Nissan Micra

The Nissan Micra is an automobile produced by Nissan. It is known in Japan as the Nissan March (マーチ). It is built since 1982 and has had three distinct model generations.

K10 (1982-1992)

The original Micra, framename K10, was introduced in October 1982 as a competitor to the highly successful Honda City, was intended to replace the Cherry as the company's competitor in the supermini segment, as the Cherry model itself had progressively become larger with each successive generation. It was introduced in the European market in 1983 and in Canada in 1984. Although Nissan were slowly phasing out the Datsun name, a small "Datsun" appeared on the tailgate for the first two years, and in some European markets, the car was known as the "Datsun-Nissan Micra". The Micra was initially available with an extremely refined all aluminium MA10 SOHC engine. The Datsun badges had disappeared completely by the end of 1984.

The model was revised in June 1985, identifiable by the slightly larger rear lamp clusters. Another facelift in March 1989, which consisted of some minor upgrades such as deeper bumpers, front grill and headlight changes, as well some small changes to the interior, it also saw the introduction of an electronically-controlled carburetor, the larger 1.2L engine with 60PS (44kW/59hp) and a 5-door version.

In 1988 Nissan launched a limited 10,000 unit run of their homologated Nissan March Superturbo (EK10). Both this and the March Superturbo R (see below) featured the same highly advanced sequential compound charged (supercharged+turbocharged) engine in an all aluminium straight-4 930cc 8-valve 4 cylinder MA09ERT unit that produced 110PS JIS (81kW/108hp) at 6400rpm. This car came with either a 3-speed automatic or 5-speed manual gearbox with viscous limited slip differential, as well as options such as air conditioned and electric mirrors. The March Superturbo still holds the crown for the fastest production Micra in Nissan's history, with factory performance figures of 7.7 seconds to go from 0 to 100km/h (62mph) and 15.5 seconds to run a quarter mile.