Nissan Almera

The Malaysian-spec Nissan Almera shares its cabin layout with the Micra hatchback sold overseas, with which it shares its platform, powertrain and much of the exterior design, especially at the front. While the base VL variant has an all-black layout of the dashboard, the other two higher variants have a dual-tone black and grey layout for the dashboard with soft-touch plastics in the middle layer of the dashboard. 

Apart from this, the inner door handles, spokes of the steering wheel, transmission lever, panel of the climate control and side AC vents of the dashboard also get premium-looking silver highlights. While the centre console has sleek trapezoidal AC vents in the upper centre console, the corners of the dashboard here get rounded AC vents. 

The steering wheel of the Nissan Almera has a flat-bottomed design, while the infotainment system in the centre console has a rounded rectangular design. The lower centre console has a slanted design, which houses the transmission lever and the engine start-stop button. The VLP and VLT variants also come with semi-bucket leather seats with black and grey themes. 

Pros and Cons:

Pro: Premium-looking dual-tone black and grey theme

Con: Outdated analogue speedometer in the instrument console 

Features and Technology

The Nissan Almera might not be the best one out there in terms of features and equipment on offer when it comes to comfort and convenience in the cabin. However, this compact sedan is decently equipped to match its youthful vibe. 

All the variants of the Nissan Almera do come with a tilt-adjustable steering wheel with audio and Bluetooth controls on it, carbon fibre pattern transmission lever, engine push start-stop button, driver seat height adjustment, front and rear centre armrests, three USB charging ports and four speakers for the audio system.

The higher-spec VLP and VLT variants feel more feature-rich with things like leather steering wheel, 7-inch TFT in the instrument console, leather seats, automatic climate control, 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and two additional speakers for the audio system. However, many new-age features, like sunroof, ventilated seats and wireless chargers are not present in the Almera. 

Pros and cons:

Pro: Many of the comfort and convenience features are offered as standard

Con: No sunroof, ventilated seats and wireless charger

Boot Space and Storage

With a boot space of 482 litres, the Nissan Almera is on par with most of the other compact sedans, with the boot compartment having good accessibility and space management. The sedan is also offered with the convenience of 60:40 split rear seats, so one has the option of folding down the rear seats and maximising the boot space even more. 

Besides having ample amount of room for five people, the Nissan Almera also has decent storage spaces within the cabin. The sedan has storage spaces in all four door panels, besides having cup holders in the lower front centre console and rear centre armrest. 

Pros and cons:

Pro: Huge boot space

Con: Door pockets are small

Since 2020, the Malaysian-spec Nissan Almera hasn’t received any single change in its exterior appearance, but it hasn’t robbed of the fact that it is still one of the best-looking cars within the RM 100,000 mark. The curvaceous design language still makes the Almera look very aerodynamic and upmarket.

The sides of the front profile of the Nissan Almera have angular trapezoidal housings for the headlamps, which have halogen arrangement in the VL and VLP variants and LED reflectors with boomerang-shaped LED DRLs in the VLT variant. These headlamps are placed on the upper side edges of the V-motion grille, which has a V-shaped gloss chrome garnish in the middle of it.

The front bumper of the Nissan Almera has the front grille extending to the bottom of its middle portion, while also housing trapezoidal LED fog lamps in the corners within C-shaped housings. Coming to the side profile, the Nissan Almera continues to have the curvy appeal to its design, with it having rounded wheel arches and a sharp crease running through the door panels.

Besides getting electrically adjustable and foldable rearview mirrors and body-coloured door handles as standard in all three variants, the Nissan Almera also has 15-inch steel wheels in the VL variant and 16-inch machined alloy wheels in the VLP and VLT variants. The C-pillar of the sedan has a thin black strip across its width at the bottom, giving the sedan a floating roof effect. 

At the back, the Nissan Almera has wide LED combination tail lamps, which have boomerang-shaped outer edges and triangular inner edges. Along with a body-coloured rear diffuser as standard in all three variants, the Nissan Almera also get a gloss black trunk lid spoiler in the VLT variant. 

Pros and cons:

Pro: Aerodynamic and curvaceous design

Cons: No fog lamps in lower variants

With the combination of a 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine and a CVT gearbox, the Nissan Almera claims a fuel efficiency of 18.4 kmpl, which makes it the most fuel-efficient car from Nissan in Malaysia. While in ideal city conditions, the fuel efficiency ranges between 12-13 kmpl, it goes up to 17-18 kmpl in highway driving conditions. In a full tank, the Nissan Almera claims an impressive range of 650 km. 

Pros and cons:

Pro: Impressive fuel efficiency on both city and highways

Con: City efficiency can drop down drastically in stop-and-go city traffic

With independent MacPherson struts with a stabilizer at the front and torsion beam with a stabilizer at the rear, the overall ride quality of the Nissan Almera feels plush at lower city speeds, while also staying composed at higher speeds. Even the steering feels well-weighted across all speeds, with the Almera having good high-speed stability and a low turning radius of 5.3 metres. 

Pros and Cons:

Pro: Good low-speed ride quality

Con: Nothing much actually

The fourth-generation Nissan Almera was the first-ever iteration of the compact sedan to get a turbocharged petrol engine. The 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine of the fourth-gen Nissan Almera produces a maximum power output of 100 PS and a maximum torque output of 152 Nm. While the engine feels responsive and refined in the mid-range and at higher RPMs, the overall performance and smoothness could have been better at lower RPMs. 

Pros and cons:

Pro: Decent mid-range performance 

Con: Performance and refinement at lower RPMs could have been better

The Nissan Almera gets all the basics of safety like dual front airbags, ABS with EBD and brake assist, vehicle dynamic control, traction control, ISOFIX mounts with child seats and reverse parking sensors, with side airbags and reverse camera available in VLP and VLT variants.

The Almera might not be getting the full suite of Nissan’s ADAS suite. However, it gets some of its advanced safety features like intelligent forward collision warning with forward emergency braking (standard in all variants), blind spot warning system (only in VLT) and rear cross-traffic alert (only in VLT).

Pros and cons:

Pro: Standard safety features 

Con: Only limited ADAS features

Competitor Comparison

Besides having Honda City and Toyota Vios as its arch rivals, the Nissan Almera also competes with a few other new-generation compact sedan offerings like the Proton S70, Mazda 2 sedan, and MG 5.  

Conclusion and Final Verdict

With this fourth-generation version, the Nissan Almera went through a drastic change, which made it look much more stylish and aerodynamic than its predecessor. While the design hasn’t changed much in quite a long time, it still looks fresh due to its curvaceous design. The interior feels well put together, and while it lacks a few key features, it is still a decent and comfortable space to be in. Like before, the Nissan Almera is a comfortable sedan to drive and be driven in at varying speeds, with the new-generation turbocharged petrol engine offering decent performance on tap.