[prats]

Nissan has also done a great job stategically by bringing in the diesel version, but i wish they had thrown in the ABS at least as an option in the top end diesel. Only the top end pertol has an ABS option. I was a tad disappointed by that as i was looking to exchange my old Swift which has ABS with either Micra or Polo.

[W.A.G.7]

This thread has gone dead! And I am not bumping up my old thread. Why? Thats because I have nothing to report. Really nothing. No issues, no problems, absolutely nothing!

Secondly I was travelling a lot between Mumbai and Pune in the last 2-3 months continuously (with the office cab, alas!), so the Micra remained neglected in our house. Net result? It has covered barely some 150-200 odd kilometers in March/April months.

But to come back to the main point; there is absolutely no issue with the car. Just turn the key, and it starts with the first crank. I had dreaded about the battery getting dead, but that has not happened, thankfully. I have promised myself that I will drive more in the coming months. The all important photo shoot still remains to be done, but I am not getting time for the same.

With the advent of summer and temperatures soaring to 39 deg. celsius, the A/C has now started working full time and on blower speed 2 or 3. So, the F.E drops to ~14.3 to ~14.7 kmpl. But I am not complaining. 1kmpl drop is hardly anything. I can live with it.

The only minor issue is that 2 dogs in our locality decided to make the Micra their home. So now there are ugly scratches on the bonnet and the roof. Pics attached with the message, so any suggestions on how to remove the scratches are welcome.

A few miscellaneous shots. Paint quality is good, it has not lost its sheen over these months.


Upgradation to wider rubber is a must. Not doing just now because of some other priorities.


Fog lamps still to be added. And notice logo stealing attempt no. 3. The stupid person however realised in time that the logos are made of plastic and thankfully left without completing the job.


Beige seatcovers doing a good job. Just a wipe with soap water and the dirt is wiped off.


I was thinking of putting the chrome striped grill from the top 2 Micra models. Will that look good?


Actually nothing in this pic. I put this picture because I have seen most of the threads have this kind of picture with only 1 eye of the car visible. So I was just curious as to why people take a snap like this!! If you know the answer, let me know, I didn't figure out anything after looking at the snap on the PC!!


You can see the doggie sleeping in this pic. Where is humyum? I need his services at once with the chinese air gun!


The scratches caused by the nails of the dogs are highlighted. Some websites have advertised pens which can be used to correct these minor scratches. Has anyone tried out before?


The bonnet now has a small dent, courtesy the dogs. This is strange, they really like to sleep on the roof!


Look closely where the wiper blade ends. The thoroughfare of the dogs has damaged the plastic part and it has come undone.

[W.A.G.7]

Hi all,

I am happy to tell you that my Micra has completed 1 year on 29th July, this year ! One year of total satisfaction. Total distance covered = 3,000kms. Not much by any standards, but for me; 3,000kms of pure motoring bliss!

Important points:

