Another Ford Fiesta chasing small car. What’s Nissan done to stand out? Well, just look at it. After a couple of cutesey bubble-car Micras, it’s all very angular and sporty looking now. And underneath, Nissan’s worked on making it handle with a similarly sporty verve. And you know what? It’s actually worked. This possesses one of the more chuckable supermini chassis out there.
The previous-gen Micra was a ‘world car’ built to satisfy the needs and demands of not just Europe, but Asia, South America and so on, making it was massively compromised. This one’s specifically designed for Europe, so it’s 174mm longer, 78mm wider and 55mm lower, more stylish and better equipped, with tech borrowed from the hugely successful Qashqai.
This approach was a gamble for Nissan, but it’s paid off. In 2017, Micra sales leapt by 44 per cent versus the previous year. A whopping 65 per cent of people who buy a new Micra aren’t replacing a Nissan, but another brand’s car. That’s called ‘conquesting’, and it’s the sort of stat that makes car company bean-counters go weak at the knees and grin a lot.
