Why do you own/like/keep your Micra.

This has probably been discussed in the past but I'm too lazy to go back through old postings so thought I'd start it off again.

Here are my reasons.

Financial - I own it.
It owes me nothing.
Reached full depreciation.
Still gives good fuel economy.
Does not go through frequent parts.
Cheap to insure but still with agreed value.
Owned from new, known history & service.

Practical - Easy to park and drive.
Fold flat rear seats for acceptable capacity.
Good on fuel.
Comfy,radio, air and power steering.

Driving - Ergonomics suit me,easy to park and drive.
Still 'nippy'.
Good visibility.
Pleasant handling.
I enjoy driving it.
Can perform all the tasks I need to do.

Basically a new car (in affordable price range) would not give sufficiently more features to justify the outlay of purchase,interest on finance and initial depreciation.

The Micra for me is a good all rounder. Whilst it may not excel in any particular area it does all things well enough to satisfy me.

What will force me to one day sell it could be unrepairable rust (none yet thank goodness), write off in accident (shudder) or stopped by parts unavailability.
I'd still try to replace with another of same model but may not be able to find one.

If I had to/could afford to buy a new car tomorrow I'd probably get some kind of VW Golf if I had the funds but I'm also quite taken with the Hyundai i30 diesel.

Mychael

I am lazy too so since your reasons are 100% the same as mine ill copy and past them as mine too :)

Financial - I own it.
It owes me nothing.
Reached full depreciation.
Still gives good fuel economy.
Does not go through frequent parts.
Cheap to insure but still with agreed value.
Owned from new, known history & service.

Practical - Easy to park and drive.
Fold flat rear seats for acceptable capacity.
Good on fuel.
Comfy,radio, air and power steering.

Driving - Ergonomics suit me,easy to park and drive.
Still 'nippy'.
Good visibility.
Pleasant handling.
I enjoy driving it.
Can perform all the tasks I need to do.

I purchased my Micra for a daily driver around 6 months ago and my reasons were roughly as follows in a rough order of importance:

Cheap to both purchase and run
Apparently reliable
4x100 so I can expand my wheel collection
Cheap
Reasonable aftermarket support
Trackable in fairly stock form

I should have also added that it's nice owning what was basically a consumer car which has developed something of a following with enthusiastic owners.

Mychael

because its a hoot to drive like my old mini,s (but a bit more refined)
and because its dirt cheap to run/maintain

frank

How many Micra owners were once Mini owners I wonder. I had Minis

I'm a mini owner. Have a 1964 morris mini van, love it. Been into mini's since i was 15. I own a micra because its like a modern mini. Coincidence that the top of the line micra is a super s and mini's equivalent is a cooper s? :)

I was a Volvo 240 owner !!!!!

so the old tank suffered a unavailable part malfunction and I bought 2 micra's to replace it ..

and the fuel consumption :_)

my first car was a micra supers, and i felt in love with it. i crashed this car, and unfortunatly the super s afterwards too (the orange one)
right now i own two super s and a slx, and i pray everyday not to crash another one :)

Beautiful topic, very personal and interesting to read.
I made a similar topic one on our little new french Micra board:

http://www.backyardsmx.com/micraddict/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3&sid=25c440e8edb3232d5a38d4e0e6ab9090

You can have an english automatic translation:
http://tinyurl.com/yz5jxtv

You will see that many reasons I've found are very similar to everyone's in this topic :) also I share with some of you the feeling that the K11 is a newer "Mini" more practical and I like old Austin Mini a lot.

K11 International Love Unit !

Cheers!

Seb

Thanks for comments Seb. :-). I looked at your link, Translators a bit amusing in places but I got the understanding of what was being said.

I owned two Mini's in the past. One was the 850 with sliding windows, starter button on the floor and gearstick coming up from the firewall.
The 2nd one was much more modern an LS with the clubman front. Regret letting it go. Always wanted a Mini Van or a Cooper S.. No interest in the current BMW minis.

Mychael

I brought mine off a mate because i at the time had a heavily worked nissan skyline and wanted a daily i could drive in traffic. So i brought mine. I also brought it because i have seen over the years just how hard you can treat these little cars and well they keep coming back begging to be thrashed again. Its a sweet little engine that wont give up.

I mean this car has been drivin hard for the last three years i had it and at least 4 years before i got it by the last owner. So they are strong. When i say driven hard it is very competitive at the Hidden Valley raceway up here in Darwin easily beating a brand new modded VE GTS 308kw cluby and a fully race prepped 3sge toyota celica on race tyres. It is 4th in the class of lapsprinting up here. So i am very happy with it.


