2005 Nissan Primera SVE 2.2

Summary:

Great buy

Faults:

My turbo started to whine after I started the car.

After 2 miles it started to lose power and smoke started to be very bad. Had to stop or would have caused an accident.

Garage said that he has been sorting out at least 20 in last 6 months with same problem. Nissan has offered 70% discount, no problems???

This is clearly a recall issue.

General Comments:

Great car would buy again apart from the turbo hassle.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 9th May, 2008

2005 Nissan Primera SX Nav 2.2 diesel

Summary:

Seriously under-rated family car

General Comments:

Comfortable, quiet and refined cruiser with more than adequate oomph for overtaking and carrying large loads.

Good economy if driven sensibly. Cruising on the motorway at legal speeds one-up can return over 50mpg, but using the right-foot and air conditioning will see consumption dive to low forties.

SX model comes with lots of toys that do make living with the car fun. The computer style control of audio, climate and navigation is intuitive.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 1st November, 2005

2005 Nissan Primera S 1.8

Summary:

Nice-looking car, shame about everything else

Faults:

Rattles from dashboard.

Engine pinks a little at high revs.

General Comments:

The 1.8 litre engine is gutless and barely able to haul the car to the national speed limit. The economy however is decent at 35-40mpg. On a long, slow, fuel-saving run it crept up to 45mpg.

It's roomy, but slightly claustrophobic inside (the windows don't let in much light), and the dashboard isn't very well thought out. Thanks to the centrally located instruments you have to look away from the road longer than you would with conventional instruments. The menus for the climate control, radio, etc. are difficult to use on the fly too.

The handling is fine and it hangs on gamely enough, but the rear beam axle makes the ride somewhat uncultured (my 8-year old Rover with independent rear suspension rides and handles a lot better) - and it is most definitely not fun to hustle.

The styling is excellent, though. Who'd have thought fins would look cool on a modern car?

Specification is good for a base model - remote central locking, plenty of airbags, steering wheel radio controls, all round electric windows, climate control etc.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 19th July, 2005

22nd Apr 2006, 14:18

I had one of these as a hire car, and I was able to cruise at 95MPH very easily. It was also very quiet at this speed. The stereo is not that good and sounds 'plasticky'. My only real niggle was the steering does not stay central, so on a motorway you have to constantly adjust the steering to stay in lane.

13th Feb 2008, 16:30

I drove this today for the first time, Appalling car pretty much like driving a tug boat horrible and cheap plasticky inside over complicated central mess up of a control, Speedo off centre and akward. Performance poor accelerated like a two legged tortoise on sedatives. Never again please. Stick to German cars.

2005 Nissan Primera SVE 1.6 petrol

Summary:

A lot of car for your money

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong with the car.

General Comments:

In dark colours this model looks very nice. Mine is a Metallic Dark Blue. Dark Grey also looks very nice.

Performs OK for a small 1.6L engine.

Full colour display used for reversing camera, sat nav and drive computer is a very nice feature.

Instruments are in the centre of the dash. This takes some getting used to. It is just as visible from the passenger's seat making it difficult to lie about your current speed to wives and girlfriends.

Lots of boot space in the sedan.

Suspension has been improved on previous models. I have no problem with it.

Very safe. Has 6 air bags for instance among other safety features!

Any Aussies living in the UK or Ireland will appreciate the sheer size and comfort of this vehicle. Such vehicles are rare here.

The 2005 models sold in Ireland use metric only on the speedo. Unfortunately still uses imperial on the sat nav. It may be configurable, but I haven't figured it out yet.

A big step down from my commodore S in terms of performance, but what attracted me to this vehicle is the sheer size and gadgets.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 5th April, 2005

18th Apr 2005, 13:37

I live in Ireland, and I'm about to buy one of these. I was interested to note that the sat-nav is in imperial while the speedo is metric. Recently, our speed limits have gone metric, as are MOST of the roadsigns. Has anyone noticed that while Nissan produce a right-hand drive version of the car, they have left the handbrake on the LEFT?