and offered a price of 1,15,000/-. Now comes the twist. 10 mins later the Cashmycar fellow calls up and offers a price of only 1,20,000/-! Which means, they both must be hooking up to a common auction system (or they are in touch with each other). Otherwise how would the second one have called up within 10 mins of the first call and dropped the price by 60k?!!

And yes, these guys treat your car like hell during the test drive.

Bottomline - at the end of the day, cars24 or cashmycar are ultimately brokers and will lowball you as much as possible. We could have sold it to them for 1,20,000/- but I couldn't stand the way they treated the car and the low price they offered.

We said thank you and told both of them off. We started searching for a private buyer, and sure enough; within a week a person showed up. He was a genuine guy and offered 1,50,000/- on the spot. We agreed and true to his word, he turned up 4 days later with money. Truly speaking, 1.20k was a good price, 1.50k was beyond our expectations. It was sad to see the car go away. But at-least I am happy it's in the hands of a genuine person who offered a good price. The odometer stood at 41216 kms, when he took the car away.



To it's credit, the car was largely trouble free during the entire duration it was with us. Barring a couple of incidents, there were no major problems. The A/C was powerful till the very end of it's tenure. And it consistently returned a mileage of 14.5 kmpl throughout. At the end of the day, it's a very good product; but unfortunately let down by the parent company. Would I recommend the Micra? Yes and No. Yes, because it's a hassle free car to live with and will not pose any major problems. And also No, because I don't see a future for Nissan in India. They are already fighting a losing battle.

The paint is still bright and as it was in the inital years.


I removed the team bhp stickers though, before sending it off. You never know how the buyer is going to drive the car after he has it.


So, ultimately the ownership experience comes to an end here. I will be happy to answer any questions here, for a couple of days more before the thread is closed.

On a side note - the below car just refuses to leave the family. It's been re-registered but my father simply says no to sell off the vehicle. I don't blame him either. 17 years later it can still put a smile on your face once you get into the driver's seat! Although the technology may be nearly two decades old and there are better cars available today; I believe this one still has very few competitors in giving you that 0-100kmph kick ! (and high!!)

[TD_GHY]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

We started searching for a private buyer, and sure enough; within a week a person showed up. He was a genuine guy and offered 1,50,000/- on the spot. We agreed and true to his word, he turned up 4 days later with money. Truly speaking, 1.20k was a good price, 1.50k was beyond our expectations. It was sad to see the car go away. But at-least I am happy it's in the hands of a genuine person who offered a good price. The odometer stood at 41216 kms, when he took the car away.

I think it was a reasonable price for the Micra you got there, although I feel you might have got a 30k extra. And it is good that you did not expect the moon. Just yesterday I had talked with a guy here for a Nissan Micra XL of 2012, and he was quoting 3.15 for it. He was a private party and not a dealer. When I mentioned 1.5, he laughed and began to mock me how I do not know anything about cars and how great a car it is. He expects a minimum of 3 for the car. I am not sure how some people calculate the resale value of their cars. Maybe a deep emotional attachment makes us feel our cars are worth more than double their worth?