[Infantarian]

Got to see the Nissan March yesterday in Pune in a dull orange color. Looked terrific, had a very retro look, just like the Beetle. Will click snaps if I get to see it again. I would anytime prefer this old design to the new one.

[RGK]

Just seeing Micra in the showroom daily. My opinion is that it gives a feeling like swift when it was launched. Eggy design. Many did not like that design at that time. It may change after some time. But Micra looks big than in the photographs.
Comparing with US and other countries may not be correct due to lot of factors like infrastructure, product positioning, demand etc.
My main concern is the no of dealers and service points. Could not get a correct feedback about MyTVS.

[adimicra]

The new Nissan Micra website is up ...nissanmicra.co.in
Its a pretty heavy duty site and consumes lot of bandwidth (totally built on Flash I guess) but definitely something different,new and funky!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Oh my god I can't look at it. The stupid-quotes, takes-ages (and I have a 2Mb connection) loading phase was bad enough: what follows is just revolting.

What idiot designed that? What idiot in Nissan commissioned, accepted and paid for this excrement? Do Nissan employ seven-year olds? Or just marketing guys with a mental age of seven. Don't they realise that seven-year-olds don't buy cars?

That it is horrible, ugly, entirely misconceived, user unfriendly and a complete turn off could, with a big imagination, be argued against.

That it is entirely unsuitable for a country with a minute broadband penetration cannot be argued. Come on, Nissan: do your homework: scrap this pile of sewage and give us a decent, html-based, simple presentation that shows off the car and its features and for gods sake cut the big, bright orange squares.

Total, complete, absolute, utter FAIL.

Are you getting any of this, Nissan?

[M5_fan]

Let me just highlight the tv commercials

IMO they are very good & they highlight the unique features of the micra.

This is really good advertising, Highlight the ultra positive things while not even speaking about the negatives or the minor positives.

Surely it will get the public excited & thats good news for Nissan.

[nowwhat?]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Oh my god I can't look at it. The stupid-quotes, takes-ages (and I have a 2Mb connection) loading phase was bad enough: what follows is just revolting.

What idiot designed that? What idiot in Nissan commissioned, accepted and paid for this excrement? Do Nissan employ seven-year olds? Or just marketing guys with a mental age of seven. Don't they realise that seven-year-olds don't buy cars?

That it is horrible, ugly, entirely misconceived, user unfriendly and a complete turn off could, with a big imagination, be argued against.

That it is entirely unsuitable for a country with a minute broadband penetration cannot be argued. Come on, Nissan: do your homework: scrap this pile of sewage and give us a decent, html-based, simple presentation that shows off the car and its features and for gods sake cut the big, bright orange squares.

Total, complete, absolute, utter FAIL.

Are you getting any of this, Nissan?

I too tried accessing the Micra Micro-site (couldn't resist ) yesterday but gave up after a few tries because the download meter would inch up slowly, go all the way to 99% and then stop.

I guess I also got tired of seeing Ranbir. I must be too old to fit into the Micra demographic. But then those retro looks might have suited me well.

[aryashiv1]

I just checked the Mirca site and believe me its different just like the car. Very unique and funky. I was able to access the site very fast and infact in 6 minutes I was through it. Its not like any other normal car site. They have tried something different just like the actual product. Some may like some may not. Individual perception of looking at things.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I've complained before about agencies who think that designing for the web is like designing for TV.

Compare VW's site. If that make me old, boring, and not a suitable customer for the micra, then so be it, but hey, VW's sales do not seem to be restricted to the old and boring!

[veerendra.kiran]

It took my FireFox close to 8 mins to load the Nissan Micra site on a 2Mbps connection. And it took 3 more mins to load all the images on the Intelligent Key features page. I give up. Anymore time I spend on this page, I'll need to start entering "Micra Research" on my time-sheet. Further more, I can probably reach the showroom faster than it takes to view this website.

[nowwhat?]

I hope that Carlos Ghosn or someone from Nissan India reads this blog and gives our very own adimicra a Micra soon. Lord knows how many battles he has dueled for the Micra with nary a car in sight.

Honestly when I go to buy cars I do not look at the segment. I don't know how many people do that. Perhaps you can do it in the higher segments, but right now the entire hatchback segment is one big mishmash with cars from 1 lakh (Nano) to 10 lakhs (i20).

So I don't see it as being that far-fetched that someone may prefer a Beat to the Alto for 50K more.

Originally Posted by adimicra

Actually not so passionate as you think! When I bought my first car - Santro, I was all excited and charged up! And the Santro has served me really well over the years and the pull in the 3rd gear from low rpms is something which is unmatched by any of the 'premium' hatchbacks.
I would say that its got the best driveability in the city among all the hatches (petrol at least).
When I started looking for a premium hatchback, I really expected much more as I will be spending 2 lakhs more than my Santro. After a frantic search for last 2 months, what I have realized is there is not much difference I will feel from my Santro with my 2nd car at least w.r.t. performance from a city driving perspective. I will definitely get more features and safety and more 'feel-good' factor but that's about it!
During my test drives of almost all cars south of 8 lakhs, the only time I felt a real difference in the driving experience was the Fiesta 1.6 (why I didn't buy it is a different story altogether).
So, decided to strike off the performance factor as a criteria in my selection process and look for other stuff!

