nissan almera-any good?

[oman5]

A work mate is looking at almeras, they seem to be dirt cheap even in good nick (around P to T reg) are they cheap because they are shit, or because its an unfashionable old car? worth buying?

[Father Ted]

Unfashionable old giffer image car, worth buying.

[Negative Creep]

They can rust badly. The immobiliser can pack up as well, which will write the car off as its integral with the ECU. Pretty good to drive, although the base modles have a truly miserable standard spec

[oman5]

Thanks for replies, I have relayed this advice to my mate. he's going to look at one this afternoon, P reg, long T+T £325.

[scooters]

The only car I have bought new. Miserable car 1.4 is horribly rubbish...spend your 500 on a mint 1984 sunny saloon as well.

[Pete-M]

I had a 1.4 Equation as a company car when I worked as a Nissan salesman. It was cheaper to go to work in my Carlton GSi 24v auto.

 

Almeras are shit. They handle ok, but that is their only redeeming feature. They give Ka's a run for the money in the rot stakes, have a careful look at the sills and front crossmember - it's rare to find one with either intact.

[ashmicro]

Sorry, couldn't resist

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP_owPXQjJQ

[Autoplas]

They did a professionals one as well from memory

 

Phil Cornwell - top bloke

[Justin Case]

Friend of ours has had a P reg (I think ) one for about 7 years and absolutely nothing has gone wrong with it in that time other than routine service and replacements, but it has only done about 95,000 miles which is fairly low for a car of that age. It also still looks pretty smart inside and out. Neighbours have had a W reg (first of the new shape) since new and again no trouble. According to the owner of our local garage, who swears by them, the only ones that the crossmember rots on are about 02 reg (possibly due to a batch of bad steel) and the timing chain can stretch and cause problems if the oil isn't changed frequently. Mrs A's Almera is coming up to 8 years old and normally she would have changed it by now, but she can't see anything better that doesn't come into the arm and a leg price bracket , so it looks like it will stay.

 

In short, get an early or late one and make sure that it has been looked after and you can't go wrong. I know that it isn't in your mates price bracket, but a late SE is also surprisingly well-equpped (climate control, etc)

[Danblez]

I had one for 6 years and 80k miles, never missed a beat.

 

Cheap to tax and run generally but oh so dull and under powered to drive (1.5l pez at least)

[danthecapriman]

I dont like them personally, very dull and not even remotely interesting at all. But thats just me. I suppose if you want a cheap car to run about in you could do alot worse.

 

One of the guys I used to work with had a T reg one, he used to bang on and on about how reliable it was, how cheap to run it was etc etc, and slagged me off for having old rust bucket fords! He had it in for MOT one day and it failed miserably on rotten sills!! He soon stopped slagging my cars off! A few days later he was moaning about the steel they are made of being so thin it was hard to weld to! Oh how I laughed!

Im sure he mentioned something about pollen filters on some models being hard to get to/change aswell but I cant remember now.