The Nissan Micra has had a complete makeover, with this latest model finally able to compete properly with rivals such as the Volkswagen Polo and Renault Clio. It’s stylish and good to drive, with a quality interior including loads of kit and safety features.
In fact it’s one of the most-improved cars of recent years, and any prospective supermini buyers should definitely have the Micra on their shortlist. Even keen drivers will find something to like in the Nissan, and while it’s not top of its class, it does have an impressive spread of abilities.
With its sweeping lines, floating roof and angled bonnet the new Micra is certainly striking. It’s a revolutionary look for the car, and it’s easy to see just how different this Micra is from the dumpy previous model. There’s something of the Renault Clio about it too, with the hidden rear door handles being an obvious parallel.
Get inside and the changes are similarly huge, with a high-quality feel in evidence throughout. The contrasting colour schemes are optional, and will appeal to drivers looking to make more of a statement, but overall the design is neat and smart. The material quality is high as well, with soft-touch finishes in all the right places, although there are some cheaper bits lower down.
Nissan has gone big on customisation options this time round, and you can choose plenty of contrasting colours for the interior - and also decals and coloured inserts for the exterior as well. There are even inserts on the alloy wheels that allow further personalisation opportunities.
Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment
The seven-inch touchscreen has two infotainment systems available: Display Audio is the standard system, with NissanConnect being the version on higher trim levels. The top system offers DAB radio, satellite navigation and smartphone-style apps, while the standard version makes do without - though Apple CarPlay works with both.
There’s no Android Auto support yet, although Nissan did tell us it’s coming on future cars. We’ve only briefly tested the NissanConnect system, which seemed responsive and easy to use. The optional Bose audio system is also a good choice for music fans, as it’s surprisingly powerful for a supermini stereo.
It’s never been known in the past as a car that’s good to drive, but this new Nissan Micra has a good chance of changing that perception. It’s not as fun as a Ford Fiesta, nor is it as comfortable as a VW Polo, but it does strike a good balance between the two.
It feels light and agile on the road, with plenty of grip and good body control in corners. The steering has just about enough weight to it, but doesn’t have much feel. Still, with the smooth shifting five-speed manual and the well-judged driving position, the new car is the best Micra to drive yet.
We’ve not tried a production-spec car in the UK, so we’ll hold our final judgement on the ride quality. A prototype we drove in 2016 seemed a little on the firm side but even if the finished car has similar traits, for some buyers the handling improvements will be worth the trade-off.
The Micra features some driving aids that work to improve the experience at the wheel - Active Ride Control and Active Trace Control. These can modulate the engine output as well as the brakes to help improve cornering and stability, and thankfully they are so unobtrusive as to be barely noticeable on normal roads.
Engines
There are two engines available in the Micra at launch, a 0.9-litre petrol and a 1.5-litre diesel. We’ve only been able to drive the petrol so far, which has 88bhp and 140Nm of torque thanks to a small turbocharger.
It’s a punchy enough unit, but falls behind similar 1.0-litre engines in the VW Polo, Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa. Those engines are more engaging, with the Micra’s smaller petrol getting the job done rather than enjoying it along the way. There’s a bit of background thrum, but it’s lacking character for a three-cylinder engine.
The 1.5-litre diesel also has 88bhp, but with 22Nm of torque it’s faster than the petrol, taking 11.9 seconds to go from 0-62mph (the petrol does it in 12.1 seconds). It’s much more economical as well, some models managing over 88mpg.
A third engine will join the Micra range soon: the non-turbo 1.0-litre engine has 72bhp and 95Nm of torque, so will suit buyers looking for a model with a lower insurance group rating.
Nissan has gone big on safety kit with the new Micra, as all UK cars get a long list of impressive tech on board as standard. There’s the expected Isofix child seat fixings, six airbags, ABS, stability control and seat belt warnings on board, but a hi-tech safety pack also comes on all cars.
