The Nissan Micra has been in the Indian
market for about three years now and sells in decent numbers. However, things are now changing – major of
their competitors have got facelifts or have been given major updates and the
Micra sales have dropped to three digits in the last two months. Nissan will
also launch a facelifted version of the hatchback soon; they have recently
launched the refreshed version in the Thai market recently.
The facelifted Nissan Micra has mostly got
cosmetic changes both on the Inside and outside. While maintaining the same
overall design, Nissan has managed to remove a lot of the rounded edges that
defined the previous car and according to many gave it a slightly feminine
look.
On the front Nissan has revised the grille
– it now has a honeycomb design and features a Nissan logo surrounded a
V-shaped trough. This is similar to the grille and logo found on the Juke
crossover. The bumper has also been revised and now features new fog lamps as
well as a redesigned air dam.
At the back, the hatchback has refreshed
the bumper as well as the tail light cluster which now features LEDs. The Micra
also gets a rear spoiler as well as a new design for the alloy-wheels.
Inside, the new Micra gets a refreshed
centre console which has now been finished in a glossy black colour and has
complementing silver accents. The bulby
Nissan interiors are missing. The central AC vents have now been given a
rectangular shape and the graphics for the multifunction display have also been
changed. The car that has been featured
on Nissan’s official Thai website also gets new set of plastics on the
dashboard as well some new shades for the upholstery.
The underpinnings and engine line up remain
exactly the same as that of the current Micra.
This means a 1.2-litre petrol engine producing between 56 and 76bhp and
104Nm of torque or the 1.5-litre diesel mill producing 64bhp and 160Nm of
torque will do the duty for the car. Power is transmitted to the front wheels
via five-speed manual gearbox.
However, the car that has been featured on
the official website is the AT variant with Nissans very own X-Tronic CVT
gearbox that made its Indian debut with Scala Automatic. Nissan has confirmed that the Micra automatic
will make its Indian debut within the next few months. There is a possibility
that Nissan will introduce the AT variants of the Micra with the facelift
Since the Japanese automaker’s Chennai
plant is one of the facilities around the world where the Micra is
manufactured, we can expect that Nissan will bring the facelifted Micra here
within the next few months with a slight change in prices.
It is also likely that the older model will
continue in a low cost watered down version in a bid to make the Micra
appealing to a wider range of buyers. This low cost variant has been spotted
testing near the Chennai facility and should make its debut around the same
time as the facelifted version.
Expected Launch: June 2013
Expected Price: Rs. 4-6.50 lakhs
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