Real Road Test: 1992 Nissan Micra 1.2 GSX K10 - surprisingly rorty!
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- Опубликовано: 28 авг 2024
- Nissan's answer to the Supermini class packs a surprising punch, and a lightweight ethos, and proves that this is a car that deserves a much wider appeal. Join me as I put this delightful 23,000-mile example through its paces.
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Thanks to everyone for the positive comments about my car and Ian for a great review. The original owner had this car from brand new for 25 years and I've had it for the last 5 years and I love it 😁
Great car!! how is the fuel consumption for city and highway?
Tidy little car very nice
Gorgious car. Hope you find the correct hubcaps.
A car I'd love to have a drive.
Enjoy it, lovely example of the model. I remember them new and couldn't afford one so ended up with a FIAT UNO as they were cheaper. I had hair then haha
Brought back some great memories actually. I passed my driving test in one of these back in 1990. Lots of driving instructors seemed to go for the Micra!
I will forever remember these cars for one reason. When I was a kid, there was an very old lady who drove one around our local town in rural Ireland. She wasn't actually able to drive it very well - doubt she ever had to pass a test at her age - so she never got passed first or second gear. She drove it at max 10-15mph around town, often with a massive queue behind her. She was known as Mrs.Micra and if there was any congestion, she was usually the culprit!
Our Village in rural Ireland had one too. My brother swapped about 7 or 8 clutches for her between 3 different Fiestas. She did manage to get into 4th sometimes, not sure about 5th.
I remember 'Mrs Graham' in her 1100. She had a garage at the back of our house - so we heard her every time she got it out; revving away.
Sad to say, my brother's the same way. I'm completely the opposite - reverse the car out on brake & clutch pedals - having just started the engine.
@@millomweb It is amazing the torture that a clutch can take but it is usually toast inside 10 to 12 months
@@seancooke4127 I want my clutches to last considerably longer than that !
Everywhere has a Mrs. Micra, it's the rules. They've been deviating in the last few years to the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Note and Honda Jazz models, but the Micra is still No 1.
Interestingly, they are subsequently bought by fast food takeaway drivers who drive them like they were Mini Coopers.
I just showed this video to my friend who is 80 years young. He had one just like this from brand new, but sadly 2 years ago some local scumbag yobs burnt it out. Colin really appreciated this video and I've just subscribed from him, so you have a new fan!
Aw. How horrible! Glad the video provided some comfort.
Always liked those Micras... they’re aging very well, look even better now than they did in their day.
Learned to drive in a brand spanking new Micra in 1989. I remember the clutch being feather light and the whole car being so easy to drive.
Same here, was so easy to learn in
Same here the instructor said it was too easy to drive lol he eventually changed it for 1.8d fiesta which gave him nothing but trouble 🤔
I did lessons in its successor that thing was scary at over 60 lol
I had one, 1L D reg it was a great little car. It just run and run. I went camping in it and slept in the back, just curled up like a cat. I loved that car.
I had a 1990 Micra van as my first car. Great acceleration from that 1 litre engine. The car was so light so it could move quite quickly. The bad suspension on Ireland’s pot holed roads was the only issue. The roads are much better now than they were in the 90s.
The car that most people had as a 1st car or passed their test in back in the 90's.
My Wife passed hers in one in 1987. She is a fabulous driver, far better than me, and a great judge of cars too. She has picked every car we have owned since 1992.
I had a silver K11! Fantastic car!
I suspect it was a Micra my proper instructor had. Met him in town A, drove to town B for the driving lessons and then drove back to town A. The initial drive being on an easy main road to get settled in - a great idea. The drive back to town A involved a 'hill' climb and on my first drive with this instructor we started going up this 'hill' when he said "There's no need to change down to 3rd for this hill". My reply was: "Well it seems to be managing fine in 5th!" And it did manage fine in 5th all the way to the top.
Questions and comments about the instructor not knowing what gear I was in were never made :)
I passed mine in a base model in white 😀
@James 751 "Most problems tend to be electronic"
It's not just cars !
It seems electrolytic capacitors are the main culprit. Built like batteries, they dry out.
8:12 My God my anxiety about that phone falling...
