Successor to Nissan Sunny arrives in Singapore

By Tony Ng

The successor to the Sunny and Latio has been unveiled in Singapore.

Branded as the Almera in Southeast Asian markets, the Thai-made car has a relatively wide shoulder width with a new chrome-accented front grille (see photos below). In China, it retains the Sunny brand.

Underpinning the car is a new global 'V' platform that is touted to be around 68kg lighter than the previous platform.

Driving the Almera will be an all-aluminium, fuel-efficient 1.5-litre engine mated to a four-speed automatic transmission.

Rated fuel consumption stands at 6.9-litres/100km while power and torque comes in at 99bhp at 6,00rpm and 134Nm at 4,000rpm respectively.

The family car is touted to have class-leading cabin space. Rear legroom is expansive at 636mm and effective cabin room stands at 1,828mm.

Safety features include an anti-locking braking system, brake force distribution and brake assist, with two front airbags.

Variants

Three variants will be offered. The entry-level Comfort variant will come with factory-fitted 15-inch wheels.

The Premium variant has several enhancements, including 16-inch locally fitted wheels, keyless entry and push-start, leather-covered steering wheel, audio controls on steering, and a remote key release boot. Both entry-level and premium will have leather upholstery.

Nissan distributor Tan Chong is also bringing in a five-speed manual transmission variant with the same specifications as the Comfort model.

Mr Ron Lim, general manager for Nissan distributor Tan Chong Motor, expressed hope that the incoming Almera will lift sales volume.

Another five to six models, including a hatchback for the compact segment will be coming next year, Mr Lim revealed.

The Almera arrives after a long absence of new Nissan bread-and-butter models. The last one in recent memory was the Nissan Sylphy in 2006, positioned as a premium saloon.

The distributor is making the car available for preview at its Ubi showroom at 19 Ubi Road 4 before production begins in December.

It will be priced, with COE, from $91,300 onwards for the manual, $95,300 for the Comfort, and $98,300 for the Premium.

A $1,000 pre-launch discount is offered to those who book now. Nissan owners get another $1,000 off.

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Finally Nissan introduces a new bread&butter model after the Sunny's "dominance" for about a decade and seriously needing a change. Sad to say though, it's no longer made in Japan. At 99bhp, it seems that power has taken the backseat with emission rate and fuel efficiency taking the priority.

Interior wise, Nissan designers have taken a bold step in making the dashboard look cute, and cheap, to be honest. S$95k for a car that would have sold for only S$55k back in the days of year 2005-2009. It is not hard to imagine how well this will sell.