FARWELL TO THE NISSAN MICRA - FOR NOW...

18 years and more than 2.3 million cars after the first one, the last Micra has rolled down the assembly line at Nissan’s giant Sunderland factory.
Taking its place will be the new Juke, a small cross-over, an area of the market in which Nissan has done remarkably well with its Qashqai models.
The Juke may be the future but the Micra deserves a good send off. The original Micra became the first Japanese car to win the European Car of the Year title (1993) and that car, with its curvy shapes, continued to sell strongly for a decade.
Its replacement sold even faster and with it came new derivatives, such as the folding roof C+C.
Production supervisor Keith Watson worked on the very first Micra produced in Sunderland in 1992. He said: “It’s sad to see Micra production end in Sunderland, but we have a fantastic product replacing it in Juke. It’s quite an achievement for the plant to think there are well over 2 million Sunderland-built Micras out there.
The model’s departure from Sunderland does not signal an end to the Micra story. The all-new model, which had its global unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show in March, will be produced in several locations globally.