• Completed 2nd free servicing. The service costs came to only 1150/- that's all. The dealership did a free wheel alignment/balancing/rotation at the service.
• Since the mileage is only 3,000kms, they did not do the free A/C gas charging which they normally do for vehicles that have completed 1 year or between 10,000 - 20,000 kms.
• The service costs are really low, i.e. for both servicings, I had to pay approx 1100/- only. which is really really low, considering service interval is 6 months or 10,000kms.
• No squeaks, rattles, noises, creaks anywhere. Interior build quality is top notch, thanks to Nissan for the bulletproof build quality.
• Mileage is consistently 14.5kmpl, in the city; on road with A/C running 100% of the time. The worst I have got is 13.8kmpl and the best is 16kmpl. The car has done only 2-3 highway trips, all the other trips are in the city only. This is the practical mileage, Nissan may claim 18.03kmpl, but the above figures are what I am getting actually. So future owners can consider that the mileage will be somewhere in this range.
• Outer panel gaps are somewhat large, especially the one on the bonnet, but after 2 days you get used to it. From the front; it looks like a baby Cayenne. Paint quality and finish is also superb. No fading of paint, or flaking observed anywhere.
• Engine is very much suited for driving in the city, and pulls easily in any gear. The engine has also freed up considerably after 1 year and it is a pleasure to floor it. 76PS power is adequate for the city and occasional highway trip. The torquey nature of the engine ensures that you can pull away in the 3rd gear from 20kmph easily, without clattering. Now after driving for 1 year and getting used to it; it is more or less like an automatic: slot it into 3rd gear and you have enough torque and power to potter around the city for the whole day without downshifting.
• The electronic power steering makes driving and parking a breeze in the city. Really helps you to get in and out of tight situations. The turning radius is also very less (in fact less than the Swift). Very useful, but my only gripe here is that out on a highway, when speeds get higher, you get a floating sensation. You have to grip the steering real tight else the bumps and undulations unsettle the ride at higher speeds.
• Suspension is also better suited for city driving and soaks up the bumps easily. Gears slot in perfectly and over the one year, gear shift has become a lot smoother. No false neutrals, no slotting problems, nothing. They work precisely and smoothly.
• The tyres are tinny to say, and I would definitely recommend an upgrade. No doubt, they help the fuel efficiency, but the car is very under-tyred; upgrade is a strict yes. I have not planned an upgrade as yet, because, well, 3,000kms is hardly any mileage to wear out the stock tyres!
• That's all to report for the moment, I will update more experiences soon. Will I recommend this car to anyone? 100% yes!!!! You've got to drive it to believe it. I will also try to update an excel with all the ownership costs and expenses, so that it will be useful for all. Till then, enjoy the few snaps of the car.

[bravo82in]

Hi, Let me first congratulate u for the happy 1 yr ownership
Coming to the point I am confused b/w Micra Diesel and Vw polo.
1. On papers GC of micra is 153 mm and with the suspension soft tuned I am afraid it will hit bumpers. what was your experience with bumpers and potholes?
2. I have heard spares are on expensive side!! Is it true?
3. How was your service experience?
4. Diesel Micra comes with a company fitted music system without the USB. Is there any way to add USB to it?
5. ABS removed from top end diesel. Is the braking adequate?

[W.A.G.7]

Originally Posted by bravo82in

Coming to the point I am confused b/w Micra Diesel and Vw polo.

1. On papers GC of micra is 153 mm and with the suspension soft tuned I am afraid it will hit bumpers. what was your experience with bumpers and potholes?
No, it doesn't scrape unless you go really, really fast over the bumps and potholes.

2. I have heard spares are on expensive side!! Is it true?
* No, spares are quite middle, neither too cheap nor too expensive. For example, I replaced a tail light assembly a month back and it cost me 1100/- for the entire assembly
* Service costs are low, for both my services, my bill came to 1200/- In the second service, free wheel alignment and balancing was thrown in.

3. How was your service experience?
* Service experience is excellent. Car is serviced properly and everything is explained afterwards with the costs. Also the person carefully takes down all the details/jobs to be done before hand, when the car is taken for servicing.

4. Diesel Micra comes with a company fitted music system without the USB. Is there any way to add USB to it?
* No idea about this, since I have the base model which came without a stereo.

5. ABS removed from top end diesel. Is the braking adequate?
* Braking is adequate, never felt the brake feel was spongy or the brake was not applied etc. However, I would have liked if they had given ABS as standard.

Thanks! Please find the replies above... Also, test drive both cars before you draw any conclusion

[W.A.G.7]

Hi All,

I am updating the thread after a very long time. Right now nothing to report. The car is performing flawlessly. Just completed 4000 kms today. Only 4K is nothing to speak of or to really get to know a car in one and a half year, but still I am happy to say that there is nothing problematic to report. Totally hassle-free owning experience. Thanks to Nissan for bringing in a real quality product in India



There is not even a single squeak or a rattle anywhere. I am getting steady 14.5-15 kmpl average. Includes both city as well as highway driving and both with/without A/C.

Tankful method calculation also gives the average as 14.5-14.8kmpl, so the trip computer is not completely off mark!



On highways, I have not done anything above 110-115 kmph. Not that the car can't do it, but the EPS makes me a little uncomfortable with the feather touch feedback. I would have preferred a power steering which would have weighted nicely along with increasing speed. But this is only nitpicking. Otherwise the car is brilliant to drive.