😲 Missed that Man!
I adore these car reviews. Ian is brilliant at getting across the feel of the car with his superb knowledge and presenting skills
Yup , far more interesting than super/ hyper car porn available elsewhere.
Agreed. He is very like Edd China in the way he manages to be both interesting and entertaining .Deserves his own mainstream TV slot.
I really like this shape of Micra. Everyone I know who's driven one didn't have a bad word to say about them
I must say I do like the clean lines of this generation Micra. I thought they were rather bland when they were new, but now I can see the design is something of an understated classic. The way the instrument pod seems to slot into the parcel shelf is a neat touch, too.
I remember these from many years ago and I used to (like many others) laugh at them and wouldn't be seen dead in one compared to say a fiesta or a nova. And then I drove one..... it was so much nicer to drive, better built and in a different league compared to other small cars, I never laughed at one again after that.
Thanks again for featuring my brother’s Micra Ian! A nice perk-up after a rubbish 2020.
Fun to see many of the same things as in my 1991 Figaro
I love the Figaro!
Lovely. I've nicked a 1.2 manual setup from a Micra for my Pao :)
@@tastycarburant Good idea 👍
Possibly the best micra ever built. Aging very gracefully
My great uncle, who sadly passed away when I was much too young to get to know him, had a K10 Micra as his last car. According to my mum, he drove Lancias in the 1970s, and seemed to appreciate a well-engineered car, so I can understand why he chose a K10.
Engineering on the Micra was top class, and very clever to keep weight down and performance and economy up.
I had 2 customers with these, very easy to service and repair. One lady had a timing belt break, when I stripped it down I found 2 bent valves. I was able to straighten both, re lap and refit. Car was still happily running 2 years later. The other customer had fallen on hard times ( it's why they came to me, this was the early to mid nineties) with leaking rear brakes, the slave cylinders just needed derusting, cleaning and reassembling with BMW plastilube. Passed its mot a month later with flying colours. Incidentally, I noticed Ian sitting at the lights with 1st engaged and clutch down.....the mystery of the C5 clutch may be solved. For those a little mystified, you press the clutch when moving off, changing gear and coming to a stop ONLY.....the rest of the time it is not to be touched. My wife's Rover 25 (April 2001, 42000 mostly town miles) is still on its original clutch assembly with at least another 5 years left on it, probably outlive the body. One day if he dares, I'll take Ian for a lesson on how to drive with mechanical sympathy. Until then I'll continue to watch his excellent videos repairing the consequences of his driving style.😁
I passed my driving test in a Micra in December 86, having learnt in my mom's Chevette and my Dyane.
Ahhh. The sounds of cassettes rattling on the parcel shelf. Takes me right back to my youth. My “mark 1” parents in law had one. A very charming vicar and his wife! The ride comfort in the back was less charming but a very worthy little car.
Man I remember those being in the school car park when I was a kid, that brings back memories
My dad had one of those. It was his first move away from British cars, having got fed up with substandard brand new BLMC cars. He was very pleased at how everything just 'worked' and carried on working. He never looked back and until his dying day stuck with Nissan.
The perfect mode of transport for Mick & Rorty! I learned to drive in a 'K' reg bubble styled Micra; I could hit all three pedals with one foot. Emergency stop on my test was very easy!
Woah! That was surreal. Hubnut just drove past the place I learnt to weld
I had one of those as my first car back in 1994. A silver, 3 door 1.2 GSX, reg no: H741 RWF. It had one of the best gear changes I’ve ever come across and the 1.2 motor was punchy and torquey enough. It was a great little car actually, right up until a drunk taxi driver wrote it off on New Years Eve 1996 and I replaced it with a Citroen AX GT.
AX GT was a riot :-)
Brilliant little cars, I used to work at the dealers around that time and they were great. That was just on the changeover between Nissan UK and Nissan Motor GB, the Safety Kit came from Nissan UK due to the brand “Pardat”. Great little survivor that car and astonishing low mileage.
I never thought id say this about a Nissan Micra - what a lovely car!!!!!
Had 3 of the 1 litre ones and wore all 3 out, great little cars.
