The Nissan Almera once took the B-Segment crown two years back before the new City, Vios, Attrage and Polo CKDs entered the foray. Now after almost two and a half years since its introduction in October 2012, it’s high time now for a refreshed variant. Here’s what we have from the latest brochure.
Our neighbouring country – Thailand to be specific, has received the Almera facelift as early as January last year, but runs on a smaller 1.2-litre three cylinder engine to benefit from the country’s eco car incentives. The Almera that we will be getting soldiers on with the exact same 1.5-litre HR15DE naturally aspirated engine.
So what’s changed? Well, the headlights for one, is reshaped to fit the company’s current design shared with the Sylphy and the flagship Teana sedans. It also gets a revised front grille, chrome accents to the fog lights and new side mirrors with integrated signal indicators. Also new is the wheel design, measuring at 15-inches and wrapped with 185/65R15 series rubbers, same as before. Its rear lights however, remain the same.
Inside, it gets a new steering wheel design and black touches to the centre console, mainly the air conditioning dials (previously matte silver). We expect many of the current creature comforts such as keyless entry and push-start to be carried over in the VL trim.
Underneath the hood, again, is the same 1.5-litre engine pushing 102 hp at 6,000 rpm and 139 Nm of torque at 4,000 rpm. Both the five-speed manual and four-speed automatic transmission are offered here as well. As with the previous Almera, there’s a good list of packages to choose from on top of your new Almera – from the RM750 Elegance Package all the way to the RM14,000 Nismo Performance Package. According to the leaked brochure, we are the first market to get the RM14k Nismo package.
Five colours come with the Almera: Bronze Gold, Tungsten Silver, Diamond Black, Brilliant White and Graphite Blue. All Almeras come with a three-year or 100,000km warranty programme, and priced the same from the current RM67k to RM80k range.
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