Sunderland Does Four-Door
by Ross Finlay (09 May 01)

The looks of the Almera hatchback may be an acquired taste - it's the curious rear roofline, mainly - but a lot of people have acquired it, judging by the number of these cars around. Now, Nissan's Sunderland factory is getting ready to introduce the four-door saloon, which has much more conventional . . . well, four-door saloon rear styling.

The saloons go on sale at the beginning of June, with a start price of £11,065 for the 1.5-litre S version and a top price of £13,500 for the 1.8-litre SE automatic. So the Almera range will take in three-door and five-door hatchbacks, four-door saloons and the ingeniously laid-out Almera Tino mini-MPV.

There's been a four-door Almera on sale in Japan for quite a while now; hatchbacks aren't the "in" thing over there. In fact, despite the way-round the different versions have been introduced here, the Almera was created, in Japan, as a saloon in the first place. The hatchbacks, mostly the work of Nissan's UK technical centre at Cranfield, came second in the design calendar, although the Sunderland factory hasn't had a four-door production line until now.

Something which hasn't altered with the change in body styling is the colossal number of on-board stowage spaces, lockers, hangers, hooks and holders. If you don't need them you probably don't notice where they all are, but if you do need them they're very handy. There's everything from a sunglasses holder, handbag hook and pen holder to a slot big enough to take a modestly sized road atlas of the kind which often gets left scuffing around the floor.

A Briefing Session

And on the SE, the little pull-out hook on the forward edge of the rear seat, with a briefcase diagram on it is, indeed, a fastener for a briefcase. You have the feeling that Nissan will get very cross with any owner who doesn't keep the place tidy.

The fascia layout of the saloon is the same as in the hatchback, with that unusual radio set-up where the controls are built into the central console, rather than being on a separate radio "face". Everything's sensibly planned, the interior finish is good, and the trim materials are much better than in some Japanese-built cars in this class. You can sense a UK influence in the interior design.

There often have to be compromises, though, in modifying a hatchback design into a saloon. In the case of the Almera, while the saloon obviously has a much roomier boot, it doesn't have a particularly convenient rear passenger cabin. At least, it's OK once you're sitting there, but it can take a few contortions by a lanky passenger to extricate the feet from under the front seat, over the sill and out through the narrowish rear door opening.

In a six-variant range, there are three different power units. The entry-level 1.5 S has an 88bhp petrol engine which is also available in the £11,915 SE. The larger petrol engine is a 117bhp 1.8-litre installed in the S at £11,735, the SE with manual transmission at £12,585 and the SE automatic at £13,500.

Diesel: Torque Plus Decibels

Top of the range is the 2.2-litre Di available only with the SE equipment level at £13,475. Nissan's turbo diesel cars tend to be strong in performance, and torquey, but noisy with it. That's exactly the situation with the Almera saloon. The 107bhp Di engine pulls vigorously, but it's only on a light-throttle cruise that you forget what fuel it's using.

The Sunderland factory does a good job on build quality, not just as far as external panel fit and body finish are concerned, but also in the finicky little details inside. Equipment levels are quite high, too. Even the S specification includes air conditioning, central locking and a height-adjustable driver's seat.

With the SE you add ABS with Nissan's own brake assist system, side airbags, and that briefcase holder plus umbrella straps. There's also remote central locking with what has proved in the past to be Nissan's very effective alarm system - effective to the point where I still blush with embarrassment about having once, accidentally, set one off. Talk about an anti-theft alarm with a banshee howl!

The SE also has different tyres which are said to cut the amount of road noise apparent inside the car by 20%. Could be. But the road surfaces we have in this country are so varied that I wouldn't spend too much time, one hand cupped to an ear, counting up from fifteen.

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