Ah, the Micra. The car that has a mirror in the driver's seat visor, but not the passenger side. The car with a little hook for shopping bags in the passenger footwell. How I love thee!
Well, sort of.
As mentioned by al-london, UK Micras are actually produced in conjunction with Renault. I bought a Nissan thinking, "Woo, Japanese cars, super reliable. I didn't realise it was secretly French. My 04 Micra was fine for the first three years, until…
1) The engine died. I took it to the Nissan dealership in Leamington, and you know what? They never actually figured out what was wrong with it. It was 'something to do with the engine electronics'. I still have fond memories of them having it for FIVE DAYS then telling me, "The diagnostic computers say that there's nothing wrong with it, but we know there's something wrong with it, because it won't start".
They ended up replacing a shit load of stuff, including the starter motor and all of its surrounding electronics, to the tune of £800 – fortunately, my car was 2 weeks within the three year warranty. Needless to say, I never bothered going back to that Nissan dealership, as they were a bit toss.
2) Also around the three year mark – the boot lock went haywire, randomly locking and unlocking. Not particularly entertaining when driving home down the motorway after a 10 hour flight, at six in the morning, in the freezing cold. Just after this, my car went in for its first recall, which was indeed to sort the central locking. The next recall was for the ignition switch.
3) The connector between the wiper rack and the wiper motor broke shortly after the 3 year warranty expired. You can't actually buy the connector seperately (I tried three different garages, thinking the first was conning me), so I had to replace the entire rack.
4) Ah, the EGR valve, this was last year, so the car was five, bless its socks. 03-07 diesel Micras have very French EGR valves – the car started losing power to the engine, pooting smoke of various shades of grey out of the exhaust. Apparently this is pretty standard in 03-07 Micras (and Renault Clios). It also had an oil leak around this time.
5) The rear wheel bearings have had to be replaced twice, last year and this year.
6) Remember how I said the starter motor was replaced after three years? That was the second starter motor. My six year old car is now on its fifth. The third and fourth burnt out within two weeks of each other last year, this time because the ignition barrel was stuck in the ignition position, apparently…but internally, so there was no way of knowing. Ignition barrel also replaced.
7) The electronics have always been a bit iffy, my favourite was when I lost ABS, power steering and the like. Whilst driving.
That's it, so far…other than the rear-wheel bearing needing to be replaced, my Micra's been solid for six months now. I've got to admit, I'm puzzled – I've only ever owned two cars. My first car was an M reg Corsa. It did more miles (120 mile daily commute as opposed to sub-20 miles) but never had any real problems.
The other downsides of a Micra:
8.) 6ft 7 husbands don't fit in it very well as passengers, and driving it is impossible for them. If we ever crash, the airbags will have his knees.
9) There's very little leg room in the back seats. Change 'little' to 'none' if aforementioned 6ft 7 husband is in the front passenger seat.
10) The boot is tiny.
On the plus sides, when it's working it's a great little car – awesome fun to drive, very nippy, and great for town driving (and parking!). Fuel economy is very good on diesels (when the EGR valve is working…). It's just expensive when it goes wrong!