Happy new year in advance to all of you!

[GeekSrik]

Wag7, i am from Bangalore, and i was really worried about reading about bad service for micra here. but this post was put up in mid 2009, and its been a full 2 years for nissan to clean up their act. i just hope bangalore service center is not so bad as projected.

i took a test drive of the sunny P & D and i was completely blown away as to how they have made the caaaaaaaar. while all other manufacturers are busy struggling to make space inside the car, nissan nailed it. driving is so comfortable in city that you hardly wonder you are handling a sedan! currently the petrol in bangalore is 8.2 lacs and diesel mid variant is 9.77 on the road. both VFMs for what they offer.

arguably highway manners are'nt great but thats a differnt thing if you just go once or twice a year on the highways.

[W.A.G.7]

No, I never had a bad experience with Nissan service center. They are good enough here in Pune. If you plan to get the Sunny, go ahead; there isn't any cause for concern. In any case, the service intervals should be approx ~10,000kms or 1 year, so you hardly visit the service center!

[zalaps]

Congratulations on maintaining thread with each n every details. Wish you many more happy miles ahead with sweet little Micra!

[W.A.G.7]

Ok, time for the bi-annual thread updation !

Sorry guys, I am too caught up in work and other priorities, to update the thread. But today finally I decided to put in some updates. The car has touched 5000 kms. Not much of running per se, but the car does see some alternate day office commuting. In the coming few months, priorities may change and it will most probably be clocking more kms every year, with a few out station trips thrown in.

The car continues to perform brilliantly. Not a single issue; touch wood. The next annual service is due for 26th July, so it will be some time before the car visits the service station for the regular servicing. The A/C works fantastic and with the rising summer temperatures, is getting put to full use. The engine is as responsive as before and even with the A/C on, the engine is peppy with a negligible drop in power.

However the disadvantages of a 3-pot motor become evident, when you floor the accelerator. Revv hard beyond a certain limit in a certain gear, and the engine starts sounding harsh and audible. This becomes all the more evident, especially after driving our old City (type 2, pre dolphin); which is used to getting red-lined in every gear. In fact, this is one car which loves to be red-lined in every gear.

The gears are smooth, no clunkiness anywhere, no false neutrals or incorrect slotting. This car is just like an automatic, in the sense that; during city driving, lug it into the 3rd gear and keep driving around town. Speed can range from 25kmph to 60kmph in the 3rd gear, there is no knocking felt even at low speeds in the 3rd gear. No need to downshift or upshift, unless you come to a standstill. The feather light EPS is a boon in the city, and small turning radius, turns heads when you take a u-turn. The same cannot be said on the highway however. I think they should have given a hydraulic power steering, which does not feel overly assisted (again evident after driving the City on the highway).

There are no rattles or loose parts anywhere inside. The fitting of panels however leaves something to be desired with a few misaligned lines and edges. But see the irony ... Even the misaligned edges don't rattle, no matter what. Except they are an eyesore. Quality of plastics is very nice, and even though they are not soft-touch plastics, they are still very good to touch and feel. There are some ergonomic failures as well. In the next post, I will put up the pics of these and explain in detail.

Kitna deti hai?

I have stopped thinking about this. The way, the government is increasing the petrol prices, I don't think there is much of a point in keeping track of petrol expenses. In any case, now that I have got a petrol car which is not going to go for the next 7-8 years at-least, I am going to fill in petrol, even if it costs 100/- per litre. But for the records, the car gives steady 15kmpl on-road mileage with A/C running continuously. Push hard, and it drops to 14.5kmpl, but never has it gone down below 14kmpl in any case.

Miscellaneous points:

[1] Got hold of Collinite 845 wax and today gave it a nice wash and polish. The results are very good indeed, and next week again planning to do the same. The application is a decent work-out for the hands however.

[2] Got the car washed from 3M car care Baner. Service is pretty good. However after washing the car, there was a strange incident.

