Final thoughts...
Multiple reviewers have said the base Micra reminds them of their old stripper base cars from days gone by. Just yesterday I saw a reader comment on
Jalopnik saying the Micra is "one step away from horse & buggy."
Joking or not, it's nonsense. I've owned enough entry level econoboxes to know this base Micra S is heads & shoulders above them all in terms of refinement & features. Going from the Firefly to the Micra and back again was an eye opener.
For the benefit of people suffering from rose-coloured-glasses-syndrome about their old beaters, here's a reality check in the form of a list of stuff your old car probably didn't have that a new base Micra does:
- A modern engine with power & fuel economy features like continuously variable valve timing & dual fuel injection
- Full instrumentation (base cars rarely had tachometers -- my Firefly has speedo, temp and a fuel gauge, that's it.)
- Safety equipment like: 6 airbags, anti-lock brakes, stability & traction control
- Full trip computer including dual trip meters & instant + average fuel economy. It used to be only the most expensive cars got that stuff.
- A decent 4-speaker radio/CD with AUX input, and "soft" volume resume when turned on (a nice touch).
- Lots of cupholders
- Variable delay intermittent wiper setting. A rear wiper with intermittent setting.
- Other little touches like 1-touch 3-blink lane change signal; interior lights "soft" on/off & auto-off if you leave a door open so you don't kill your battery.
- Better NVH
Considering the base
Micra is actually cheaper to buy today than a 1984 Hyundai Pony was back in the day, it's actually a marvel what we're getting for the money. I'm not at all surprised that the Micra is selling like hotcakes.
