New muscular Micra is a smart and modern motor W

HEN I was asked to test drive the new Nissan Micra, my brain conjured up images of a dinky little motor perfect for buzzing around a busy city.

But dinky it is not. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no Rolls Royce Phantom, but the best adjective I can think of to describe it is... muscular. This is a car with presence.

There is no denying that our Nissan Micra Tenka test model has a smart and modern feel.

On getting in for the first time and watching the dashboard display light up I was slightly alarmed by the number of bells and whistles it comes with (my own car is 15 years old and has a working speedometer and petrol gauge and... that’s about it) but it all turned out to be gratifyingly straightforward and user-friendly.

I didn’t spend long (well not very long) looking for the ignition before realising there is a start/stop button, and the car helpfully instructed me to put my foot on the clutch rather than just fruitlessly pressing the button.

The built-in sat-nav is almost ridiculously easy to use, and very conscientious – it reminded me at every junction to stay on the motorway, although that did make me feel a bit like it didn’t trust me.

After a couple of days I realised the beeping noise it kept making happened when I put the indicator on while there was a car in the lane next to me – which I believe is called ‘intelligent blind spot intervention.’

Yeah, the Tenka definitely doesn’t trust me (or any of us, in fact). It is bristling with so many proximity sensors that you’d really have to be going some to hit anything. Which is a good thing, obviously.

The 0.90 litre, three-cylinder petrol engine gives an efficient 61-81mpg and it’s easy and very comfortable to drive with ramrod straight seats that give me a posture my mother would be proud of.

The Tenka is decked out with Bose speakers (fancy) so the sound quality is excellent, and it has Bluetooth, an MP3 player socket, USB port with iPhone connection, and ‘smartphone app integration.’

So if you own a device that can’t be played on the stereo system, well, it feels like that’s your own fault. Personally, I’m happy with Radio 2.

One thing I found slightly odd was the tinted back windows and rear windscreen – I can only imagine travelling in the back seats would be quite a gloomy experience, and it looked like it was always night behind me (if that’s not too poetic). But it would be useful if you had a celebrity to convey.

But quite possibly my favourite thing about this car is the ‘rain sensing auto wipers,’ also known as windscreen wipers which time themselves according to how wet it is. Never let it be said that I’m not easily pleased, but they are seriously amazing.

Prices on the road start at £18,310, and our test model – which came with a few optional extras, including the intelligent blind spot intervention – is £19,860.

If the Tenka were just a little city car that would be quite a lot of money, but I think it’s fair to say it’s a bit more than that.