The current Micra can weight up to 1500kg, the weight of 2 K10's. Talk about adding a little extra padding over the years.
Which one would you rather be driving in a crash? I know which one I would rather be in. There are many legitimate reasons why cars are bigger today. The consumer demands more luxuries and safety regulators require more...safety, is the short version. I've been driving for 20yrs, and I would much rather be in my new car than my first, second or even third car.
So the micras become a macra hehe
About as micra as the Mini is mini anymore
That's incredibly depressing
@@superchickenlips1 I've been driving for over 40 years and am not adverse to safety. Hence why I still here today as I used to drive professionally and show too many frightening things out on the roads.
However that alone doesn't count for doubling the weight of the vehicle.
Ian, I have an N reg phase 1 K11 1.0 you’re more than welcome to test.
My dad had one of those and it was a great little car. It had a full length canvas roof, bit like a 2CV, but it was electric!
my mum had an early one of these - the base 1.0 model - but as I remember was a major draw at the time with Japanese cars (along with reliability), the base came with a lot of features that were extra on other marques. I'm pretty sure the seats were velour - at least they were where it counted. Metallic paint too.
K11s were built in Sunderland
Chassis numbers starting ;
SJN Built in Sunderland
VSK Built in Spain
JN Built in Japan .
This one is a K10 though
Concur .
Ones starement is in reference to the dialog comment on where K11s were made.
Worked for Nissan for 18 years .
Presently own a G reg K10, MA10.
B12 CA16 DE
N12 E15 ET
Happy days
@@craigethorley623 cherry turbo launch! Rare as rocking horse poop! My last reg D103URX facelift had 200bhp with a T2/25 hybrid and front mounted IC 👍🏻
B13 CBT. I owned every variation and colour , except the Turbo . I slept in for a week when I bought it. Original seats are to die for . Happy days !
My friend's first car was a red '91 Micra 1.2. Fun car, never made any problems. Used to drive it all around, mix tape cassette playing. Surprisingly good winter car too, my friend like to take it through random forest roads and we never properly got stuck..
What a lovely example of great Japanese design that has survived so well.
My mum had a 1.0 K10 Micra. Can't remember if it was an LS or GS. Perfect runabout car, if a little tinny (as you mention).
A guy I used to work with had a Super S! Bought it new in I think 1991. The Super S was basically a tarted up 1.2 with a rev counter, bodykit + front fogs & sporty seats. His was black & I think they were just available in a few colours. Doubt there are many of those left now.
Did the review parked outside my old works office in weston super mare, sadly the company is no more.
Just bought one with 45K miles from 1988, had to be done. Great bit of retro fun
YES! In '87 it came with the high horsepower 1.0 with 55 bhp. My mum had one, came with plush seats and radio cassette, tinted windows and hub caps as standard equipment. It was quick for its day as proven by my big brother. Edit- just remembered mums was SGL, not GSX.
My wife had a 1990 1.0 LS - it was totally reliable and so very easy and cheap to service. At 5 years old and 70k we sold it to my parents as a run about. They liked it so much, they subsequently sold it and bought a very late 93 1.2 GSX with only 16k on it, but the 5 speed gearbox which it really needed for longer journeys.
I learned to drive in one of these. Excellent visibility, easy to understand controls, very roomy. How far have manufacturers moved away from this concept. Thank you for the review :-)
Now that's a truly exotic automobile! 😂
Had driving lessons and passed my test in one of these in 1997! I think it was an 86 E plate with over 350k on the clock!
My modern car provides me with such luxuries as power steering, electric windows, touch screen etc but my Ford Capri provides me the biggest smile which is something modern cars sadly lack
A classic. Just like the Toyota corolla and others of its type it was made for us common folk with limited pockets and was appreciated as such. Just what you needed to get from A to B. Look after it and it will last you long enough to pass it on to your kids.
My wife had one for about 6 years. Very pleasant to drive and reliable. Only let down by a tendency to rust and, the metal being quite thin, a hole could soon develop.
Very informative road test Ian and I'm so pleased you're once again doing what you do best. Kind regards.
I still have this car and its hell of a fun to drive.