Plus i can drive it all the time without any trouble from the cops. They have never pulled it over. But my skyline get pulled over almost every time i drive it and its a nice car but tey just make sure all the mods are done properly. I hand them the mod slip and they are like Hmmmm have a nice day mate.


Cheerio buy now

I read a lot about Micras when I was first looking for a car and everything I read made me want one. I only found one for sale in my hometown and I was very excited for my first ever car purchase. It was all set to be mechanically inspected when the car yard went behind my back and sold it to someone else.

I was furious. In the end I settled for a 2000 Mitsu Lancer Gli and didn't mind it, it was a fun car and I learnt a lot in mucking around and adding things to it.

A work mate then offered to buy my lancer for her son and I accepted. I sold it to her and then bought my micra the same day.

I love it because it's such a small and inconspicuous car (not as much anymore due to the colour) and it has plenty of grunt when I need it.

i have a toyota starlet, and a micra waiting to be registered, the micra is all stock but this will beat the starlet w/ aftermarket extractors, adj fuel reg easily in 0-100km, i hoped one day this micra will be a collectors car just like the old mini, i like the old mini but its too small...

Just bought mine, drove it home late last night, kind of rough but cheap with lowish mileage, needed something cheap to run after my last car was just costing me too much.

What I like?, gear change is awfully nice for a stock hatchback, it never feels short on power, so not 'slow' by any means, longish trip home showed it using bugger all fuel.

Also I live on a Mt road, and I must say even with flaws I need to fix, it was very amusing coming up the mt, don't think I have driven anything that 'stock' cut such a nice line through corners, I suspect with work it will be tons of fun.

The bad, mine seems to have some chain rattle, it's also rough panel wise, maybe hail damage by the looks of it (what is panel work worth these days?), paint is poor from sun exposure, and it's buzzy compared to what I used to.

But I can live with all that, because yes they handle, and get great mileage, can't personally deal with cars that get over 10L/100 anymore, so 6L or so will be very nice...

Cool, just did the math on mileage from my most recent driving, I got 5.7L/100kms off 92 octane fuel, more than happy with it, for a car with an ok amount of go, very easy on real world fuel use.

i bought the micra after i crashed my car n cuz every1 else wanted a micra as well.lol

I used to daily a jdm r31 with all the breathing mods, fmic, big turbo, 3inch mandrel bent exhaust with sports cat and its just no fun within the speed limit. i had a corolla before the r31 that i could 4 wheel drift round corners and just couldn't break, it was a hoot to drive.

needed a cheap hack that i can thrash around and thats easy on fuel. and i am a nissan/datsun man so it was either a pulsar or micra... the fact they race micras in japan swayed my vote toward the jap mini.

and i love parts interchangability that nissan seems to do so well so i kno there's cheap oem parts i can upgrade with. + a mate is a nissan parts guy so i get all my parts at trade price.

fun to drive.
police dont pull you over everytime you go for a drive.
mad driver response through corners.
dont have to worry about parking it in public places.
bought it for $650.00.
i get about 2 week on everage to a tank.
it cost about $30.00 to fill her up on an expensive day.
the list goes on and on!!!!

Because this doesn't like rain, speed humps or have an engine which likes to be driven daily. Apart from the fact the rims cost a bomb and tyres are expensive enough that if I drove it daily I could buy another micra in about a year.



I also love the Micra, its low, RED and zippy. Also drinks hardly any fuel and parks in the smallest spots. I dont have to worry about birds shitting on it (they dont seem to like red? Nothing ever shit on it lol)



I do want to modify it more, but I keep wasting cash on the rotary fuel lol

I use my Micra a little differently..
I "modded" my car for touring, I can sleep inside it and cook at the back of the boot. This car can do a lot more than just going fast lol..

It has been reliable and just keep going even after 10hr 110km/h of driving.
The only trouble I had was the fuel pump died in NSW near Forster(guessing was the E10 fuel). But I managed to change it and no more problems even since.

Driven from Perth to Brisbane via south coast and all the way back to Perth.
19,000km in 67days..

