[arvind71181]

Nice review with lot of pictures and great attention to detail. Heard a lot of good reviews on the drive-ability of the engine. ABS and passenger airbag would have made it better though, especially since I remember seeing Nissan positioning themselves as a brand which is safety conscious. Keep updating the log!!!

[samarth.bhatia]

Originally Posted by thoma

Attachment 1055025
A sunscreen is provided by putting close dots. What is this technically called? Earlier, or other models, had a green tint across the top of the windshield. And, why are these dots only at the center?


Attachment 1055052
A close-up of the sunscreen dots. The background is a yellow wall of the garage.

The particular shape given to the dotted region is generally to protect the driver from the glare from the sun. Once you lower the visors, the dotted area covers the left out region.

Great attention to detail there.
Really good photography skills. Overall, wonderful review.
I am a fan of the engine on the Diesel Micra. It is wonderfully easy to use the light pedals, steering & zero turbo lag engine around town. Contrary to popular belief, I do not find the curves associate the car with the fairer sex.
Wishing you miles of happiness.

Cheers and drive safe.
Sam

[thoma]

A Pocket Rocket, what she indeed is. Overtaking is just a tap on the a-pedal; puts my Baleno to shame in terms of effortlessness.

I might sound bragging, but no. I do not want a BHPian to miss out on this Pocket Rocket experience. Guys, if you are in the hunt for a diesel hatch, please do have a good test-drive of the Micra (or maybe the Pulse which is so similar). I'm not canvassing anyone to buy it, but you will know what a lag-less turbo is capable of. Highway riding is not at all bad, just that there is not much use screaming the engine past 3.5k RPM. 100-120 kmph seems effortless, though it is very difficult in my state to find roads capable to do those consistently. Even the best roads are laden with cameras and radars! Then we have good winding roads. I love them. I love to be out on them more on the Micra. Inclines, curves, overtaking and engine braking is more fun to me than high speed. Handling? Don't ask me about it; I don't try high speed handling tests. Braking? Be a bit cautious as not to have your heart in your mouth for last minute braking; the power is awesome, you reach a stationary vehicle in front in no time.

And the best part is that the rocket do not burn a hole in your pocket. She sipped in 18.6 l of fuel for 405 kms of moderate to hard driving. Comes to 21.8 kmpl.

Originally Posted by samarth.bhatia

Once you lower the visors, the dotted area covers the left out region.

I never thought about lowering the visors to complete the sunscreen. Thanks for the tip.

[ACM]

THOMA

this is a superb review and I love the details, the analysis and above all the camera angles, there are some angles that one bets better if it is not an SLR.

Would have considered the NM for my wife who loves it just from the outside itself if it had an AT,as it is we make do with the i10 AT. Don't know why but we don't really have hatch options in AT & Diesel Combo.

Keep updating liked you style of posting quite a bit. Clear and precise.

[thoma]

Originally Posted by ACM

the camera angles, there are some angles that one bets better if it is not an SLR.

At last someone mentioned angles. Thanks a ton! Was wondering whether I had a false prestige of my angles. I don't know why, but I just love angles; not only in mine but in anyone's snap. May not be the perfectest, but these snaps came naturally to me. Please do not misunderstand me claiming anything tall; no, I'm an amateur when it comes to knowledge.

And another thing I love to do is focusing on some part keeping the others out of focus. I have been trying hard, but a point and shoot is not exactly enough for this, I guess.

Would have considered the NM for my wife who loves it just from the outside itself if it had an AT,as it is we make do with the i10 AT. Don't know why but we don't really have hatch options in AT & Diesel Combo.

Maybe Nissan has just heard you - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3048659

[niranjanprabhu]

Friends, this is my first ever post on Team BHP and I want to share the experiences of my Nissan Micra Diesel XV Premium. I have been using a Nissan Micra Diesel XV Premium for close to 2 years now and want to share some of my key experiences in points

PROS:
1. Awesome build quality - there is not a single squeak in the car despite having run on the worst of Bangalore's roads. The absolute WORST
2. Amazingly well sized to get through almost every gap you can find and still so very well spaced inside
3. Decent diesel engine, noisy but very very driveable with awesome in-gear acceleration and an average in-city mileage of 14 kmpl and highway mileage of 23-25 kmpl
4. A-class part quality unseen in most other cars of its class including the Swift
5. I simply love the way the windshield spray works and no, its not clogged so far as apprehended.
6. Super Duper steering.

