For almost a year I have been looking for a car a supermini/hatch back that could comfort me @every aspect.Initially when I started looking for a car I had to identify the br’and or set of br’ands that I would be comfortable with so straight away excluded the following br’ands
Maruti - Yes this would be first thing that would popup when you think about cars in india. Wagon R / Swift were the choices. Even though both had proven track records on indian roads I had to skip Wagon R on the safety features. Swift - I thought for a better build and ride quality. Still I feel its a bit rugged and the space inside, I felt is not well managed. Beyond that its the budget. So strikeout maruti
Tata - Couldn’t even thing about. I suppose Tata’s are just gaining some momentum in build pas’senger cars on par with international standards. It would take some more time to come out with a clas’s.
GM and Ford - Even though the low ownership and no maintenance mantra is attractive I couldn’t really makeup to go for this American br’ands for two reasons, not so indigenous and most spares were still imported, to my knowledge.
Huyndai - Even though i20 could very much be a choice still the ride quality has to improve a lot. I have some trust on the korean br’ands for home appliance. Still it would take some time for me to go for their cars.
Skoda - Fabia was very much my choice till last month. The rock solid build quality, clas’sy interiors, good enough safety features and excellent handling. Even though their after sales service was a big question I loved this car. But for one thing. The three cylinder audi engine on board was not good enough. I suppose the power to weight ratio has to be reworked. The chas’sis is really heavy and this helps the car to be on road on high speeds. But this hits on the economy.
Still Fabia was my choice as I am not a peppy driver. the gradually raising engine matched my driving habbit. More things I liked on fabia is the rear reading lights, good leg room, boot space. Still the plastic quality was lingering in my mind.
VW - Polo could have been a choice but for the same reason as GM and Ford I have to rule out VW as well.
Honda - Jazz was very much on the cards. Every inch of it was to my liking. More to that I had a lot of trust on the Japanees auto maker. Japanees cars were truly very different from the germen and american counter parts. Honda to my knowledge wins hands down in the indian market. But it was not in my budget it costed around 8.7 lakhs.
So after the dig out I had the following two choices filtered out1. Skoda Fabia - but I was hoping for the 1.2 tsi 4 cylinder engine to be introduced in india2. Honda Jazz - but the cost was waaaaaaay over my budget.
Then came the Micra. I have been hearing about Nissan coming out with some revolutionary model for making cars in Chennai. But that was just a news for me that time. I totally forgot about that. After a long while the car was launched. Still I was waiting for the new fabia. But I happened to visit the showroom in a very casual fashion, just to find the look and feel of the car.
The car really had a lovable look. The design remembered me of the old HM designs. The front grill design also had some resemblance to the character "Lightning McQueen" from "The Cars" by disney. The exteriors and roof design were so nicely done. The interiors looked really nice very different from the others. The XV model that I was looking had Smart Key, Climate Control, Push but’ton start and other smart features like auto folding mirrors. I have heared about these features only in luxary sedans like the Mercedes’s and BMW’s. By now I got curios got out for a test drive. All of a sudden I felt like I am on a Honda car for the look and finish of the interiors and the smoothness of the engine. The composition of the engine and chas’sis was optimal I felt. It was zippy even with 5 ppl on board. It was quite comfortable in the rear seats as well as in the front. I was told that the mileage was around 18 as per ARAI. I felt the whole package was attractive. I know Nissan only by its costly cars like Teana and X-trial. But this one was a kind of surprise for me. So took the price chart with me its was 6.13lacks for XV on road and went ahead to know more about the car over the web.
The things I found was really interesting.The car was build on the new V-Platform which was very minimal spares compared to the existing platform.Nissan have had the car on road for almost 27 years. So there is much experience and thinking had gone into the recent designs.Micra has been very successful all over the worldMicra is expected to have a Euro NCAP rating of 4 Stars.Micra is 85% indigenously built by nissan. Nissan already has the manufacturing plant and as’sembly here in india.
With all these things now I have to decide between what I need and what is on offer.
Dual Airbag, ABS, EBD, Climate Control, Tilt Steering, Push but’ton start, Keyless entry, 18kmpl, good build and ride quality, enough legroom on front and rear, good enough boot space, small turning radius, 85% indigenous
No seat height adjustment, Not enough bottle holders, service network
so the missing list was feeble and price was well in my budget :-)
Its the Nissan Micra - I have taken.