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Car #1
Make
Model
Variant
Engine
Car #2
Make
Model
Variant
Engine

compare selected cars
1997. - 2006.
B - City car
hatchback, 3 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2003. - 2005.
B - City car
hatchback, 3 door
front

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4081 mm
1724 mm
1498 mm
209 liters
769 liters
55 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
3715 mm
1660 mm
1540 mm
251 liters
584 liters
46 liters
1997 Volkswagen Beetle
2003 Nissan Micra

Engine

Audi / Volkswagen
1.8 5V AEB
Petrol
4 - Inline, 5 valves per cylinder
Turbo
1781 cc
150 hp
210 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
1386 cc
88 hp
128 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 5 gears
1251 kg
9.1 s
203 km/h
11.1 l/100km
6.7 l/100km
8.3 l/100km
199 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 5 gears
945 kg
11.9 s
172 km/h
7.9 l/100km
5.4 l/100km
6.3 l/100km
154 g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
cvt - gears
945 kg
15.0 s
158 km/h
8.6 l/100km
5.8 l/100km
6.8 l/100km
163 g/km

Expenses

1400 EUR
Price from
1500 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the city car segment and utilize the same 3-door hatchback body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Audi-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 20-valves 150hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 88hp engine designed by Nissan.

Safety

The first thing to look into here would be the results from European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) tests performed on the two cars. Good thing is that both vehicles got tested, with the same number of safety stars gained in the process. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the city car segment, which is generally not a very good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? Furthermore, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the German car offers a potentially life-saving difference of 32% more metal.

Reliability

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Nissan does have a slight advantage, when all the models are taken into account. These are the results of an independent reasearch, while our visitors describe reliability of Volkswagen with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the Nissan badge with 4.3 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Beetle as average reliability-wise, and Micra is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as the German car rank it on average as 4.5, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 3.7 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

Volkswagen is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2.8 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 203 kilometers per hour, 31km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the Japanese car, averaging around 6.3 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (45 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 32% difference compared to the German car!


Verdict

Nissan appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the German car offers much better overall protection, which launches it ahead of the other contender. It all continues in the same direction, with Volkswagen being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... It's really tough to make a final decision here, but if I'd need to, I'd say Nissan. Nevertheless, let's not forget that people have different preferences and needs, so what really counts is your personal feel. I'm only here to help. I suggest you spend two more minutes in order to find out which car, based on your needs and budget, would be picked by the virtual adviser, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.

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