Nissan ditches cute look for new Micra

Nissan is throwing out the current oddball look for the Micra as it seeks to a bring the small hatch back to the front of buyers' minds. The previous two generations of Micra, which made good use of unthreatening, cute styling, sold steadily but the current model (which kept the look but lost some of the quality and driving appeal) has failed to catch on in the same way.

So, for the new car, due in 2016, Nissan is going right back to the drawing board, saying that "Innovative design and product planning gave birth to Nissan Qashqai and Juke, two of the biggest automotive success stories of recent years. What would happen if the company applied the same radical thinking and quality standards to one of the most important sectors in Europe: the small hatchback? Sway is a glimpse at how a future generation of small Nissan models could look if the company's striking new design language was applied to a European hatchback. "

Indeed, so different is the car in its look that the Micra name, in use since 1983, could be dropped altogether. Nissan will also make major changes to the way the car is built. The chief culprit in the current Micra's sales decline has been a lack of cabin quality, thanks to the car being primarily engineered and built for emerging east Asian markets. Nissan says that this will change – it won't ignore the new markets, but the new car will be engineered more to European tastes. Micra sales in Ireland have halved in the past eight years, falling from more than 2,300 cars in 2007 to just over 1,000 last year.

The car, whatever it will be called, will also be a significant clue as to the look and styling of the next-generation Juke, which is due in 2017.