Nissan is all set to give the Micra a new beginning. The Micra facelift will hit the market in July and we are in Madurai to experience it in flesh. The biggest change is in the front fascia. The Micra now looks more bold with the new chrome grille and new headlamps. The fog lamps now get chrome surrounds and the new Micra is 45 mm longer than the previous one. The wheelbase is exactly the same as earlier, the new bumper has led to this marginal increase in length. There are new sets of alloy wheels on offer too.
Power is derived from the same petrol and diesel engines. The 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder, petrol engine produces 76 PS at 6000 RPM and 104 Nm torque at 4000 RPM. Along the regular manual transmission, Nissan is also offering the Sunny derived CVT gearbox with the petrol variant. The Micra CVT delivers 77 PS (1 PS more than manual) and the autobox has been tweaked to suit the Micra. The CVT is also more fuel efficient and delivers 19.34 km/l as compared to the manual which delivers 18.44 km/l (as per Nissan test cycle). This CVT unit also offers ‘Sports Mode’ on the shift knob. The diesel Micra is powered by the 1.5-litre K9K series engine and produces 64 PS at 4000 RPM and 160 Nm torque @ 2000 RPM. The diesel version is available in the manual guise only.
The interiors now get a brand new Piano Black theme. There are 7 variants on offer, 4 diesel and 3 petrol (including option pack). ABS and iKey are now offered from the mid variant onwards. Nissan claims that the Micra has the largest front headroom in the segment. A list of new features have been added as well and they include Bluetooth connectivity, rear parking camera and LED tail lights. NVH levels have been improved and the top end variant now gets 4 airbags as standard.
