1989 Nissan Micra GSX review from UK and Ireland

I bought this car recently for the princely some of £170 with the knowledge that one or 2 bits needed doing to the car. Namely the Gear selector mounting brackets which had worn through, this made changing gear, well, interesting, having to lift the selector up and then change gear then let the selector back down to rest on the exhaust! This was fixed for £30 and a few pence with 2 new brackets. Surprisingly they are RUBBER! And this so I am told is a common problem. I have replaced the distributor cap and rotor arm (£12 the two) and the plugs and leads will be changed soon (£20-£30) all minor stuff. Other than that no major gripes.

Micra's are fantastic little cars to drive, own, work on and park. There are very few moving parts and any bits you might need can be found from a scrap yard. The car had an electric aerial which didn't work, bought an original for £5 at a scrappie (2 hours to fit it though ;-) ).

The car is quick if it needs to be, economical if driven wisely. Powerful enough to tackle hills and capable to carry loads. Ideal as a cheap run around and brilliant to drive in town. Visibility is good, the mirrors don't angle in enough to my liking, but that's mainly due to my height (6'1") and field of vision. The seats are comfortable and give enough support for long-ish journeys.

Handling is good, but needs getting used to, there was a power steering option available from new, but the car doesn't really need it, and its less to go wrong! My 5 door hatch has good rear legroom for tall people and with the seats down is a good load carrier.

There are a few little niggles however.

Micra's use a low capacity battery, a tall thin job not a heavy duty one, the down side to this is that the more electrical items you have on (lights, radio, fan etc) the lower the engine idle speed drops, and you then need to rev it more when standing in traffic, this is all controlled by a little box under the passenger seat and can't be serviced.

The indicator switch is on the wrong side! Until you get used to this you'll be signaling left with your wipers on.

About the wipers, if you have the radio, lights and fan on they won't work and will stop randomly (see above).

The rear seat belts are not inertia belts and are just static adjustable harnesses.

The radio no longer picks up medium wave.

Only buy one with 5 gears for maximum economy.

On the up side however it can be parked with ease, costs little to insure and will easily do 100 plus urban miles on £10 worth of unleaded and falls into the lower tax bracket.