That means you also get lane keeping assist, automatic emergency braking, pedestrian recognition, road sign recognition and high beam assist. That’s a very impressive list of kit for the price, so the Micra should be one of the safest superminis around when Euro NCAP performs its crash tests.
While the car is too new to appear on our Driver Power satisfaction survey, Nissan’s manufacturer rating leaves a lot to be desired. With a 28th place finish on our 2016 poll, in between Alfa Romeo and VW, owners aren’t as pleased with their Nissan as owners of cars made by the top-scoring Toyota and Honda.
Warranty
The Nissan Micra comes with an industry-standard three-year warranty, which is the same as most of its rivals. The Hyundai i20 has a five-year warranty, though, and the Kia Rio beats even that with seven years. Nissan says that the decals available as customisation options are covered under the standard warranty.
The Nissan Micra is five-door only, with the rear door handles hidden up near the C-pillars. Nissan has worked hard to make sure the Micra is as practical as possible, listening to feedback from customers about how they use their cars - so there are a few key features that improve its usability.
For example the 10-litre glovebox was designed to fit a two-litre drinks bottle, and you can get 1.5-litre bottles in the door bins. There’s also storage in the centre console ahead of the gearstick, both for phones and larger objects.
Size
At 3.99m long, 1.74m wide and 1.45m high, the new Micra is a totally different shape to before - it’s longer and wider, but shorter than the previous car. It’s slightly longer and wider than a VW Polo, which is 3.97m long and 1.68m wide.
Leg room, head room & passenger space
Since it’s bigger than before, the new Micra offers more space inside for passengers. There’s more head and legroom, and while the back seats aren’t as spacious as a Suzuki Baleno’s, there’s a decent amount of room in there. The low ceiling means headroom isn’t a strong point, though.
Boot
The 300-litre boot is one of the bigger spaces in the supermini class, but the Honda Jazz and Kia Rio both have bigger load areas. The Micra’s boot has also been designed to accommodate the most common items, such as large suitcases, more comfortably than rival cars’ boots.
With the 60:40 split rear seats folded down, load space goes up to 1,004 litres, which beats the Polo’s 952-litre area but not the practical Skoda Fabia’s 1,150-litre offering.
As you might expect, the 1.5-litre diesel Nissan Micra is the most economical car in the range, which when fitted with the smaller 16-inch wheels and stop-start tech will return a very impressive 88.3mpg and emit as little as 97g/km of CO2.
Go for the 17-inch alloys and that combined fuel economy figure drops to 80.7mpg and it’s 101g/km for emissions of CO2, but the diesel is still the model to go for if low running costs are a big priority. The Micra’s 1.5-litre diesel compares well with the rival VW Polo’s 1.4-litre diesel engine, which reports lower CO2 figures but also lower economy figures than an equivalent Micra.
The petrol options will suit more buyers, though - the shorter distances most superminis are used over mean that petrol will be a better option for the long-term life of the average Micra. The 0.9-litre car returns 64.2mpg on 16-inch wheels with stop-start tech fitted, or 61.4mpg on the larger alloys. Emissions of 99g/km and 104g/km respectively are decent as well.
Insurance groups
The Micra isn’t just efficient, it’s also cheap to keep on the road thanks to some low insurance group ratings. If you go for the entry-level 1.0-litre car in Visia trim, it sits in group 1E, which is very appealing for young drivers.
The 0.9-litre turbo petrol is in group 3E or 4E depending on trim level, while the diesel model is the most expensive to insure with its 7E or 8E ratings, again depending on the trim level you go for. Even so, the Micra is cheaper to insure than the VW Polo, which can only manage as low as group 6 and goes all the way up to group 23.
Depreciation
Residual values are usually the strong point of the rival VW Polo, which can retain up to 48 per cent of its value after three years. There’s no hard data on the all-new Micra yet, but the high quality of the car itself should be good news for buyers - and the previous Micra’s decent residuals of between 39 and 49 per cent are promising news as well.
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