Haha I do to as my daily definitely a lot of fun
Oh yes I remember doing rear silencers on those during the 90s, there really was a knack to getting them hooked over the rear axel and passed the floor pan!
What a trip down memory lane! I passed my test, at the second attempt, in a Nissan Micra. As you say, very simple to drive and very forgiving of a learner driver!
i had one of these on a H plate. slipping clutch, 70 quid for the clutch to get fitted. took it for a blast down the motorway, was all over the place, got home, all the tyre pressures were different! once that was sorted she drove lovely! loved my little micra!
Took my driving lessons in one in 1985 & passed my test first time. Got my mum to buy a k11 new in 2000.Still running great and has been 100% reliable.
Great car, love it. You forgot to mention that visibility was amazing in these with the small A pillar and HUGE door windows. Worked for a car hire firm in the 80s and had Nissans on the fleet. These were fantastic fun to Chuck about as I recall.
Awesome to see one in this condition and mileage.
Passed my test in one, and served my apprenticeship with a Nissan dealer. Cracking little car.
I went through 2 different Micras during the early 90s and they were brilliant. Very economical and basic to service cost next to nothing to run. Those Japanese cars then have the indicators on the right side of the steering wheel for RHD models which I think is the correct position. I hate the indicators on the left side now!
A friend of mine had a Micra K10 when we were in college. Base spec, but the gearbox was replaced with a 5-spd. He liked it, simple and affordable motoring for a student.
What a great example of a rare and beautiful Nissan Micra from 1992. I can remember those cars very well when I was a child. I passed my driving test in a 1998 Nissan Micra and that car was a great to drive & I had fun along the way.
I love these old cars brings back memories of my youth
what a lovely example. I took, and failed, my first driving test in 1988 using my Uncles Driving school K10, cracking little cars they are.
Drove one for a couple of months as a stop gap , as transport it did the job sadly failed MOT due to rust . Previous owner neglected to tell me about the warning she’d had from her mechanic about said rust ... thanks Mum 😂. Great video thanks for the memory ! Had a K11 in white with the CVT box , brilliant fun around city centres .
I had a 1993 K11 1.3 Micra about 7 years ago. That was a cracking car. I paid £180 for it in 2011. Nippy, reliable, fairly economical, easy to service or repair. Could fix throttle body and heater resistor card with a soldering iron. Eventually it started leaking oil quite badly from a seal on the engine, due to me ragging it more than I should have. I sold it to some gypsies and they used it till MOT was up.
This was my first company car i did 17000 miles a year and this wonderful car never let me down just brilliant, I miss heating and fan sliders never bettered for me.
What a stunning example! Yes they were dull (so were a lot of cars at the time) but supremely fit for purpose. We had a portable fire pump (called a GP1600) that had a 1 litre Micra engine to power it. To prime the pump you had to run the engine at full throttle with no load from a cold start - just the very thing you are told never to do with a car engine. No problem for this engine.
my dad bought one brand new from A +B in Warrington. Metalic green. We went all over Britain in it. later on I learned to drive in in. To this day he says it's the best car he's ever owned. Light, easy to drive, nippy, started first time, amazing on fuel, and never had a single issue with it.Our neighbour bought a mini metro and the Micra was streets ahead of it . I don't understand how these cars get such a bad rap from the media. Obviously they've never driven or owned one.
I’m very surprised that’s the first K10 you’ve driven! The little 1 litre MA10’s are also surprisingly Nippy for what they are! Bags of fun 😊
She I was 17 my parents wanted me to get one of these, I looked at a beige one with them and got something else, now 20 years later I’d happily drive that
A good friend of mine had a white one on an E reg(1987). He paid £50 for it around ten years ago and turned it into a great little van. He removed the back seats and blanked out the rear side windows. The little 1litre was perfectly reliable and cost around £20 a month to run. After 4 years of faithful service it finally had to go as he had trouble finding four tyres of the correct size.
My auntie was a dinner lady and she commuted to work on a tomos moped for 20 yrs and when she got her red k10 she thought she had died and gone to heaven. So must have been good.
That was quite a treat, Ian. What a wonderful exemplar, especially with that safety kit!
