You have limited budget, where National's and Korean's cars are not in your shopping list, and you "die die" want to get a Japanese car for its reliability, ease of maintenance, second-hand value, then stop shopping around, as the Nissan Almera is your one and only choice. With the price staring from RM67k and RM70k for the down-to-earth basic manual transmission and autobox variants respectively, no wonder people are flocking to Nissan's showrooms to let go of their pay cheque. As simple as the Almera gets, is a 1.5-litre CVVT engine, capable of 101hp/139Nm of power. Just decent enough to ferry your daily workload in the city and cruise through your occasional vacation along the highway. 4-speed autobox and 5-speed manual transmission variants are available.
On the safety side, the basic E variant come with only driver-side airbag, which is a shame here as even our National's cars come with minimum of two nowadays. Choosing the upper range of V and VL variants, you will then get dual airbags. However, it is good to see that all variants are equipped with Anti-Lock Braking system and ISOFIX mount point. The rest of the features where you pay extra for are stuff like front fog lamps, remote trunk release, automatic aircon, steering wheel audio control, push start button, keyless entry, and some garnishes here and there.
Nothing much to shout about with the Almera, but the rear legroom is incredibly huge, and it is the largest when compare with others in the same B-segment. Nissan has make this a real comfort and economy car to own. Uh...the "underwear" look of the steering wheel really need to be updated. With a splash of the Nismo bodykit, the Almera does look slightly better. But, in my humble opinion, it still looks like a Nissan March with a boot bolted on at the back. It is now in the facelifted generation, and in another 2-3 years, let's hope for a real handsome looking Almera. For now, the price of the Almera so attractive, making it hard to resist for first time Japanese car buyer!