[3] After getting the car home from the 3M wash center, it was parked for 4-5 hours, when all of a sudden the burglar alarm started for no reason. Every time I would switch it off with the remote, it would start whining after a minute or so. There were no dogs or anything around, and nothing had fallen on it from above (the car was parked in a covered shade).

We got irritated by it and disconnected the siren only. The lights however continued to blink. I called up Nissan road-side assistance, and explained the situation. No stupid questions asked, they only asked where my location is and whether the car is in a drive able condition or not. Pretty soon within 45 minutes a person turns up with a crane. By the time the person came, the lights had stopped blinking and the car was behaving just normally. As if nothing had happened. (Computer engineer syndrome, when you try to show a problem to a hardware engineer, the computer behaves normally )

The person connected the scanner to the car and checked everything. Nothing wrong, no error codes nothing. He then checked the electric circuits and wiring but no problem. So he reconnected the alarm and checked everything again. But no. The car behaved normally. So he went away (No $$$ charged) and asked me to get it checked at the service centre if the problem occurred again. Till date nothing of this sort has happened again. (touch wood)

My suspicion is that during the 3M washing, they most probably washed the engine bay with high pressure water, which resulted in some stray water entering and finding contact with the connecting plugs of the burglar alarm system. This in turn caused the circuit to be completed and the burglar alarm to sound every time. By the time the service person appeared, the water had most probably evaporated from all the engine bay which resulted in the car behaving normally. Barring this, no other incident has happened.

[4] Due to renovation work in our house, the car is unfortunately parked on the road outside for the whole day. It is pretty much exposed to the elements which results in lot of dust and leaves blowing on the car. Let's see how easy it is to clean the car after the application of Collinite 845.

[5] A crazy moron driving a Tata Ace and talking on the mobile phone simultaneously managed to scratch the rear right corner of the bumper hard. The bumper was not misaligned (good build quality) but he left the beige paint of the Ace on the bumper. A D-I-Y in the making, now I am waiting to get hold of a red colour Micra paint can and paint the bumper myself.

In the next post, I will put in the pictures of the car as it is looking now and some more points. Which will be next week most probably. Till then bye and drive safe.

EDIT: Forgot three points:
[1] The beige seat covers get soiled pretty quickly after a month of usage and look really really bad. Planning to change to black or grey covers
[2] The wheel caps are much scratched and scarred. I will get Nissan wheel caps during the next service. Alloys and new tyres are still a long way off.
[3] Sun-films planned, but as of now I don't have time or the $$$ to spare for the films due to renovation & interior work going on in the house.

[ManavJain]

Its good to know that you are having a good time with your Nissan Micra...I am also planning to get one but a diesel...Do you have the spare parts price list? By the way, the brick red colour looks very good on the Micra...

[W.A.G.7]

Originally Posted by ManavJain

Its good to know that you are having a good time with your Nissan Micra...I am also planning to get one but a diesel...Do you have the spare parts price list? By the way, the brick red colour looks very good on the Micra...

Get one without blinking an eye! It is a very reliable car. I don't have the spare parts list with me, but I can assure they are quite cheap. Some parts which are replaced in my car were priced quite cheap. For example, the rear tail lamp cluster cost me INR 928/- while the metal front fender cost me ~ INR 1500/-

Both free services have cost me ~1100/- INR only

[ManavJain]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

Get one without blinking an eye! It is a very reliable car.
=======
Both free services have cost me ~1100/- INR only

Thanks for the advice...What are the service intervals?

[W.A.G.7]

Originally Posted by ManavJain

Thanks for the advice...What are the service intervals?

Service intervals are yearly or 20,000kms whichever is earlier. Actually bi-annual check ups are thrown in between, which effectively makes it 6 months or 10,000kms whichever is earlier.

[W.A.G.7]

Sunday workout! I received the Collinite 845 and decided to use it a few days back. The effect is very nice. I am planning another coat next Saturday or Sunday. After that I am planning to do it once a month, because nowadays the car is parked out on the road 24x7.

The pictures are taken with a mobile cam. I am still yet to go out and do a full fledged photo shoot. There are some interior pics which I want to share as well, but I ain't getting the time for it.