Crossed the Nullarbor
Visited Flinders Ranges, SA
Adelaide, SA
Blue Lake, Mt Gambier, SA

Melbourne, VIC
Phillip Island, VIC
Wilson's Promontory NP, VIC
Snowy River NP, VIC(Loved the mountain road)

Kosciuszko NP, NSW(This is so cool!!)
Canberra, ACT
Sydney, NSW(Stayed at Coogee beach for a week)
Blue Mountain, NSW
Byron Bay, NSW

Gold Coast, QLD
Brisbane, QLD
Tin Can Bay, QLD
North Stradbroke Island, QLD
Moreton Island, QLD

Many more places along the way!!
And have of course been to many places around southern WA =]

Wilson

Wow well done mate. I have done a few long trips in the past eg 1000k's in a day but never cross country.

Damn thats awesome, I want inside photos! I always wanted to do a round trip of australia. I planned to do it in a sports car but I would prefer to do it in the micra. How do you sleep in it etc? Removed the back seats?

How it looked like on the first day of the trip, outside my house



This is good for long trip =]


My first version of dinner set-up, looks good but not convenient


This baby took me anywhere I wanted to go


An improved set up





Coogee beach, Sydney. Where I slept for a whole week

Forgot to get the photos of my sleeping setting =P

That's impressive mate. I've done some long drives in a day , like Melb/Canberra/Melb. And Melb/Adelaide/Melb. Nothing like what you've been doing though. Well done.

That is tops, nice work!

Thanks guys!
The Micra is the first car in my life, I've only been driving for a little over a year but have done around 50k km in the first year. 20k with my first Micra(crashed) and 30k with this current one..
I just love driving it!! =]

Wilson

I'm trying to buy a house at the moment and didn't think I could buy a REAL CAR. I was WRONG. I love my Micra, and I'm envious of my mates cooper s no more.

i think i look good, and well aftermarket stock support.. and it maybe come collectors car just like the old mini...

other reason is people say is it easy to fix and cheap to run...

What I didnt like about MY Micra was the fact the previous owner (stepson) took to the springs with a grinder and caused problems and he also cut up the doortrims and parcletray for multiple speakers, and he also cut up the airbox unsuccessfully to make a cold air intake. I bought new springs and shocks and aquired a wreck to replace interior. The pod filter I reinstalled using airbox ducting from a vn/vp commodore. The air box from the wreck I now have if I get defected or need to blueslip my car. The blinkers on the left side(should not have been sold here like that) and my LX not having intermitant wipers were the only thing I didnt like about the stock micra so i fitted n13 pulsar switch gear so I could have 3 speed intermitants and proper blinker switch, all i need now is to find the relay on both models so i can finish the job (not much freetime) and I can now say this is the FAVOURITE car i,ve ever owned and Im 43 and probably owned more cars than most of this sites members have had birthdays

Was there much work in swapping over the switchgear?

Why couldnt you switch the wiper motors from the wreck into the new car? The micra has intermitant on mine... Apart from they stop half way up the window then decide to work again 2 seconds later. The motors are bust I think

Rudy said it was to give him 3 speed selection. Though I guess it would only be the standard intermittent speed and two slower intermittent speeds if keeping the stock wiper motor.

First you have to change the switch base to n13 pulsar or similar but not n14. This base accepts screw in sw/gear instead of the push in micra ones. You then have to fit pulsar plugs to the wiring, a bugger of a job because you either have to unpick all the pins out of both plugs on both cars then you have to work out which which colours go where (I will make a wiring diagram to save any body else the trouble),or u could cut and solder the pulsar/pintara plugs into ur micra. you can then use an assortment of aussie nissan switchgear in ur car.
N14 and n15 light/blinker switches are the same as micra but r/h, single intermitant wiper can be from either n15 or some pintara but not n14 which has intergrated switch with base. these all dont have rear wiper and washer functions but maybe N15 5door hatch might.
N13 gear is older looking but i reckon stronger than the originals which tend to wear out quicker (headlight swtch) and also has a switch for 3 speed wipers
Im confidant there would be other nissan models that would aso fit.
Im trying to find the blinker relay in the micra at the moment so i can replace it with the n13 unit, can anyone tell me where it is, I suspect its behind the fuses, but Im just a bit short on time at the moment to finish it off

Why do I own a Micra? ...because I didn't want to drive wife's Daewoo Kalos to work. :)

Instead, I sold the 2003 hail damaged Kalos and got myself a smaller and a cheaper car. Initially, I was looking for mid 90's Charades as I drove one back in the day. Nothing appealing (in working order) was on sale at the time but instead a Micra with a blown engine was on sale in the neighboring suburb.

Quick Google search to see how much a new engine would cost, I stumbled on this site and the rest ... the rest is history. One happy owner! :)

Chanwilson01 Thanks for sharing your story very inspirational :)