The little Micra sold all over the world will be coming to Canada in early '14 as a 2015 model. It will be motivated by a 1.6L, 4 cyl. engine that is also found on the Versa Note. Elsewhere in the world it is powered by a supercharged 3 cylinder engine and often known as the Nissan March. The Canadian version will put out a whopping 107 HP vs. the "world" version at 97 HP.
The Versa Note goes for $13,500 in Canada and the Micra is intended to undercut that, targeting the urban dweller in need of cheap and gas frugal transportation. Which is why it is NOT coming to the US. The Versa here in the States is already one of the two (I think there is a Mitsubishi that is a tad cheaper) cheapest vehicles available and Americans evidently are not expected to embrace an even smaller vehicle.
The Micra has been popular in the world of Rally around the world and was driven by veteran Swedish rally driver Per Eklund to the 21st position in the 1988 RAC Rally and a 10th place finish at the Acropolis Rally Greece in 1989. Head to Great Britain or Europe and you will see the Mirca/March rallied competitively all the time. So maybe there's hope a Canadian driver might put this little mini-mobile to good use in the near future!
Heck, give this TFL video a perusal...they test the 3 cylinder engine version....but it should be fairly close to the Canadian version...and hey, look!! A stickshift!
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