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Micra Shiro Experience

Hello everybody this is my first post and is the story of our Micra, which others may find interesting or maybe have similar tales to tell.

5 door Micra 1.2 Shiro manual petrol special edition with satnav and climate control as standard. Bought New in 2012 with 4 year service deal and 3 year warranty. We extended the warranty for a year - good thing too, I will come to that later.

The car was bought with the anticipation of my daughter learning to drive in it in a couple of years - I really could not face the thought of her learning in a new car and I wanted some kind of reliability on hand.

Car has performed reasonably but I have had quite a few warranty claims and and other failures which I will list below.

1) Battery replaced under warranty - Not really a problem just that the light on battery which says it was OK was not lit so they gave me a new battery after about 18 months.
2) Drop link in front suspension replaced - discovered on service, bush around gear lever replaced around 2 year mark.
3) Two front tyres at around 25k miles severe uneven wear. Tracking checked - all OK??
4) Small patch of rust came through on top rear corner under tail gate - done under warranty.
5) FNS wheel bearing replaced in year 4 around 29k miles under warranty (extra year purchased).
6) New clutch and slave cylinder around 30K miles - probably down to my daughters driving technique! Final cost £500 with independent garage. Main dealer wanted over £1000 ith the same parts used!
7) New wiper blades every year or so.
8) Serviced under service plan at main dealers every year also MOT at same time when needed.
9) 34k miles - front wheel tracking now way out and adjusted.
10) Two rear tyres replaced 34k, generally poor condition - walls crazed. Plenty of tread left! Never going to buy Bridgestone's again.

Generally get around 47 mpg in mixed driving and on steady long run of motorway speeds around 54 mpg. Had a few bumps and scrapes which have not been serious and not down to us - have been repaired by insurance.

Doesn't have a cigarette lighter/12v socket which is a bit of a let down not because of the loss of the lighter but the ability to charge other items such as the dash-cam which does not like being plugged in to a USB! Perhaps they should have considered this before scrapping it?

As I am writing this the car is to go in to have the FOS wheel bearing replaced - now outside of warranty and just over £200 with independent garage. Quote from Nissan £340!

Never known wheel bearings to go on a car before and have had some for over £170k miles. Has anyone else had this issue or am I just unlucky?

Over all I would say that although this car has not let us down, it has had several unexpected failures which I would not have expected in a car of its age. As I have said I put the clutch down to my daughters driving but every thing else seems to be down to quality of manufacture - seems to be on the poor side.

My other comment is about the climate control. It works OK and keeps the car at a steady temp. However it seems that every time I get in to the car I have to reset it to what I want. Seems to forget the previous settings and goes back to default. This is the first car I have every found to have this issue. All others remember what you set the heating to and keep it that way the only possible exception would be to turn the air-con off. I have taken it back to the dealers and can get no sense from them just the comment "This is how they are supposed to work - whats the problem?". Strange that my Qashqai does not work in the same way with similar controls! Well there you are.

Bottom line - would I buy another one? - probably not but I would not automatically rule it out and I will be keeping this one for quite some time.

Hope you find this interesting any feedback welcome.
 
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