   2015 Nissan Micra SR Road Trip. Click image to enlarge |
Anyway, we’re soon past the slowpokes through Kamloops with a brief pit stop, and then onto what turns out to be the unexpected highlight of the drive. Highway 5A trickles down at a slower speed parallel to the 120 km/h Coquihalla, but it’s a gorgeous, winding piece of tarmac that follows the lines of lakes and rivers in a sparsely populated landscape dubbed the Empire of Grass. We stop for the night in a little log cabin that overlooks Stump Lake, with a strong wind idly drawing shapes on the indigo-blue waters, and the clouds marching in.
The next day dawns bright, and we’ve not far to go. Happily, one of BC’s new higher-speed highways lies in our path, so it’s 120 km/h down the Coquihalla from Merritt to Chilliwack, and then 110 km/h most of the rest of the way into Vancouver from there. There’s a lengthy stop at the grandparents to split the trip, which means it’s evening as we cross the span of the Port Mann and take up residence in the high-occupancy vehicle lane with just a half-hour to go.
 2015 Nissan Micra SR Road Trip. Click image to enlarge |
Total distance: 990 km, with an elapsed time of somewhere just over eleven hours, not counting stops. It’d be an easy day’s drive for two adults, but splitting it up with the kid on board makes life a little easier, and lets you explore.
And really, apart from a few sections where a Fast & Furious snoot full of nitrous would have been handy to get past someone, the Micra’s been a completely competent travel companion. Even with the relatively high speeds and up-and-down driving, the average fuel consumption has dropped to the point that the final fill-up charts an average of 6.4 L/100 km. It’d be possible to do better in a larger sedan with a less-taxed engine, but that’s actually slightly better than the official rating – thank you, more realistic 2015 fuel-economy standards.
Aside from weathering a gusty ridge or two, the Micra hasn’t been taxing to drive, nor felt unsuited to the task, and it’s been quiet enough that the youngest member of the expedition spent most of her time asleep. While this SR model has too many goodies to be thought of as properly representative of the base model, the Micra as a whole indicates that the idea of a penalty box at the low end of the automotive scale is effectively gone. Spending very little gets you quite a lot of car.
Or, rather, it gets you enough car. It gets you enough economy to handle commuting, a tight turning circle for urban hustling, and perfectly reasonable high-road performance. The Micra isn’t more than you need, it’s just what you need, and that’s a rather pleasant thing.
Of course, for this kind of money the temptation is to start hunting around in the used market and see if something a little more substantial wouldn’t be possible, but for a new car with a full warranty and an option to finance at not-unreasonable rates, the Micra’s tough to beat. Big country, little car: never mind what the dating profile says – it’s a perfect match.
Pricing: 2015 Nissan Micra SR
Micra: $9,998
Micra SR: $15,748
Options: $1,089 (four-speed automatic transmission – $1000; all-season floormats – $89)
Freight: $1,400
A/C Tax: $100
Price as tested: $18,337
Competitors:
Chevrolet Spark
Fiat 500
Ford Fiesta
Honda Fit
Mazda2
Mitsubishi Mirage
Crash Test Results:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)
