Prospective cheap car insurance policyholders may wish to know more about the most popular Nissans ever manufactured.
One of Nissan’s most popular cars is the Micra, which has long been known in Asia as the March. From 1992 until July 2010, over two million Micra’s were built at the NMUK plant in Sunderland in the UK alone. The original Micra was introduced in Europe in 1983 as Nissan’s replacement in the supermini sector for the Cherry, which had become larger with each successive generation. The second generation of Micra had rounder styling and was introduced in 1992, winning the European Car of the Year award for 1993. The radically redesigned third generation, meanwhile, was unveiled at the 2002 Paris Motor Show as the Nissan mm Concept and had an even curvier exterior, even spawning a coupe convertible model. The fourth generation Micra was globally launched in March 2010.
Another of Nissan’s most popular cars is the Almera, which is a medium sized family car that was built by the manufacturer between 1995 and 2006. Nissan essentially used Almera as the European export name for its Pulsar, Sentra or Bluebird Sylphy models. Although in regions such as Ireland, the saloon version was popular, almost all Almeras sold in the UK were three door or five door hatchbacks. The Almera was sophisticated compared to other cars in its class, with power steering, electric mirrors, a driver airbag and stereo all coming as standard. The Almera also spawned various special edition models during its lifetime and was rated highly for its reliability and build quality.
Nissan is also very well known for its Z-cars: a series of sports cars which date back to the original Nissan Fairlady Z. This car was sold in Japan as far back as October 1969 and exported as the Datsun 240Z. The Z cars have long been praised for their combination of good looks, performance, affordability and reliability. The Z cars have only ever been known in Japan as the Fairlady Z, but have been sold elsewhere under the names 240Z, 260Z, 280Z, 280XZ, 300ZX, 350Z and 370Z. The original Datsun 240Z particularly was praised for its combination of sharp performance and good looks, something for which the fourth generation 300ZX was again widely regarded when it first appeared in 1989. The Z car is presently in its sixth generation, the 370Z, which was first shown at an event in Los Angeles prior to the 2008 Greater LA Auto Show.
References
Nissan (2010). Nissan Micra E-Brochure. http://www.nissan.co.uk/etc/medialib/nissaneu/_gb_en/_Brochures/city_cars/-474.Par.36631.File.pdf
Auto Trader (2007). Nissan Micra 1.5 dCi car review. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/articles/2007/04/cars/nissan/micra/nissan-micra-1-5-dci-car-review
Blackcircles.com (2010). Nissan Car Tyres. http://www.blackcircles.com/tyres/cars/nissan
Auto Express (2008). Nissan Z-cars gallery. http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/230526/nissan_zcars_gallery.html
Peter Hall (2002). Return of the Z cars. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/carreviews/convertibeandsportscars/2717486/Return-of-the-Z-cars.html
Hannah Warder is a writer for MediaVest (Manchester) on a range of topics such as car insurance.