K13 DIG - S

[Slowprop]

Hi Guys,
I believe there is a K13 DIG- S with 97bhp. My daughter has a K12 1.2 which she finds fine around town but is now needing to do regular longer runs on motorways and finds it a tad noisy and underpowered. Apart from this she likes her Micra. I was wondering if any of you have experience of both cars? If so I'd be interested to hear about comparative reliability and performance on longer motorway journeys.

Thanks

 

[SplanK]

I have had a K13 DIG-S (2012 registered) for the last 10 years and covered 87k miles in it.

It has proven very reliable with the only thing it seems to regularly need is suspension bushes up front every couple of years which given its £0 cost road tax seems a fair trade off... The only big cost has been that both serpentine and supercharger belt tensioners needed swapping at around 70k at a cost of a little over £700 but in terms of overall cost of ownership has been very low and the car owes us nothing so to speak at this point.

Long trips - no problem. Ours has done several 300+ mile round trips over the years, the latest being saving a holiday when my Megane's fuel pump failed days before. Took a family of 4 plus a (slightly trimmed down) week's worth of holiday stuff with no issues.... and it still returned an average 50mpg!

 

[Slowprop]

That's nice to know. Maybe this is an option when she wants to change her car then.
I bought the K12 purely for her to learn with and then for mainly local journeys. Circumstances since then have changed and she opted for a degree apprenticeship rather than full time university. So she is now doing 14k miles per year including a 120 mile round trip to university once a week..Eventually that'll be twice a week.
I might well keep my eyes open for a nice later model with low mileage.
By the way can you tell me if you can adjust the wing mirrors from inside the car?

 

[SplanK]

Ours does between 8-10k a year of local driving (so it does get hammered with the cold starts!), so 14k a year with a good amount of long runs should do well - like with any car, looking after the service items on time is key.

The wing mirrors on ours are position adjustable (although not electric foldable), but there are different trim levels so you will need to keep that in mind if that is a particular need

 

[Slowprop]

Yes I hear what you say about lots of short journeys. I guess the regular long runs can be beneficial, low stress mileage. That said I do worry about an 18 year old girl doing such high mileage on her own in a 13 year old car with 72k on the clock. I'd like her to have something newer but she likes the K12.

 

[SplanK]

To be fair - any car can break down...As mentioned, my Megane RS, a 2019 registered car broke down when the fuel pump failed in the summer of last year. Thankfully it did it in a fairly sensible place but I did have my kids in my car on the school run! Just because it's new/newer, doesn't make it immune from failure but I understand your concern.

72k isn't that much a 'modern' run around as long as it has been looked after, and that any concerns are looked at/investigated/monitored - such as new/unusual rattle from the engine, knocks and whatnot.... but it probably best that something like AA/RAC/Greenflag cover is in place just in case. Modern Nissan's seem to fair better at rust/corrosion than they used to, but age does creep up on them eventually and is something to keep an eye on. Mechanical repairs are one thing but once rust sets in, you usually start to chase it around the car and it becomes a bit like whack a mole eventually!

 

[Slowprop]

Yes I'm a big believer in preventative maintenance. Luckily we had it for 7 months before she started work so we had the opportunity to iron out some initial issues. Then I had a reputable independent local garage give it a real good going over in August. If she keeps it I'll make sure they do that this August as well. I agree spending a bit of money on maintenance can overall be cheap motoring.