Talk to me about it! I have been looking to replace my wife's Esteem for the last 1 1/2 years. All the sedans we looked at seemed roughly the same size and cost almost double. We also felt we would be going down one segment if we buy a hatchback. Ironically that's exactly what we ended up doing

[Delta Wing]

Originally Posted by adimicra

A-star is a much much smaller car and should not be brought into the comparison here. Micra being lighter but very solidly built is solely attributed to Nissan's innovation - the 'V' platform.

Have a look yourself and you will appreciate the solid build quality.
It is also more spacious than most other cars - comparable to the Figo and I20 in terms of space and better than others (less than Vista though).

That was my point, so big and yet so light (faster by so many seconds than x and y cars in the 0-100 dash etc...not that dash speeds would make for great dynamics, but still...). V-Platform? Have no idea. Can anyone shed light on this? Is it to do with the chassis? GTO, any comments?

[adimicra]

Originally Posted by nowwhat?

I hope that Carlos Ghosn or someone from Nissan India reads this blog and gives our very own adimicra a Micra soon. Lord knows how many battles he has dueled for the Micra with nary a car in sight.



Honestly when I go to buy cars I do not look at the segment. I don't know how many people do that. Perhaps you can do it in the higher segments, but right now the entire hatchback segment is one big mishmash with cars from 1 lakh (Nano) to 10 lakhs (i20).

So I don't see it as being that far-fetched that someone may prefer a Beat to the Alto for 50K more.



Talk to me about it! I have been looking to replace my wife's Esteem for the last 1 1/2 years. All the sedans we looked at seemed roughly the same size and cost almost double. We also felt we would be going down one segment if we buy a hatchback. Ironically that's exactly what we ended up doing

No more battles, all peace!

Yes, I agree all the hatchbacks in the B-segment or so are more or less the same. Ultimately it all comes down to personal preference - the looks/design and the feel-good factor as you sit inside the car and may be some features/safety which you are looking for. Thats about it! After driving for so-many years, I have not realized the fun-to-drive-car funda as mentioned by so many knowledgeable people here. The numbers whatever I gathered from auto magazines don't suggest that any car in this segment (considered petrols only) is really fun-to-drive! The difference in accelearation (in-gear as well as outright) is a mere 1 or 2 secs. Also, the top speed of all cars (true speed) is in the range of 150-165 kmph.Really do not understand what big difference it makes! And no car is underpowered, ultimately it is upto to the driver to extract the horses from the car.

Look at this,
Santro = 0 to 100 kmph - 14.6 secs
Swift = 0 to 100 kmph - 13.1 secs.

Now, the Swift which is considered the fastest car in the segment is faster by a mere 1.5 secs. Is it that big a difference?
Now, since the more experienced BHPians feel that 0-100 times are totally useless, lets brings in the 3rd gear acceleration numbers now which everyone things are more useful.
Santro - 20 to 80 kmph in 3rd gear = 13.2 secs
Swift- 20 to 80 kmph in 3rd gear = 15 secs.
So, the Santro is faster than the best performing petrol hatch in the B-segment - THE Swift by a good 1.8 secs in the most important performance criteria! So, if you talk from a daily city driving perspective, the Santro might be faster than the Swift.

Not anything against any Swift owners, but what I am trying to say here is - I realized that no car in this segment is a road-burner and the performance in the city at least will not be substantially better than my Santro! So, decided not to consider performance as an important enough criteria as long as it is within acceptable limits. I think the Punto 1.2 may be one car which is really lagging in performance, all others seems to be having adequate and acceptable performance IMO.

[wildon]

@adimicra

Have you booked the Micra ? if so what is the down payment amount and Time period for delivery ?

[adimicra]

Originally Posted by wildon

@adimicra

Have you booked the Micra ? if so what is the down payment amount and Time period for delivery ?

Done the booking already . 50000/- booking amount!
Delivery promised in August 1st week! For people booking now, the delivery is promised in 1st week of September. Looks like the waiting period will not be much as Nissan seems to have sufficient capacity ramp up! Also, they are providing 90-100% finance on the on-road price of the vehicle depending upon some criteria. Hope it helps!

[ghost_rider]

Here's something that i just tried on the Micra XV. With the key fob in my colleague's pocket, who was standing outside the car(but within range), I was able to start the car and drive away, without the key. The "key" light was blinking on the dashboard but that's it.

Also, I was not able to operate the power windows or the stereo without starting the car. So if I were to switch off the engine at a Red Light, my stereo would die out too. What gives? Convenience or Inconvenience?