THE Nissan Almera was a pleasure to drive. Sometimes I get huge vehicles to cruise around in for a week. The Almera wasn’t one of these. Look, it wasn’t tiny like some city cars, but it certainly was practical.
It’s perfect for a family with small children. A good way to describe it would be to say it’s an ‘affordable, spacious family vehicle’.
It’s available in both manual and automatic, although I am reliably told that the automatics are still on their way to South Africa.
That’s amusing, because Nissan must have sneaked one across the border for us motoring journalists to test-drive.
My wife, not known for an abundance of athletic skill, loved the fact that it was automatic. We have a driveway on which 4×4 vehicles may enjoy a ride, so the clutch can sometimes take a beating when she reverses out. But not in the automatic.
The manual version is currently available at Thompson Motors and is priced at R165 000. The automatic is R175 500.
It’s powered by a 1.5l engine and kicks out 73kW of power at 6000rpm. Peak torque of 134Nm is reached at 4000rpm.
Power at take off was impressive and it was stylish enough, with sufficient bells and whistles.
The interior was tasteful without being overdone.
The Almera has a huge boot, 490 litres in total, and so we fairly easily managed to pack the bags, pram and sleeper cot for the one-year old on a trip to visit the grandparents.
Golf clubs would have had to go inside, but were forbidden for this outing.
60 years of fun
DO you still have your old Matchbox toy cars? Well, hang on to them as they could be collectors’ items.
That’s according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Matchbox celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. It was launched in 1953, a year after designer Jack Odell created the first tiny car for his daughter so she could take it to school.
It was a school rule that pupils were allowed to bring in only objects that would fit in a matchbox.
When classmates started clamouring for their own matchbox cars, Odell started the firm.
Since then more than three billion Matchbox cars covering 12 000 different models have been produced.
Bumper to bumper, they would encircle the Earth at the equator more than six times.
Lighters out, power points in
HYUNDAI is to stop putting cigarette lighter sockets in cars made for the domestic market in favour of a USB power point.
The South Korean giant said its decision would affect all passenger cars and SUVs.
It appears to be the first auto company in the world to make this change.
Hyundai’s decision followed a domestic survey that showed many drivers used the lighter jack to charge mobile phones or tablet computers.
Car lighters are no longer offered as standard in the US or Europe.
