Faults:

Only the usual service and consumable items have needed changing such as tyres, brakes discs and pads, and the odd bit of body trim where the previous owner had damaged it.

The parts that I did need to replace that cost a lot of money were the remote locking plip key - this was £150 from Nissan, and the EGR pipe from the exhaust manifold to the EGR valve was cracked and blowing out exhaust gasses; noisy as well. This small pipe was £60 from Nissan (just to supply, not to fit...I did that myself) which I consider a real rip off. This is clearly the Renault influence, as Nissan is now owned by Renault (I believe) and Renault parts have always been sheer extortion.

The radio LCD display tends to be a little unreliable; it fades out in cold weather so I cannot read it. My old Mondeo did this as well, so I was a little annoyed to find that this car had the same problem.

The 6 CD multichanger does not like playing CD's that I record myself on my PC either.

Had to change the pollen filter as the previous owner had never done this in 100,000 miles - it was totally clogged! No wonder the car was always misting up inside. This always gets neglected on services and is hidden away in ducting behind the glovebox, but took me 10 minutes to change - filter is £15 from Nissan.

Considering I only paid £675 for the car off Ebay, and spent £700 putting it right replacing the parts above and giving it a good service, I have still got a really good car for my money, which subsequently flew through the MOT.

General Comments:

I am very impressed with this car, as it drives very nicely and I like the CVT auto box very much. It's so different from driving a conventional automatic, but the only downside is that acceleration is not brilliant at 11 seconds from 0-60. The manual is 2 seconds quicker than this. However, I am now 36 and my days of driving like a loony are over and in general, I am perfectly happy with its performance. I would say that this CVT Tiptronic box is well worth the small sacrifice in overall speed, as it is so much easier to drive than a manual and so smooth in how it works.

The interior is very well laid out and seems very well screwed together with no rattles; considering the car has done 100,000 miles, this shows how durable Nissans are. I particularly like the climate control, usually only range topping models get this, but all models in the 99 - 02 model range get it as standard. Well done Nissan for not being cheapskates.

The car has all the other bells and whistles, but does lack heated seats and cruise control, but I can't have it all for £675 now can I?

Slight areas of rust are apparent though over the front wheel arches - a common problem on all cars of this age and mileage and easily rubbed down and treated, but generally it's not too badly affected.

All in all a very good bargain. My Aunt had one from brand new (2000 model sport+ Auto) and had it for nearly 7 years with only a couple of minor hiccups. She was pleased with hers as well and only replaced it 2 years back with a Toyota Avensis, which is also a superb car.

However the big problem for Nissan is now that Renault are in the equation, modern Nissan have become unreliable, as I have seen by reading other reviews on here. Renault have not got a good track record where reliability and quality are concerned. Just read reviews on here from 2001 on, on the Laguna Mk2 and Megane Mk2 - just page after page of blue faces and angry dissatisfied customers. If this is what Nissan has now become, then this Primera will be my last and only Nissan, and I will go for Toyota next time.

Renault are a dreadful company and I have had a Renault in the past - it was a money pit, so never again.

To sum up, this Primera is a great car: handsome looks, reliable, and a pleasure to drive. But now that Renault have taken over, the dealer service is rubbish and parts prices have rocketed, so take this into account when buying any old Nissan.

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong.

General Comments:

Brilliant station wagon, has some pull under the bonnet.

This car features a 4WD 5 speed LSD gearbox mated to the 2nd generation sr20ve engine (204), which has been tuned to give as much as 240bhp of N/A power, which was done by the previous owner in Japan. It's a very quick wagon, even with that it maintains a 8.65l per 100km in normal mode, or 9.15l at trash mode, still very economical with its LEV NEO direct injection, instead of the ECCS system.

All the bells with this car, every possible extras, which some Primera's from the JDM market don't have; side airbags, (curtain), adjustable xenon lights, Autech body kit, has big rotors at the front, makes the 17inch light weight alloys look small, must be 12.5-13, Autech sports exhaust, makes the most of the VVL roar! White dials, Recaro seats, very nice interior, full tints, lowered on Jamex springs, 7500rpm, Nissan VVL (like Honda VTEC but much more violent) kicking in at 5000 then 6700 RPM, mechanical music, scares some turbo cars.

I had my Impreza wagon 2.0 WRX traded in for this. The dealer had no idea about the car, he hadn't even test drove it (just said it looks like a show car; Primera's are left behind the turbo 2.0l wagons Mitsu, Toyota, Subaru offer). I took it for a spin and never looked back; the LSD 4wd box works amazingly well with the violent engine, no torque steer, understeer like the Mazda 3 MPS my girlfriend owns, has a bit of oversteer, as the diff has been set at 40-60 split.

The previous owner was a worker for Nissan tuning house Autech, what a score. I can safely say I have one of the fastest N/A 2.0 station wagons in Nz.

Sad thing is EDM never got the Primera with the sr20ve engine, 0-100k must be around the high 6's, not bad for a 4WD station wagon, mainly because 231nm of torque arrives at 4800rpm, just before 40-50bhp is released by the VVL system; fantastic system. It's shame Nissan haven't used it in their Tiida or Micra, or made a sport compact with this engine.

Oh would I sell this car? NEVER.