1.4 Acenta 5dr Hatchback

Efficient and economical to run

INITIAL REVIEW - JANUARY 2013 - I bought the car new in 2010 and have been largely pleased with it. My need was for a car that I could keep for 10 years and 150k miles with the minimum of fuss and expense, and having done a bit of research the Note seemed to tick the most boxes as far as I was concerned. Quality is pretty good generally, although I was annoyed to find rust coming from the tailgate when I changed the numberplates, but this was the result of the supplying dealer drilling into the metal when fitting the original numberplate and leaving bare metal exposed to the elements. I got very cross, and to be fair they promptly fixed it (On the subject of dealers and maintenance, I think the service intervals are way too long at 12500 miles. I change the oil + filter myself every 6k miles using very reasonably priced - cheaper than Halfords - genuine Nissan oil and filter, with a dealer service at every 12000 miles. I really do want to get at least 150,000 miles out of this car!). I'm averaging 41.3 mpg over a mixture of 50% town, 50% dual carriageway driving, and in 34k miles at the time of writing the car has been totally reliable. I did have one scare at 10k miles when, during a check of the fluids, I discovered the coolant was very near the minimum in the reservoir having been at the maximum not many weeks before, but I topped it up and there has been no further problem. I do miss having a proper temperature gauge, though! The car is a little low geared for motorway work I find, but bashing along at 80 mph is just about acceptable from a refinement point of view and the wife and sons find it a comfortable enough ride as passengers. The interior has put up with quite hard use very well, and scrubs up nicely, as does the exterior. Tyres last about 24k miles if you employ a sensible system of rotating them to even out the wear, and the brake pads are about halfway through their life. A good car, not flash or in any way aspirational, but useful, reliable and practical. UPDATE - APRIL 2014. The car continues to be a reliable and useful tool - mileage is now 55k and I've had no further issues at the time of writing. Fuel economy has improved to 42.6 MPG, and it's now on its 3rd set of tyres (I've stuck with the original equipment Pirelli's), and the front discs and pads were replaced at 46k miles (the dealer was being a little over-zealous I suspect, but I played it safe). I'm sticking to the 6k DIY oil change, 12k main dealer service regime and it appears to be paying dividends. All being well, I shall report again at 80K! FURTHER UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2015 The car has now done 80k miles with no dramas. I have treated it to a set of winter tyres, and did a DIY front brake disc and pads change at 79K which was a doddle. Still using the main dealer for servicing at 12k intervals with DIY oil + filter changes in between. An excellent car, roll on 120k miles :-)

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