Following the launch that took over two days in Johannesburg, motoring and lifestyle journos had an opportunity to play with the brakes and accelerate as much as one could; to acquaint themselves with the this sporty and upgraded Micra.
The new lower B hatchback segment -as Nissan Group of Africa Managing Director of Marketing and Sales, Xavier Gobille alluded during presentation- targets are first-time car owners or students considering its R159 900 market entry price.
Upgraded from the previous Micra generation, this feisty little hatchback comes with sporty exterior upgrades as well as higher levels of interior specification such as spacious seating, manual air-conditioning, front power windows, Bluetooth with audio streaming capability, a 12V power socket, steering wheel adjustment and foldable rear seats and ABS, EBD and Brake Assist, driver and passenger airbags, ISOfix child seat anchorage in the second row, rear headrests, rear fog lights, a high mounted stop light, remote central locking, speed sensitive auto door lock and an immobiliser.
After so called ‘emergency brake drill’ at the Gold Reef City parking Lot under the soaring heat – we took turns to Soweto (Lebo’s backpackers eatery at Orlando) were upon introducing itself on national roads, it showed improvement at hair-pin bends, thanks to a pleasing torque.
“One of our priorities at Nissan is to build vehicles that offer attractive features at a competitive price. We believe the new Nissan Micra Active with its significant enhancements sets new standards in the Lower B Hatchback segment,” continued Gobille.
The Nissan Micra Active model derivative retains the ‘tried-and-trusted’ 1.2-litre petrol engine that develops 56kW and 104Nm with a manual transmission.
Asked if there’s a possibility of an auto Gobille, and his team all in unison declared No.
After lunch and consuming too much of energy drinks (saying this with a heavy heart) we were ordered to wash the cars. Your guess is just good as mine…
Back to the car, according to Nthabiseng Motsepe- head of communications at Nissan SA, it is now available at dealers countrywide, also avoiding the ‘how many units will be made available in SA’ question.
Nissan Micra hatchback has a class-leading 3- year/90,000km service plan and 6-year/150 000km warranty.
