1997 Nissan Primera SRi review from UK and Ireland

The only thing that has gone wrong with the car is that the battery developed a leak which in turn corroded the battery terminals.

A truly excellent drivers car! It is a much better drive than my Mondeo was.

There are only a couple of things that I dislike about this car:

1) The gearchange isn't quite as good as other cars I've driven (especially the Mondeo), and reverse gear on my car doesn't always engage first time.

2) The radio-cassette player that came with the car was pretty awful. The first thing I did was to install an aftermarket CD player.

However, the list of things I like is thankfully much bigger than the list of don't likes:

1) The handling is extremely good. You can throw the car into corners going far too fast, and it still doesn't understeer. The suspension isn't excessively hard though, and still absorbs most of the bumps and potholes all too common on British roads.

2) It is reliable, and hopefully being Japanese, will stay that way.

3) The engine is fairly powerful, and has a bucketload of torque around 3500-4500rpm. Overtaking is a breeze, although I would have liked a little more low end (2000-3000rpm) power.

4) Quick enough to beat all those townies with their XR3i's, Nova SR's etc.

5) The build quality of the car is also higher than your usual Ford or Vauxhall - everything is well put together with no rattles whatsoever.

All in all, I'd have no quibbles about owning another Primera or about recommending one to friends or family.