1.0 litre engines

Pmarie82

Hello 
I love Nissan micra cars and an opportunity to purchase one has came my way 
I live in a rural area lots of steep hills 
My concern is will a 1.0 be powerful enough for these 
I have see various 1.0 models pass through here but not the steep side of things 
I really want this car 
Any advice would be very welcomed please thank you 

Herzlos

Every modern car should make it up most hills, just not quickly.

Can you test drive it and try one of the steeper hills?

sevenhills

It depends on what you expect, will you be bothered if you and being followed by a faster car up those hills?

I had a Daewoo Matiz 800cc, it is nicer to be able to keep to 40mph.

Ebe_Scrooge

^^^^ This.  Unless you're planning on towing half a ton of horse-box behind it, it'll be fine.  Any modern car will be designed such that the engine is capable of moving it up any hill you're likely to encounter on the road.  Yes, it may be be slow, and you might need to drop a cog or two if it's a really steep hill, but there's no reason it shouldn't be able to cope (assuming, of course, that the engine is in reasonable nick, and it's not missing a cylinder or two).

BOWFER

It depends on whether it's turbo-charged, you don't say the age of the car.
A lot of smaller cars run 1.0 turbo engines now, of varying power levels.
All of them will perform very well up hills, peak torque will be delivered from around 1800rpm onwards.
If it's not a turbo then the engine just has to be revved harder as peak torque won't be until something like 4000rpm.

Car_54

The current 1.0 Micra produces 91 bhp.

My 1980 1.6 Cortina only produced 74 bhp, and must have been considerably heavier than a Micra, but it managed to take hills in its stride.

BOWFER

Car_54 said:

The current 1.0 Micra produces 91 bhp.

My 1980 1.6 Cortina only produced 74 bhp, and must have been considerably heavier than a Micra, but it managed to take hills in its stride.

Torque is even more telling
Cortina 118Nm at 2500rpm, those old 8 valve engines produced torque much lower than 16 valvers.
But Micra 160Nm at 1750rpm.

Brie

I've got a VW up which is a 1 litre and have no problems on hills though I do have to feed the gerbils a bit more afterwards.  

I used to have a tiddly Honda with a slightly bigger engine which would strain a bit on slopes on the way to and from work but as we were car sharing there was 3 large people in it that may have something to do with this.

lordmountararat

I had a 600 cc Citroen CV2 which managed hills OK, though you had to work the gearbox and keep your pedal to the metal.

nick74

lordmountararat said:

I had a 600 cc Citroen CV2 which managed hills OK, though you had to work the gearbox and keep your pedal to the metal.

My mum had a 2CV many years ago when we lived on the edge of the Peak District. There was one particular hill that flat-out it would go up at 45 mph, and down at 75 mph!

Nobbie1967

I’ve got a 1.0 107 and have been over Hardknot Pass in the Lake District in it without a problem, you just need to drop into second or first and rev it a bit if it get steep and twisty.