{"id":7341,"date":"2017-04-14T00:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T23:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/?p=7341"},"modified":"2017-04-14T00:02:47","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T23:02:47","slug":"little-car-drives-us-crazy-30-years-nissan-micra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/little-car-drives-us-crazy-30-years-nissan-micra\/","title":{"rendered":"The Little Car That Drives Us Crazy \u2013 the Nissan Micra"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Nissan Micra 1.0 1983<\/p><\/div>\n

The Nissan Micra has carved out a loyal following thanks to its reliability and price, says Geraldine Herbert<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Labour and Fine Gael were in coalition, Kajagoogoo were topping the charts and Return of the Jedi was the film everyone was talking about: the year was 1983.<\/p>\n

It was also the year the\u00a0Nissan Micra was launched in Ireland. With its cute lines, curiously high-mounted headlights and cheeky face, it soon began to carve a loyal following among Irish drivers. Since then, over 100,000 Micras have found homes in Ireland.<\/p>\n

It did 0-100 km\/h in 15 seconds, had a top speed of 145km\/h and gave 45 miles to the gallon. The car rivalled other small models of the day \u2013 like the\u00a0Ford Fiesta, the Toyota Starlet and the\u00a0Daihatsu\u00a0Charade \u2013 and cost a mere \u00a35,495.<\/p>\n

Driven either by sentimentality or its pint-sized practicality, Micra drivers are particularly loyal and continue to swear by them.<\/p>\n

For many of us, our first introduction to the Micra was as the car that we learned to drive in.<\/p>\n

Waterford native Danielle Barron, editor of Irish Medical News, splashed out \u20ac250 on a 1997 Micra, her first car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed a small car to learn to drive in and it was perfect,\u201d says Danielle.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad bought it for me when I started learning to drive; he got it from a scrap yard and he and my brother painstakingly installed a clutch and gearbox as it came with neither.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beth Nunnington works in PR and social media, and learned to drive at the age of 17. \u201cThe Micra appealed because it had a feminine feel to it, plus it was small enough for me to feel comfortable and safe driving it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For others, the Micra has not only been a car to learn to drive in but has proved to be reliable and enduring family transport.<\/p>\n

Marie Phelan, a mother of four from Celbridge, remembers her 1999 Nissan Micra GLX with fond memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since that car,\u201d says Marie, \u201cI have only ever had Nissans \u2013 because they are just so reliable.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son drove a black 1999 Nissan Micra and my daughter now owns one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garret O\u2019Mahony also comes from a family of Micra fans. \u201cMy parents had three Micras,\u201d says Garret.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is all about reliability with Nissans; they are cheap as chips to run and never, ever let you down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the first car drove off the forecourts, the Micra has had somewhat of an image problem. Its looks didn\u2019t win it fans everywhere, particularly in the fast lane of the M50.<\/p>\n

And even when glamour was added with the launch of the Micra Coupe Cabriolet in 2005, this did little to change opinion.<\/p>\n

Richard Hammond\u00a0of\u00a0Top Gear\u00a0described it as \u201cthe most embarrassing car in the whole of human history\u201d.<\/p>\n

But despite his playing to the petrolhead gallery, the Micra has been popular with women drivers in all its varying guises.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had it since new and I\u2019ve never had a car that\u2019s given me such value for money,\u201d said Michelle McCormack from Cork, who is a retired driving instructor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not concerned about how it looks or what people think about Micra drivers. It just goes on forever, although I do have it serviced regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent survey found that women are more likely to give their cars a name than men \u2013 and Micra owners confirm this trend.<\/p>\n

Trish O\u2019Rourke, an aroma-therapist based in Mullingar, called her 1998 Nissan Micra \u2018Lizzie\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no love greater than your first car,\u201d she says, \u201cand when Lizzie had to go to the great scrap yard in the sky, I replaced her with another Micra.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linda\u00a0Ford, a mother of six, named her purple 1998 Nissan Micra Passion \u2018Barney\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have nothing but good memories of that car,\u201d says Linda. \u201cOne of the best was a journey from\u00a0Glasgow\u00a0to Letchworth, fully laden for a 600km journey with two kids and luggage, yet handling the motorway with great ease, and having used \u20ac50 worth of fuel to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Val Robus, a photo-blogger from Sligo, called her Micra \u2018Bertie\u2019, she has since traded it in for \u2018Gilbert\u2019, a Green Hyundai Getz.<\/p>\n

So looks certainly haven\u2019t put off anyone from buying the car.<\/p>\n

The Micra has broad appeal, from learner drivers to young mums and families to more mature drivers seeking reliable wheels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

All New Nissan Micra<\/p><\/div>\n

Throughout its four generations it has become an icon for Nissan and has remained reliable, practical and affordable. \u201cI am not particularly car-proud,\u201d says Siobhan Keogh, a university lecturer from Galway. \u201cI just want it to go from A to B but it was so reliable I became a fan and when it came to replacing it I opted for a Nissan Almera.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love it or hate it, Nissan Micra styling leaves few sitting on the fence. But one thing that unites all Micra owners is the desire to buy a car that\u2019s cheap to run, easy to drive and reliable.<\/p>\n

Young people like its affordability, while older drivers love the fact that the Micra won\u2019t leave them stranded by the side of the road.<\/p>\n

With a brand new\u00a0version arriving in dealerships around the country\u00a0next month Nissan is convinced it will be able to seduce a whole new generation to the Micra.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Geraldine Herbert<\/strong><\/p>\n

14th April, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nissan Micra has carved out a loyal following thanks to its reliability and price, says Geraldine Herbert Labour and Fine Gael were in coalition, Kajagoogoo were topping the charts and Return of the Jedi was the film everyone was talking about: the year was 1983. It was also the year the\u00a0Nissan Micra was launched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,117],"tags":[774,1557,52,1349,198],"yoast_head":"\nThe Little Car That Drives Us Crazy \u2013 the Nissan Micra - wheelsforwomen.ie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Nissan Micra has carved out a loyal following thanks to its reliability and price, says Geraldine Herbert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/little-car-drives-us-crazy-30-years-nissan-micra\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Little Car That Drives Us Crazy \u2013 the Nissan Micra - wheelsforwomen.ie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nissan Micra has carved out a loyal following thanks to its reliability and price, says Geraldine Herbert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/little-car-drives-us-crazy-30-years-nissan-micra\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"wheelsforwomen.ie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wheelsforwomen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-13T23:00:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-13T23:02:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/micra_old.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Geraldine Herbert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Geraldine Herbert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/little-car-drives-us-crazy-30-years-nissan-micra\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/little-car-drives-us-crazy-30-years-nissan-micra\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Geraldine Herbert\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4e9263f6ed5330b3f3553487011f8b95\"},\"headline\":\"The Little Car That Drives Us Crazy \u2013 the Nissan Micra\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-13T23:00:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-13T23:02:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/little-car-drives-us-crazy-30-years-nissan-micra\/\"},\"wordCount\":917,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Ireland\",\"Micra\",\"Nissan\",\"Nissan Ireland\",\"Nissan Micra\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Features\",\"Latest\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/little-car-drives-us-crazy-30-years-nissan-micra\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/little-car-drives-us-crazy-30-years-nissan-micra\/\",\"name\":\"The Little Car That Drives Us Crazy \u2013 the Nissan Micra - 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