The Nissan Micra as a classic

It was presented at the Tokyo Motor Show in October: The Nissan Micra. And that Nissan Micra was clearly a reference to 'micro'. In English, the car was called 'March' and that name had emerged as the best in a public survey. The Micra was Nissan's entry-level model and was a deadly city car. And with a turbo on it, it has even been used for racing.

No real dream car

But whether there have been people who ever went through nights because they had the Nissan Micra as an absolute dream car? There won't have been many. But the sales were no less.

The Nissan Micra K10 was the first generation of the Nissan Micra. In terms of engine range, there was a choice between an 1000 cc and an 1200 cc four-cylinder engine. This first model was made from 1983 to 1992. The automatic version had an 3-speed gearbox. This generation Nissan Micra is known for its then staggering solidity and reliability. There was also a double muscular version of this model with an 900cc twincharger engine, which had both a turbocharger and a supercharger, the Nissan Micra Super Turbo. That anabolic dwarf provided 110 pk.

The second generation, that was the K11 that was built between 1992-2002 on a chassis that came from Renault. The K11 thus became the first Japanese car to make it "Car of the Year." And with that, the history of the smallest Nissan was by no means finished. The most recent version was presented in 2017.

Smooth, compact and manoeuvrable

In 1988, such a Nissan Micra was a smooth, compact and manoeuvrable trolley that coupled a lot of space with great performance. And he was also labeled as pleasantly economical. The looks of the Nissan Micra were also not seen as wrong. Sleek, sort of small but brave, and with a large third door. Behind it was the luggage compartment that was quite large due to the folding down of the rear seats. The front doors were also so user-friendly. They were wide and opened nicely far. The right front seat had a memory. At the push of a button, the chair slid forward and then returned to its original position. Smart! But the name that Nissan had given this system? Well 'walk in' made the idea clear in any case. The passengers behind the front seat, of course, only had limited space. But the driver was fine. The dashboard was seen as very clear, the steering wheel was nice in the hand. The ventilation system had a circulation mode. The idea behind this was that the heating would work more effectively and that harmful substances were kept out of the interior. That was handy if you got stuck in a traffic jam next to or behind a diesel that was still strongly smoldering.

With an overhead camshaft

The 1.000 cc four-cylinder with overhead, cam-driven camshaft and a two-stage downflow carburetor. had standard compression of 9,5: 1 delivered a healthy 50 hp on normal gasoline. In the high compression version (which ran on Super), that was 55 hp at 6.000 rpm. And the power sources were so 'clean' that in 1988 they could simply do without a catalyst through the exhaust gas recirculation system.

Now quite rare

Meanwhile, cool, early Nissan Micra's are quite rare. A lot of them have just been used up, but sometimes very beautiful ones appear that have already been used as second or third cars. And such a Micra is an endearing, dated classic. A car without the look of a Nissan 300 ZX Turbo. But very employable. And fun. Moreover, they prove that driving a fun classic can still be budget-friendly.