Are you Nissan Fans?

[bloggy]

Hello,

I am a student currently writing on motoring/automotive fans and thought that maybe you could help me a bit

While many brands have lots of fans (Ferrari, Harley Davidson...), it is surprising to see that Nissan has a lot of owner communities (Primera, Micra...).

Do you consider yourselves as Micra Fans? Nissan Fans? What would be the difference?
What does it mean to you?
Are you particularly loyal to Micra? to Nissan? Do you have Micra/Nissan tattoos?
And what do you seek for when subscribing to an owners community?

Do you consider yourselves as "special" for Nissan? Do they do anything in particular to recognize you? If not, would you expect them to treat you differently?

Sorry for all these questions, and thank you in advance for your responses!

Isabelle

 

[joshbl]

I'm not sure if anyone has a nissan/micra tattoo I for one went to Nissan as my dad always had them when i was growing up. He had a bluebird, micra, primera, 200sx. So I just followed the trend I guess

 

[sr20bud]

i just love old jap cars im mainly a 70s-90s toyota fan but every nissan i have had rocks so i consider myself a nissan fan but the k10 is kind of special to me so i wont get rid of it now although i have thought about it but i cant do that :laugh:

 

[Shaun]

Love nissan's in general. up until about 2000 then every car they have pushed out of their doors looks/sounds manky.
obviously not the 350/370z etc. but the more affordable market has gone french.

 

[frank]

i dont favour any make personally, but every now or then a manufacturer produces an exceptional model (austin mini, Volkswagen beetle, k11 )

 

[Shaun]

i dont favour any make personally, but every now or then a manufacturer produces an exceptional model (austin mini, Volkswagen beetle, k11 )

i never had you down as a beetle kinda guy frank...
however the new one is terrible and completely feminine!

 

[r-reg-sr]

yeh jap spec only all else is void

 

[K11SS]

So... My love affair with Micra's came about after passing my test at 17. My uncle owned a scrapyard and always says when I passed my test he would sort me out. So the day I passed my test I called him dead excited "So I passed my test you got any cars?" He told me I had just missed a great Proton... I think I more dodged a bullet lol.The next day he called to let me know he got me a great wee runner... a Corsa... a Clio... a Fiesta.... maybe a Saxo.... NO was a Micra! So not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I went to go see it. White 1.0l LX with 50k miles, immaculate condition inside and out except one dent on my nearside wing and it was an MOT failure for brake pipe corrosion. My other uncle being a mechanic said he would fix the pipes for me... oh no I'm actually gonna have to tell my mates I got my first car and it was a Micra, the usual way any 17 year old would feel I'm sure HOWEVER all the people that did drive the cars I hoped I'd get were having so many problems and they were "slow". I however had a great wee time with my CG10 engine and with 55BHP vs a Corsa 1.2 at 44BHP I was well chuffed. Anyway I started looking at ways to get it faster and came across a great website that is now closed, MicraHolics. The main modification was to fit a CG13 which I thought would be best done buying a Super S. So I did that and drove that while on my apprentice wage and never had enough for any more mods. Later on Ebay I came across a Super S which was a rare rear disc version... so I snapped it up even with a dodgey gearbox and planned to fix but then on inspection wasn't cost effective so sold it on. Later a member on here had a Turbo Micra for sale which again I had an impulse to buy and drove to Dundee to pick it up. I got a huge Turbo bug from that car even though the install was shockingly poor. Still not detered away from Micra's I sold both Super S and Turbo Micra to "He who shall not be named". Needing a new car I did just that and bought an '05 Micra 160SR! By this point now I dont really consider myself a fan. 18 Months go by and I'm not really enjoying the Micra now so I bought a Starlet GT Turbo which I loved but people kept breaking in to it and so I went back to my 160SR. Another year goes by and again I really want another car so PistonHeads it was to find an Audi S3 with 300BHP. Totally loved it and was amazing car to drive! 2 years of problem free S3 driving and recession I'm becoming more skint that I'm not going out as much as I once did. New car time again and it is only now I realise I am a HUGE Mirca fan. I started browsing all sorts of places to try find something and came across a '97 SR with the rare rear discs, so again it was snapped up. Still having the 160SR in my name but my dad driving it I ask to get it back from him so I could take my 'new' SR off the road for modifications etc.


Currently I have 2 Micra's and I do not ever plan to be without a Micra again. I totally love them.


Sorry I have bored you with a huge post guys but I think it shows my love of Micra's!

Pepper

 

[bloggy]

Thank you all for your responses!

So it's clearly not about Nissan in particular, right?
You look for a car, and then you get a Micra... you like to be part of a community sharing something and getting help from other owners...
Nissan as a brand comes last in the whole thing as it seems?

It is really different from let's say Ferrari - where they have Ferrari afficionados first because of the brand heritage, racing history, and models come next.
Is it because of Nissan being a "smaller" brand with such different models (GTR/Micra)?
Does Nissan stand for something in particular for you?

 

[joesouthgate]

Nissan up until the early 2000s stood for reliability and cheap jap performance until they were bought out by renault and the quality has gone down since then in their affordable cars.

 

[Kris C]

I must say im totaly a Nissan in general fan, love them, must have one and cant live without them. I work for Nissan currently own 2 and have owned countless over the years. Im unsure what draws me to them but since i turned to the jap scene after years of mk2 Astra ownership (i still have one) it the biggest name going with massive history, which to be air has been diluted over the years with the part ownership of Renault.
With the masive following both from Jap and state side fans i feel no other brand has such and historic and ongoing diversity from the unsung hero the is the K11 in many guises, to the big names such as GTR (described in one motoring press as "anything you can do it can do better), 300zx and the all round favorite of drifers the 200sx (another on i own). Even when it comes to drive train Nissan offers a fair mix of rwd and fwd, turbo and non turbo. Who can forget the oustanding current R35 GTR which i drive daily at work and can first hand say the hype is earned, which some have seen on Top Gear as humping super cars that cost 3-4 times there amounts.

For me they are 100% win and i cant see past them, im not a Nissa nazi and do like other brands and models but im always looking at Nissan's first.
Just my 10p worth.

 

[Kris C]

Nissan up until the early 2000s stood for reliability and cheap jap performance until they were bought out by renault and the quality has gone down since then in their affordable cars.

Renault only own 30% iirc.

 

[joesouthgate]

Renault only own 30% iirc.

Yer but all the compact cars use renault technology nowadays which is the important part.

 

[Balloo2u]

Small nissan fan

 

[Kris C]

Yer but all the compact cars use renault technology nowadays which is the important part.

True true. It's a shame since the whole Nissan name was bomb proof engines and reliability which is now only referred to as old Nissans. Big or small they all have Renault parts most noticeable is the engines, diesels are all Ren as is the 350Z's V6 engine I'm lead to believe.