2014 Nissan Micra In Detail

by Derek Kreindler

Published: February 14th, 2014

At the Canadian International Auto Show, Nissan debuted their Canadian-only Micra, an A-Segment car that takes up the Kia Rio’s one-time mantle of being the sole new car available for less than $10,000. At the show, we learned a few things about the Micra.

While the Micra uses the Versa’s 1.6L 109-horsepower 4-cylinder engine, it won’t get a CVT, but will offer a choice of a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic. With the Micra weighing about 2100 lbs, it should feel nimble, but acceleration will be leisurely, given that its power to weight ratio is similar to an original Miata.

According to Nissan, the Micra has been localized for Canada with features like a rear heating duct in the floor, large, heated mirrors and a 60/40 split-folding rear seat. The crash structures have also been re-designed to meet Canadian vehicle standards, which are more nearly identical to American regulations. For a vehicle market of roughly 1 million units, this seems like an expensive undertaking. But evidently, Nissan feels that there’s some value in doing this for a product that competes in a traditionally unprofitable segment.

#Canada #Nissan #NissanMicra

Derek Kreindler

More by Derek Kreindler

Comments

Join the conversation

3 of 35 comments

Hemi on Feb 16, 2014

I think it's a decent car for $10k, as are most entry level cheap cars. If that's all someone can afford, that's what they should buy. I hate taking to new college grads, barely making money at a new job, while on probation. They go out and buy used BMWs/Benz that they are then unable to pay for repairs. A friend has the first gen Versa, with regular oil changes it has been Perfectly reliable since day 1. Not a sexy car, but reliable. I was looking at one of these "tiny" cars, such as the Sonic, Spark, Fiesta and Yaris, being that I live in NYC. It would have been easy to street park, I wouldn't care about about "street scars" that cars get in NYC, would have been reliable and unattractive to car thieves. Wellll I ended up scoring a secure indoor garage spot and stuck with my original choice of a bigger vehicle. Some people have too much pride to be seen in these cars and I don't care. My only issue was as an enthusiast, how fun they are to drive. I just hate the NVH associcated with such small cars. They are very fun to zip around in traffic and park in most of NYC.

Like Reply
Seat safety switch on Feb 17, 2014

The Versa and Hyundai Accent were both offered recently (last 5-7 years) in Canada at under $10k. In both cases they were super-base stripper models that were mostly used by dealerships to bait and switch upsell to a middle or high class model that compared in price to other cars in their segments. Hopefully the $9998 Micra won't be a punishment for not going with the middle/high-end Micra. Spec Micra anyone?

Like Reply
- Spoonie on Mar 10, 2014
  
  Selling any car in Southern Ontario without A/C installed should be a crime. I would imagine that most buyers of this vehicle would spec it up to A/C and automagic. How good is the price once that (and it's probably packaged) box is ticked?
  
  Like

Recent Comments

Redapple2 jeffbut they dont want to ... their pick up is 4th behind ford/ram, Toyota. GM has the Best engineers in the world. More truck profit than the other 3. Silverado + Sierra+ Tahoe + Yukon sales = 2x ford total @ $15,000 profit per. Tons o $ to invest in the BEST truck. No. They make crap. Garbage. Evil gm Vampire
Rishabh Ive actually seen the one unit you mentioned, driving around in gurugram once. And thats why i got curious to know more about how many they sold. Seems like i saw the only one!
Amy I owned this exact car from 16 until 19 (1990 to 1993) I miss this car immensely and am on the search to own it again, although it looks like my search may be in vane. It was affectionatly dubbed, " The Dragon Wagon," and hauled many a teenager around the city of Charlotte, NC. For me, it was dependable and trustworthy. I was able to do much of the maintenance myself until I was struck by lightning and a month later the battery exploded. My parents did have the entire electrical system redone and he was back to new. I hope to find one in the near future and make it my every day driver. I'm a dreamer.
Jeff Overall I prefer the 59 GM cars to the 58s because of less chrome but I have a new appreciation of the 58 Cadillac Eldorados after reading this series. I use to not like the 58 Eldorados but I now don't mind them. Overall I prefer the 55-57s GMs over most of the 58-60s GMs. For the most part I like the 61 GMs. Chryslers I like the 57 and 58s. Fords I liked the 55 thru 57s but the 58s and 59s not as much with the exception of Mercury which I for the most part like all those. As the 60s progressed the tail fins started to go away and the amount of chrome was reduced. More understated.
Theflyersfan Nissan could have the best auto lineup of any carmaker (they don't), but until they improve one major issue, the best cars out there won't matter. That is the dealership experience. Year after year in multiple customer service surveys from groups like JD Power and CR, Nissan frequency scrapes the bottom. Personally, I really like the never seen new Z, but after having several truly awful Nissan dealer experiences, my shadow will never darken a Nissan showroom. I'm painting with broad strokes here, but maybe it is so ingrained in their culture to try to take advantage of people who might not be savvy enough in the buying experience that they by default treat everyone like idiots and saps. All of this has to be frustrating to Nissan HQ as they are improving their lineup but their dealers drag them down.