1996 Nissan Primera eGT from UK and Ireland - Comments

Exhaust gasket between centre section and rear silencer has popped twice.

Radiator now decaying and refusing to pass coolant around the engine when heater flap set to cool.

Driver's seat creaking due to previous owners inability to abstain from cakes.

Don't be fooled by the eGT badge. It is not particularly quick. When you consider that cylinder pressures haven't changed that much over the last 30 years, manufacturers let their cars rev higher to generate BHP. It is a quick and high revving engine. Torque is just a memory from my Subaru days.

The handling is excellent for a front wheel drive car. Yes, it has ridiculously poor traction in the wet, but then so does every other front-drive car on this planet, but has very good anti-dive and anti-squat geometry. Torque steer is well muted too. Passive oversteer is available. Terminal understeer will result in damp conditions if care is not taken in setting the car up for corners. There is very little evidence of body roll. The shell feels taught with only minimal discernable twist when pressing on. Rear suspension geometry exhibits passive steer under roll and can generate come quite improbable cornering loads. Very amusing.

The brakes have excellent bite, the steering good ‘feel’ and the clutch a commendably short travel. The gear change is short too, although it’s possible to outpace the syncromeshes when excited.

The rear suspension is mounted to an empty diff cradle, which brings me to my only real gripe. This car would be perfectly fabulous of Nissan saw to fill that diff cradle and make it rear wheel drive. As it is, the only real shortcomings with it are those pertaining to front wheel drive. This may not unduly concern you, as most people today are unable to feel any difference and base their purchases on the ‘tinsel factor’ whereas I like to giggle when I drive. On reflection, more torque would have ruined it’s handling to engine balance.

The suspension is 'exotic' because it was required for homologation into the BTCC in the mid to late 90's. The later cars that weren't raced have a much simpler (and inferior) affair.

The ride can be a little firm and can jar on rougher roads. If you want “relaxing” then this vehicle isn’t suitable.

Insurance ridiculously expensive (more than my Subaru Legacy Turbo) and quite disproportionate to vehicles performance. This would perhaps indicate the claims made for this car by other drivers and hence the sort of people who buy it.

I’ve fitted an LPG conversion and it works rather well. The spacious boot contains a 100 litre LPG cylinder, giving a range on gas of about 500 miles. On LPG and empty, challenging roads, economy works out about 27 mpg. On petrol, reckon on seeing low 30’s.

Nissan dealer is marvellous. They collect the car from home and return it when done. I’ve used them for about 4 years and would recommend them to anyone.

A refreshingly thorough review. There are a few points/questions that I would like to raise though...

I think the exhaust on the Primera may be a weak spot. What are the symptoms of the exhaust gasket going? Could it be mistaken for a loud sounding engine?

Does anyone else find the steering wheel too big and the rim size too thin? Does the eGT have a smaller steering wheel than other sporting P10 Primera models?

Terminal under-steer in the damp can often happen with rear wheel drive cars. Some of the less sporty "family" models have a setup biased heavily towards under-steer to prevent power over-steer on a damp shopping trip with granny! I find with the Primera that it will over-steer before it runs into the hedge or lamppost. I demonstrated this last winter when I hit a patch of black ice mid turn. I lifted off, cranked in more lock and the back end swung out making it easy to slot through the narrow gap between traffic island and pavement. I went happily on my way. If you keep the power on it probably will keep under-steering - a symptom of front drive.

How noisy is the eGT engine? Is it worse than the standard models?

Thanks for your comments.

The exhaust problem was where the centre section joined the back box and was only really noticeable with the window open. There was a slight booming inside the vehicle and the radio (Radio 4!) at moderate volume masked it until I reached for a car park ticket then heard it, but at speed it wasn't noticable. My dealer fixed it (GBP 17) Transverse engines aren't good for exhausts.

Something I failed to mention, the steering lock is pretty poor (another FWD trait). I bought my wife an Omega estate, a much larger vehicle with much larger wheels and tyres and it turns in a much tighter circle.

I agree about family RWD saloons exhibiting understeer. Lowest common denominator I'm afraid, and that's LOW. My rear-drive feelings come from my old tuned Talbot Sunbeam Lotus with an LSD. Any understeer could be dial-out by punching the throttle and breaking traction for an instant-tail out stance. Seemed so simple, effective and fun, but seems to give other people issues. There's probably a Health and Safety Executive rule about it now.

I can't say the steering wheel bothers me much. It's not particularly small because of the air-bag housed in the oversized boss.

Apart from a little induction roar under hard acceleration, the noise level seems similar to a colleague's 1995 1.6LX Primera.

I'd like to change it for a 200sx, just for fun more than anything, but for the price, the Primera is thoroughly commendable.

The eGT is a corker. Reasonable pace, utter reliability and a great chassis. Best of all though it is anonymous which means no undue attention from Plod, joyriders, vandals or other undesirables.

Shame the new one is butt ugly!

I have owned a 2.0EGT for nearly a year now, and have enjoyed every minute. I would like to try and get a little more performance from it though. To do this, I have added an 'Eco-Tech' valve to the brake servo / inlet manifold hose, which is supposed to give a better suspension of fuel particles in the induced air. Results are slightly more torque in low-rev conditions, and (supposedly) better fuel economy. Induction noise is quite high though - so if you want a quiet car, I don't recommend this add-on.

I also have a slight niggle about the suspension. There appears to be a slight nocking, or creaking when driving over very small bumps in the road. I have taken the car to my local dealer, and local mechanic, to check this out, and both have told me there is nothing wrong. It would appear to be a 'feature' of the 'exotic' suspension. - Still, I can live with a little noise.

Has anyone got any tips on inexpensive performance boosts???

Insurance IS expensive - group 15, but still not overly expensive (set me back £650 full-com, and that is with my girlfriend as a named driver too (although I try not to let her drive too often!!! - It is MY baby after all!) ).

Cheers.

Conrad.

Essex.

Being an old cynic, I take a dim view of any bolt-on performance/economy enhancing devices. I've yet to see anything proven about the myriad of gadgets that've appeared in the last 50 years since the war, be they tin particles, magnetic fuel chargers, swirl inducers or whatever.

If you reduce the diameter of an inlet tract to the engine in any way (such as by installing a device in it), you will increase the gas speed going through it. So at low speed it may feel more powerful as the gas is effectively accelerated into the cylinder head. Unfortunately at high engine speed, there now may be insufficient area to flow the volume of mixture required and your peak power will be curtailed. The engine may now feel less 'peaky' but ultimately a little flatter at the top.

The way around this, is to have a constantly variable inlet tract diameter, which I believe some manufacturers do. BMW perhaps?

However, I'm happy to be convinced otherwise.

Regards.

Neil.

Update on the parts situation with this vehicle.

I had a little coming together with the kerb in the above vehicle when playing in the snow. Hands up, it was my own fault. I bent the two "parallel links" on the nearside that perform 2/3rds of the multilink action. They're pressed steel with rubber bushes in each end. After ordering, I waited 7 (seven) weeks for new parts to arrive while the vehicle was immobile. Until eventually, after some irate haranguing, Nissan UK finally admited that there were no parts in the UK, Europe OR Japan and that Nissan Japan hadn't got anyone to manufacture them.

A lot of wasted time and effort on my part trying to get spares. In the end a York scrapyard provided the parts from a bent Primera. I can't buy separate bushes for the links as they are an integral part, sold only with the links (that you can't buy).

If the 2nd hand ones turn out to be too worn, then I'll have to make my own arms and bushes by turning some polyurethane. Clearly, this is a far from ideal situation and I've registered my dissatisfaction with Nissan.

Neil.