Nissan Micra X-Shift First Drive Review

In a market where its competition regularly sells about 20000 units every month, the Nissan Micra is one of those few cars that potters along on the sidelines giving great service to the few who bought it. In fact, the Micra is also one of the few hatchbacks that we here at ZigWheels quite enjoyed and although the one we had last year for almost six months was a diesel, the one we have here today is different.

Well, for starters, it comes with a petrol engine, which has been mated to an automatic gearbox. Eagle eyed viewers might wonder ‘hasn’t an automatic petrol Micra been on sale for ages?’ and yes you would be correct. However, up until now, the Micra automatic was only available in the top of the line XV version, but now, the CVT gearbox will also come in the mid-level XL variant and will be christened the X-Shift.

The Nissan Micra X-Shift is pretty much the same car as it has always been. On the exterior front, the egg shaped design that we personally like continues. The bulgy bonnet combined with the equally bulgy headlamps does look quite cool and so do the well-crafted LED tail lamps. For this particular X-Shift special variant, the Micra does get a few additional trinkets on the exterior to make it a tad more appealing.

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For starters, it gets a blacked out roof and a racing stripe down the side of the car. The Micra x-Shift also gets an exhaust tip and chequered flag accent piece on the doorsills. The X-Shift though does not get alloy wheels and front and rear fog lamps, which does make it look slightly underwhelming.

The new Micra X-Shift also get the facelifted interiors that we have seen in the updated Sunny. A more mainstream unit that has chunky dials for the air conditioning controls has replaced the funky round centre console. The infotainment system also gets a refresh and comes with USB, Bluetooth and an AUX input port. The new Micra X-Shift also gets a new steering wheel that has been borrowed from the Sunny too along with steering mounted controls.

Although the Micra’s interiors have been updated, we preferred the older ones simply as these were different and stood out from the norm that everything else in the segment seems to be adhering to. The Micra though is quite spacious and does offer a decent amount of room both in the front and the rear. The large glasshouse too is easy to see out of and the new X-Shift variant also gets rear-parking sensors to make it easier to park.

The Micra X-Shift gets a 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine that makes 76PS of peak power along with 104Nm of peak torque. Although the new car comes with an automatic CVT gearbox, it does return a respectable mileage of 19.34kmpl which incidentally is higher than the manual one. The CVT gearbox itself is very smooth and has almost no jerks as compared to a regular automatic. That said, if you are a spirited driver, the CVT does seem to be a little unresponsive at full throttle performance (even in sports mode) and seems to behave best in start-stop city traffic situations.

So to sum it up, the new Nissan Micra XL X-Shift with a CVT gearbox does have a lot going for it in terms of its refreshed interior, funky overall styling, decent space and adequate performance. Compared to the other automatic cars in its segment though, especially the Maruti Suzuki Swift, the Honda Brio and the Hyundai Grand i10, the Micra still seems to be slightly lacking in terms of overall fun.