Identify this car for me please

Almera Tino, 2000-2006.

Take a bland stodgeback, and over-inflate it. Then look surprised when it doesn't sell very well.

Brilliant, cheers. Typed that into google and the first pic up was an identical silver one.

An exact description. ;-)

With the blandness of Nissans generally I can't see what makes it any worse than the rest of their fayre! Mind you, go the other way and the CashCow sells hand over fist. Do people still think Nissan = Japanese reliablility or something? Or are they particularly cheap?

The CashCow is a decent car, if that's your bag.

Practical, good value, well equipped and generally reliable.

I don't think most people know they're owned by Renault, though.

Probably because they're not. Or, at least, it's not quite that simple.

Renault own 43% of Nissan. Nissan own 15% of Renault. One single global holding company controls both - and owns 3% of Daimler- Benz, who own 3% of Renault-Nissan, which also owns 2/3 of AvtoVAZ in Russia...

One thing the global motor industry isn't...? Simple.

Give me a Nissan GT-R - anytime.

Why?

They're little more than a Playstation game made real.

An old friend had a Datsun Cedric Estate, a very pleasant, reliable and capacious vehicle, but it just disintegrated, the engine was still perfect when the car was scrapped with about 150k on the clock.

After too many years of buying crap I got a Datsun Bluebird and since then have always bought Jap. I go back to Ford Anglias. Mrs Pounder is now on her third Nissan Micra and would never consider buying anything else.

I like the simplicity of the GT-R, the fact that it's a humble Nissan; not a super car brand name. But the design is so right.

Simplicity?!

Bwahahaha!

Have you ever been near a GT-R, or even looked at the specifications?

They probably have more driver aids than any other car available today. You can drive one like a complete ham-footed wanker and it'll bail you out of just about anything.

The _what_?

It's _anything_ but simple.

Bwa-ha-ha. Each generation Micra has got less reliable than the previous. The last model would eat rear wheel bearings at stupidly short intervals - impressive for a light FWD car.

Don't think there was much in it between the K10 and K11, to be honest.

We've had three generations of Micras and been 100% satisfied.

It comes from having a friend who's worked her way through three and, while each has been ever newer, seem to have developed more ridiculous problems. In idle reading I've found other people say the same. It's not particularly scientific or in-depth, I've just put it down to getting involved with Renault.

Which is the K12 and K13, then.

K11s are great little things, massively underrated.

Friend had one from new with an incurable (he said) water pump - leaks and overheating.

I thought it was pretty unrefined compared to say a Ka. The (petrol 16V) engine sounded like a box of spanners.