Thank goodness for copyright laws - we were spared C&C Music Factory! Lovely little car, for me any reviews on older Nissan vehicles are always a joy. Thanks for sharing, and a shout out to the owner for making the Micra available 😀
Friend of mine had the two tone Collette special edition in the late 80's, hands up who remembers them?
I've never been a fan of small cars. That was until I bought my first K10 Micra nigh on 17 years ago. It was a 1989 1.2 GS. Didn't last more than 2 years. Then bought a 1989 1.2 GSX. That was a fantastic car to own. To this day I still regret letting the car go to scrap. I had it for a good 8 years. Parts from that car has been used to keep my current 1.0 GS on the road.
My first car 1989 when I was 19 1.2 GSX white dials pop up sun roof 5 speed gearbox ... I bought it with 2 years NCT/MOT for 500 and sold it after 18 months for 500 used to knock nearly 100 mph out of it up and down the motorway ... Great little car
Fond memories of passing my test first go in the then top of the range G-reg 1.2 GSX back in 1991...God, I'm old!!
I had two of these back to back, both 1.0 4-speeds. A friend had the 1.2. Great cars. So much fun and so light.
Oh this one brought waves of nostalgia washing over me. I was the first driving instructor in Sutton Coldfield to use a Japanese car when I took delivery of a brand new 1 litre Micra in 1984. Pupils loved driving it and I had four of them in a row. One of them clocked up more than 360,000 miles and none of them ever went wrong. The light weight meant you got 40 mpg, the downside was absolutely no grip in the snow. I did all my own maintenance and saved a fortune in garage bills. Happy days.
Whilst serving in Germany (BAOR) in the mid eighties, these were the car of choice for the young hard-up soldier. They were cheap and easily accessible through the dealers that used to mooch around the barracks offering cars for sale. These cars were super reliable and some of them made the weekly drive back to the UK to visit girlfriends with four people in the car (sharing the petrol money). I was always surprised at how well they performed. They seemed to go on and on with very little maintenance required.
I had one of these about 2 years ago it was a 1991 H reg automatic in white with only 63.000 miles on the clock it was a brilliant little car to drive
Love these cars
Think we all have a special place in a hearts for the 1st car you ever took for a spin.
Lovely little car. I never got the pleasure of driving or owning a K10 but I have had 2 k11's and loved them.
As a driving instructor of the 1980's I have to add that Micra's were the first choice of most instructors, not only because they were easy to drive, but also for the mechanical reliability that came with the package. Unscheduled garage visits for an instructor are not only expensive because of the garage bill ,l but also mean a halt to income. If you purchased a Nissan Micra or Sunny the only need to visit a garage would be for a scheduled service.
Ian, this takes me back to when I was a kid! My Mum used to have one of these. A great little car - unfortunately rusted away in the end
My dad was considering one of these at the time but purchased a Subaru Justy instead.
Friend of mine had one as his first car. Added a body kit, crudely. And once wore a set of tyres out after lowering the car without aligning.
My grandad had a 1992 K10, until we realised it was two Micra's welded together in the middle. It departed shortly after.
I think the company boom helped with the superminis, started the 2 car family as it were. Company car and runaround for dropping the kids off and shopping etc...
In the mid 90s I witnessed a joyrider jump a Micra off a humpback bridge. It lifted 8 meters into the air, then landed causing a bang and sparks. It drove off without any problems!
I had one as my first car. E324BVU. After a year I changed the engine to a 16 valve one from the newer Micra. It went like hell after that. I used it for around 7 years before finally donating it to a college for students to work on. I miss that car so much and would love another one.
Nissan Puke! I call those that too!
My mechanic begged me to buy a Micra or Bluebird as he was sick of fixing my awkward-to-work-at Peugeot 104. I ignored him & bought an 85 Cavalier 1.6 diesel. He said I’d swapped the world’s worst petrol engine for the world’s worst diesel. It proved him right. My next car was an 88 Micra Collette finished in black & silver. My first reliable car!
Took my driving lessons in a Micra back in 85 and passed my test in one. Was a nice little care to drive.
I had a 1989 poverty spec 1.0 LS in red. Didn’t even have a passenger side wing mirror . You could drive everywhere foot to the floor it was so low powered . Never let me down , great little thing .