CONS:
1. Very odd sized tires that are rarely available at most Bridgestone tire shops and extremely expensive. My tire blew up on a trip to Goa and I could never get one in Goa. Risked a journey back to Bangalore and got one for 5.8k INR after a lot of struggle. I could get a Michelin Primacy LC for that money. The shop where I could purchase the tires had 2 of them and was begging me to take the other one too as it has no customers
2. Tire wear out is terrible. After 18k kms on board, the tread depth has dropped drastically and the car skids badly on hard braking. Lack of ABS is felt direly on the highways
3. Climatronic AC has a mind of its own and can switch without any warnings to open circulation mode which can be very embarrassing if suddenly it starts stinking and there are co passengers in the car
4. Low aspect ratio has resulted in all 4 of my alloys being mildly damaged in Bangalore's terrible roads.
5. Terrible seats overall. Its a compromise at best.
6. Humanly impossible approach to the air filter. Never seen anything like that before. Air filter can get clogged sooner than you think and you will have to drive all the way to Bangalore's only Nissan workshop to get this fixed. Minimum downtime of 8 hours.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team: Post Edited. Smilie usage is restricted to two per post on Team-BHP. Please refrain from using excessive smilies.

We advise you to read the Announcements and Board Rules section before proceeding any further.

[thoma]

Originally Posted by niranjanprabhu

Friends, this is my first ever post on Team BHP and I want to share the experiences of my Nissan Micra Diesel XV Premium. I have been using a Nissan Micra Diesel XV Premium for close to 2 years now and want to share some of my key experiences in points

Two years of silently enjoying the Micra and no dedicated ownership report yet? Anyway, welcome aboard and hope you have a nice stay; be careful with the smiley usage though.

I agree with all the PROS you have mentioned. Is the 23-25 FE you are getting with the A/C on all the time? Did you check over a full tank?

3. Climatronic AC has a mind of its own and can switch without any warnings to open circulation mode which can be very embarrassing if suddenly it starts stinking and there are co passengers in the car

This is the case with most other automatic A/Cs. But in the Micra, at least we do not get shifted to full manual A/C from the automatic, even if we manually change the circulation mode to re-circulation.

4. Low aspect ratio has resulted in all 4 of my alloys being mildly damaged in Bangalore's terrible roads.

So one of my fears have indeed come true. Had seen a couple of Micras with worn out tread on the tires and it looked even more skinny and unaesthetic. On the contrary, one another Micra at my place which runs with oversize tires looked awesome.

6. Humanly impossible approach to the air filter. Never seen anything like that before.

If at all you have a DIY for accessing the air-filter, please share with us too.

[niranjanprabhu]

Hey Thoma,

Yup been quiet for too long a time. Now I wont stop. (tempted to put in a smiley here)

Never fixed the air filter thing myself, I now go the Bosch Service Center and get it done for Rs 50. (I felt I cheated the fellow when he charged me only that much)

Highway usage of AC was a 50-50 thing. But the travel was through the western ghats where a lot of the driving happens mostly in the 3rd and 4th gears.

End of the day, though I crib about the lack of an ABS in the car, for all the other features that has been bestowed on this car, they all work to perfection. I feel features like push button start, auto open and close of mirrors, climatronic AC, etc, have to be experienced in order to be valued.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by niranjanprabhu

Friends, this is my first ever post on Team BHP and I want to share the experiences of my Nissan Micra Diesel XV Premium. I have been using a Nissan Micra Diesel XV Premium for close to 2 years now and want to share some of my key experiences in points
.....2. Tire wear out is terrible. After 18k kms on board, the tread depth has dropped drastically and the car skids badly on hard braking. Lack of ABS is felt direly on the highways...

How often do you rotate the tyres?

Also on the odd tyre size, I think it's better to move to a good upsize / upgrade which is lot more common after the first set wears out. Between, what's the tyre size?

Originally Posted by thoma

...Had seen a couple of Micras with worn out tread on the tires and it looked even more skinny and unaesthetic.

I guess this will be taken care of, if tyres are rotated properly right?

[thoma]

Originally Posted by niranjanprabhu

Highway usage of AC was a 50-50 thing. But the travel was through the western ghats where a lot of the driving happens mostly in the 3rd and 4th gears.

And the FE; did you go by the multi-information display (MID) or were you able to check it out over a full tank? One another thing I have noticed on the FE is that you don't get a drastic reduction in FE going in lower gears unless you press the a-pedal heavily. I mean, going in a sedate 5th or in a sedate 4th or even in sedate 3rd, the instantaneous FE shown on the MID is 30 kmpl.

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Also on the odd tyre size, I think it's better to move to a good upsize / upgrade which is lot more common after the first set wears out. Between, what's the tyre size?

The stock size for the Premium variant is 175/60 R15. Up-size voids the warranty as per my dealer. I wanted to go for it. Now I'll have to wait till 4 years to up-size. Or maybe I'll never go for an up-size.

I guess this will be taken care of, if tyres are rotated properly right?

Not exactly. The thinness of the tires do not match the wheel-well size. That is what I meant by 'unaesthetic'.

