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 5-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 Daihatsu-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 3-cylinder, 12-valves 58hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 68hp engine designed by Nissan.

The fact that the Nissan got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, offers a slight advantage, as the 4-star rating is better than none. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the city car segment, which is generally not a very good thing safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. On the other hand, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, Micra offers a considerable difference of 29% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Daihatsu does have a slight advantage, when all the models are taken into account. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Daihatsu with an average rating of 4.1, and models under the Nissan badge with 4.3 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed Cuore 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 Cuore rank it on average as 4.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 5.0 out of 5.

Daihatsu is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 3.5 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 145 kilometers per hour, 9km/h less than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be Cuore, averaging around 4.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (59 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 23% difference compared to Micra.

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, Micra beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. From there things take a different direction, with Daihatsu outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! It's really tough to make a final decision here, but if I'd need to, I'd say Daihatsu. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.