Returning Nissan owner...

Good evening all! Jamie here from North-East Scotland, and perhaps not surprisingly I have just bought a Nissan Almera...

I had two reasons for buying it, the first being that it was a great deal, and the second being that I needed it after the O/S/R brake line in my 1999 Focus failed resulting in losing all braking at 60MPH! Fortunately it didn't result in a crash, but the car just isn't worth the work required to repair it, plus needing an MOT in two weeks.

As a result, I came away with a 2003 Almera SE 1.8 manual with 98,000 miles on the clock in immaculate condition with MOT until mid-October. The price? £150. Seller wanted £200 which was already a great deal, but £150 in cash proved tempting enough to drive it away there and then. It also came with over half a tank of petrol, which was a nice surprise. All my previous used cars have been purchased running on fumes!!

Driving it 20 miles home showed no mechanical issues, clutch has plenty of bite and the engine/gearbox have no unusual sounds or loss of performance.

The only issue is with the "computer", but I will post a separate thread for that.

Back in 2015/16 we owned a 2005 Primera, with the same 1.8 engine as the Almera. It had over 200,000 miles on the clock and was an ex-taxi, but gave us no issues whatsoever, and is still on the road with its new owner. In my opinion the Almera and Primera were the last of the "traditional" Nissans, and after they were discontinued in 2006 Renault really took grip of the company and reliability went downhill as a result. Prior to that though, they were still solid cars that would last a long time with very little maintenance.

I also own a 1996 Peugeot 405 1.9 turbo diesel and a 2000 Ford Focus 1.8 petrol. Both great cars, but I don't want to pile the miles on either as the former is becoming more fragile in its "advancing years" and the latter has low miles (less than 70k) and I want to keep it that way, hence the Almera. Basically its purpose is a cheap car to use for work which will give me the balance between a reasonably powerful engine and decent miles per gallon. 115BHP and 37MPG seems just right to me.

I only have a terrible night-time picture I took last night of the car, but will get some better ones when I clean it up on my next day off, probably Sunday.

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I have an auto version of the car....55 plate bought for £4,500 in 2007 with 6,000 miles on clock.....no major probs at all
 
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