Originally Posted by thoma

one another Micra at my place which runs with oversize tires looked awesome.

The silver alloys add to the bling of this black beauty. The crappy pictures do no justice.

[niranjanprabhu]

Mileage calculation is usually done by me on a full tank to full tank (to the neck fill ups at Shell 95% of the time) basis but what I observe is that the MID is roughly accurate (within +/-5%)

I want to know from the community what a good tire size in either Michelin or Yokohama would be for the Micra. I have decided to upgrade and let the warranty on shocks void rather than skid somewhere and smash into something! I almost rammed into a Vento at very low speeds on a slightly rainy day. I had pressed the brakes and the wheels were locked but the car was simply hurtling forward. An experience that shook me hard.

Another issue I faced was a hard braking situation on the highways where again the car skidded hard and despite all the windows having been shut, the terrible smell of burnt rubber was there in the cabin. Can anyone throw more light on how this is possible?

[thoma]

Originally Posted by niranjanprabhu

I want to know from the community what a good tire size in either Michelin or Yokohama would be for the Micra.

195/55R15 should be good to go. Refer this thread.

I have decided to upgrade and let the warranty on shocks void rather than skid somewhere and smash into something! I almost rammed into a Vento at very low speeds on a slightly rainy day. I had pressed the brakes and the wheels were locked but the car was simply hurtling forward. An experience that shook me hard.

Good thinking. I too had skidding issues when we stomp hard; even inside the city at 40 kmph speeds. We will be fooled to stomp hard because the feedback while pressing the brakes lightly is bad. And, as the force we apply on the pedal goes higher, the braking force goes exponential I guess. But now I've begun to learn keeping more distance at the front; though not a solution for emergencies.

[thoma]

So the silver bug has been quietly munching miles. 2.3k kms up. Had two tank fulls and here is what she sipped in; with auto A/C being used all the time.

630 kms of moderate + sedate(~200 kms) long drive took in 25.6 l of fuel. Comes to 24.6 kmpl. Didn't check what the MID had to say though; I did unknowingly reset it in between. In the review of his own Nissan Sunny, GTO told "In fact, this is a rare car that beats its own ARAI rating of 21.64 kpl" I thing I should correct it to engine instead of car. Claimed FE for the Micra by Nissan is 23.08 kmpl.

Another 399 kms of moderate + hard + stop go + idling, mostly city and very less highway took in 22.4 l of fuel. Comes to 17.8 kmpl. MID says 19.9. But there are guys who get better than mine. Hmmm....

Applied under-body coating and though the coating seem not to be that thick as on my Baleno, there is substantial reduction in road noise which is a bad trait of the Micra that already comes with under-body coating from the factory. For this, I had been to the tire and accessory store run by fellow BHPian Govind, Club Saturn at my place. Though the staff were much courteous, the only grouse with the coating job is that I had to be there a second time the next day to cover up few missed areas. Advice for Govind: never leave a stone unturned for a customer to be at your place a second time unless for a sale. Dent on my pocket - 2500/- and 300/- for a full wash; discounts being a BHPian I guess.

@swiftnfurious, 3CS, the automotive shop at Kottayam is winding up.

Ordered and waiting for Armor All Wash & Wax from autofresh.in for the bug's weekly bathe.

The keys on the key-fob are big. One must be careful not to accidentally press the keys while the fob is in your pant's pocket.

Thinking of taking off the 5k/- art-leather seat covers, it's getting hot like hell with that. At the same time, worried about dad soiling the light colored seats; he is just like a kid when it comes to eating!



Insulation material between the front fender and the body of the car. I'm wondering how much of this will stay there after a fender dent repair.



Are these visiting card holders in the glove box? One CD-pack and the glove box is full.



Nice thought. Holder for the front driver side floor mat so that the mat does not fowl with the pedals.



A sunny duo at the dealership.



Fog lamps are not that powerless, as it 'might' seem.

[Achyuth Vaibhav]

Originally Posted by thoma

And another thing I love to do is focusing on some part keeping the others out of focus. I have been trying hard, but a point and shoot is not exactly enough for this, I guess.

Maybe Nissan has just heard you - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3048659

To do this more effortlessly you can reduce the aperture value to focus on a certain portion of the pic. Please tell me which camera you have Digital or DSLR ?

Cheers,

Achyuth

[thoma]

Originally Posted by Achyuth Vaibhav

To do this more effortlessly you can reduce the aperture value to focus on a certain portion of the pic. Please tell me which camera you have Digital or DSLR ?

Don't think I can adjust the aperture in my point n shoot - Canon PowerShot A550. Or can I? The manual settings got adjustments for just exposure. But somewhere I read that to trick a point n shoot to have shallow depth of field is to use the portrait mode.