Nissan Almera SRi/GTi

[Chris71]

Hi,

Are these any good? Need a cheap, dependable runaround/motorway car and surprised to see the insurance is still pretty good on the sporty versions, so I'm now quite tempted. I was planning to spend around a grand, but looks like I might need a little more than that for a decent GTi, but they can still be had for about £1200 it seems.

Can anyone tell me what the differences are between the SRi and GTi? It's only supposed to be an "ok to drive" workhorse rather than a weekend car and also has to do quite a lot of motorway miles.

Erm..... anything else to look out for? I'm all ears.

[trickywoo]

GTI has 140bhp which when it came out was well up in the power league. Had good write-ups in the press on the whole.

Edited by trickywoo on Monday 6th August 14:49

[Chris71]

After a bit of digging (slow day at work!) it seems the SRi is just a trim spec - it seems the GTi was the only one with the sports suspension or the 2.0 litre engine.

Interested to find out what the lesser models are like to drive. Are they any good on the motorway? Presume they have the same suspension set up, just softer springs, so still fun?

Any idea which models you can get AC on? That's the only creature comfort I'm quite keen on getting, just incase summer should ever return

[only1mikey]

Along the same lines but bigger... have you thought of a primera gt? Same insurance group as the almera gti and same price to buy... plus a bit more practicality and more composure on the motorway i should think. Think they are 150bhp IIRC.

[Fusion-Ed]

Good engines. Pretty rapid if played with. Have worked on a few turbo converted Almera's and I have to say I would happily own one. Not sure about specific spec however. Pretty much the same for the primera good mechanics quite fun when tweaked agian. Both suffer a bit of an image problem, but they are both reliable if serviced, and the engines are great.

[Elsarius]

My first car was a '99 SLX, a great buy for the money. The handling is sharp and the car is very well balanced with suprisingly little roll, but at 99hp the 1.6 engine isn't exactly exciting. I haven't driven the GTi, but from the feel of the SLX I would expect it to handle the extra power very well - much better than, eg, a golf (the company had a top of the line golf 2.0 diesel for a while, and boy did it wallow in the corners!). For A/C look for an SLX or better, but they are relatively rare; most people who buy nissans are boring old misers who go for the basic models (and don't deserve to drive a Nissan).

That fact also amazed me about the "new" shape Primeras: my Dad picked up the top of the range T-Spec, 2.0l 6-speed manual, EPS, 17" alloys, all-leather interior, laser-guided cruise control, rear view camera, excellent sat-nav with a 7" colour screen, rain sensing wipers, "proper" integrated mobile hands-free, climate control, 6-speaker audio, 6x airbags, etc. etc. etc., and all this in 2001. I think it was £22k new. An incredible price for the kit level, but it's the only T-Spec I've ever seen - everyone else bought the distinctly average 1.8 S or SE.

[liner33]

Chris71 said:

After a bit of digging (slow day at work!) it seems the SRi is just a trim spec - it seems the GTi was the only one with the sports suspension or the 2.0 litre engine.

Interested to find out what the lesser models are like to drive. Are they any good on the motorway? Presume they have the same suspension set up, just softer springs, so still fun?

Any idea which models you can get AC on? That's the only creature comfort I'm quite keen on getting, just incase summer should ever return

My mum had a SRi for 7 years and it was a great car but not very quick, just a 1.6i engine . Easy to work on a quite a nice drive though