What a fantastic example of a lovely old motor. If I ever have the fortune to own a property one day with a sizeable garage, it would be a dream to get a nicely cared for example of one of these (or a similar car) and drive it around in summer with the windows open blasting 80s tunes from the casette player.
My elder daughter's first car (well, the 1 litre version). nearly 20 years ago. Good fun to drive - I used it as a runabout too - economical and reliable. And, as you say, surprisingly nippy and tractable.
Wow that was a blast. Like a lot of the commenters, I learned on a Micra, probably very similar to this one as it was 1993, under the estimable Bill Tallents of Macclesfield. He was a Laurel and Hardy fan, so between that and the car, we had a blast! Took me three goes but I cannot blame the Micra which was easy peasy to drive and a perfect learner vehicle. Your comment that they took what they’d learned from this generation and applied it to the next Micra seems exactly right and perhaps where certain other makers went astray...
I live in Northern Ireland and bought one of these about 15 years ago for £55 from a recently deceased priests housekeeper. I used it for doing chinese takweaway deliveries, it only had about 40k on it, I done 24k in a year and it never let me down, sold it for £120 to a fella who turned it I to a rally car. P.s love the channel, only recently discovered, you buy my type of cars haha keep up the good work!!
Beautiful little car, I know these where everywhere in the UK. We never had this in the US, the smallest Nissan sold here at the time was the Sentra (Sunny).
Interestingly, they were sold in Canada.
Another cracking review video HubNut - my gosh, you're spoiling us today !
As you alluded to, they were super popular as Learner cars in their time - passed my test first time in a little red 1.0L (I recall on an 'E' plate so would have been an '88-'89 car and was, as you pointed out, much "squarer"). After I got back to the test centre and shared the great news with my Instructor, he proceeded to absolutely Hoon it back to my House, full on "drive it like you stole it" style, completely ignoring everything that he's taught me (and with a wry "you'll eventually end up driving like this" smile on his face) - good times !
He would however, have absolutely crucified you though (as he did initially me) for your hand position on the wheel whilst driving, that and the fact that he hated anyone holding the gearstick - "you're not a Jockey, and the Gearstick's not a Whip" kinda comments would sometimes be uttered !
In hindsight, I feel that the gear change was somewhat "notchy", but you didn't seem to have any issues on your run in the video - different gearbox between the 1.0L and the 1.2L ?
Great vid, stay safe, keep 'em comin' - much luv!
Great review Ian brought back some nice memories. My Grandad had one of these which we inherited when he passed away. It was an E plate in 2 tone black & silver. I can understand why they were so popular with driving schools as you could practically drive one in your sleep.
Great little car thanks for making the film 😎
Fond memories of my K11 Micra. We didn't get the K10 here in Australia. Light and chuckable and economical. Regularly bounced off the rev limiter for 100 thousand very fun kilometers before I traded it on an MX5.
My dad had a new one in '84 after previously only having British cars like the Maxi. It was a subsidised car that came with his job, and he was determined to hate before he even took delivery... Until he drove it when he fell in love with it. He kept that car for years racking up nearly 200K.
Well, this is great. I was 18 in 1990 so this takes me right back.
loving it, my first car was a Nissan Micra F reg, very nice to drive and easy car to use, Japanese quality perfect
In 2001 as a stop gap replacement prior to emigrating to Australia, I purchased a 1983 k10 1litre 3 speed auto, from a dodgy dealer with 12 months MOT and 3 months tax for 99 pounds. it had definitely seen better days. The MOT was very questionable, especially the load clonk from the front when driving over rough roads (broken coil spring). When I went back, they said we have another scrap k10 just go and pull a strut off. I have to say it was one of the easiest cars to work on, as Ian said everything was so accessible. Within 2 months it blew the head gasket, again despite only being an average tinkerer, I managed to navigate the timing belt and head gasket with basic tools. it then ran faultlessly for the rest of the 6 months I owned it and was sold with 3 months MOT for 70 pounds. Although an auto it was surprisingly brisk, with the back seats folded down it could take a surprising amount of stuff