The Good, The Bad and The Ugly?!

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Any motor nuts out there

what are your thoughts on the Nissan Almera 1.5 S 3-Door Hatchback 2003 model. done 27,648 miles £2790

We have been looking for cars, viewed a Nissan Almera 2001 model yesterday that we liked, but was £3699 with more mileage (and was an older car!).

Have viewed What Car - just looking for personal opinions.

Give me your good and your bad thoughts!

Ta!
GJ x

Hintza

From this week's honestjohn column in the Saturday Telegraph:-

Rump stake

I've about £4,000 to spend and am considering either a Ford SportKa, Ford Puma or a Nissan Almera 1.8 auto. Are there any particular problems with the Almera's fuel consumption or reliability? Would a performance version of an old-shape Vauxhall Corsa or Ford Focus be a better bet?
M.H., Reading

A SportKa 1.6 is fun to drive and quite good value. An Almera is deadly dull and a Puma could be on the verge of all sorts of problems, especially rust in the rump.

jeannieblue

What sort of car appeals to you GJ? Size? You said 3 door, so are we talking Corolla/Focus size or Fiesta/Yaris size? Manual or Auto?

I like cars for their shape and colour - and how much the spares cost - so would avoid a Mitsubishi for one......

Its all very personal with who likes what etc. For the amount of money, say 3k - you have alot to choose from.

BillScarab

Almera's are OK, my father in law has one and he's had no problems with it. However as it says in the comment above they are incredibly dull. However if you're not bothered about image you could do worse.

The comments below are form https://www.4car.co.uk

"
Assets

Easy to drive, comfortable, reliable
Drawbacks

Very dated, not very sporty, cheap plastics in cabin, uninspired to drive
Verdict

A worthy choice which should be dependable, but lacking the sparkle or quality of its best European rivals. Below average."

harveybobbles

Almera's are dull. And the 3 door is a total kiss of death!
but they get you from A to B a million times over. In a vauge kinda way...

jeannieblue

I don't do dull if can help it - in saying that, I drive a Focus, but it is a nice blue and I did get it for a really good price and really low mileage, plus its auto which suits an old lazy moo like me

Focus' are really reasonable at the moment - and think they are ok to look at. I like Corolla's but couldn't afford one, why Toyota stopped making them is beyond me.

I also like Mazda's alot - parts reasonable, come in nice colours and the lights are pretty

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Top Gear is back..........

AdrianHi

GoldenJill wrote: »

what are your thoughts on the Nissan Almera 1.5 S 3-Door Hatchback 2003 model. done 27,648 miles £2790

That seems like a fair deal as £2745 is the https://www.parkers.co.uk price for a private sale for this car, you should be able to knock a few hundred off in this buyers market. The £3699 one is a rip off.
We had an older 1997 Almera, good to drive, cheap to look after, fuel economy so so, styling about as exciting as a wet week end in er.... somewhere very grey and boring.

If you can stretch to £5K a Mazda 3 is fun, great drive and reliable. Depreciation is slow by this age so if you can raise the £5K in the long run the costs are not significantly higher than the £3700 car.
After that £2700 on an Almera is no bad choice, just not very exciting.

kitchpoo

The OldVera is not my car of choice. I had one as a hire car, 2002 1.5 S. Drove 200 miles in it, to the Midlands on a wet.windy night and pulled out on a dual carriageway to overtake a lorry to find it gutless and weirdly geared making brisk passing hard, and also as we drew level with the lorry it was buffeted by the wind badly. Test drive one/a few, even if it is an overpriced one to get an idea of how it rides and if it sits you.