The Nissan Almera has started getting its mid-life update in regions where it is sold around the world, with the first ASEAN country to get it being Thailand in January this year.
The facelift is more of an evolution of the ‘kamishimo’ trapezoidal face that Nissan was employing on its cars when the Almera made its debut, with bigger headlamps and more chrome on the front grille. This face has since been superseded by the new V-motion grille. In fact, the Pulsar hatchback start off with the kamishimo face and got updated to the V-motion face for its European debut.
So we had this idea – what if Nissan had gone the V-motion route for the Almera facelift instead? Malaysian rendering whiz Theophilus Chin whipped up these renderings for us showing how a Nissan Almera could look like with if it was given a major facelift. Do you think it’s better than the real facelift?
What you can do in a facelift is quite limited, especially on a relatively low-margin B-segment car, so most of the body shape has been retained to keep the rendering’s prospects as a ‘facelift’ realistic.
The Almera was responsible for Nissan Malaysia distributor Edaran Tan Chong Motor’s sales to skyrocket from 28,318 units in 2012 to 45,780 units in 2013. The Almera revolutionised the B-segment market in Malaysia with a low automatic transmission entry price of under RM70k.
But the Almera’s competitors came fighting back with a vengeance – both the Toyota Vios and Honda City received new models and Almera sales dipped across the region in the first half of this year. Australia even decided to drop it from the country’s line-up.
You can see that there seems to be stark differences in how the B-segment sedan market is carved up now – on one hand, you have cars like the Vios and the City who seem to have moved so well up the value chain that they are now bigger and more premium, with more equipment than ever before, rendering C-segment cars irrelevant to most buyers.
On the other hand, you have cars like the Nissan Almera and Mitsubishi Attrage which seem to have been planned around the Thai eco car program with 1.2 litre engines, thus end up being noticeably more low rent. Other car companies like Honda didn’t participate in the program with their sedans, instead choosing to field new models like the Honda Brio.
The Almera of course remains the most affordable 1.5 litre B-segment sedan at RM 69,827.00 – the Attrage undercuts it by offering a 1.2 litre sedan for RM 67,978.50. The most affordable automatic variants of the City and Vios are priced at RM 73,626.00 and RM 75,087.50 respectively. You can compare the mentioned entry-level B-segment sedans at CarBase.my.
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Oh wow, the ugliness! it has disappeared! Hooray for our eyes!
True, this look much nicer but too bad still got big But.
Hope the interior will be update.
Nissan good job on facelift this.
While hope it will be true.
Ugly or not, it is subjective to personal preference. Personally, I think it is sexier than the Preve/Suprima S front. The rear looked like shrunk C class.
One point is definitely objective and fact based: this Nissan is definitely more reliable than Proton.
pity sam lor
try to bodek nissan n bash proton
now tan chong , DRB tag team bash umw
malunya sam lorrr
” Nissan says:
10/9/2014 at 11:55 am
Nothing is uglier than Vios rear light design even much hated proton has a better design. I vote the Vios design worst design in century head to head with Proton Juara.”
Ugly or not, it is subjective… Just like your gf/wife, you may think she is the sexiest lady in the world while we will think “so so only”…
Looks doesn’t matter, build quality does. Pity Proton never have that.
pity sam lor umw salesman
nak kawan dgn tan chong n bash drb proton
tapi tan chong bash vios umw pulak
hahsha
The front definitely huge improvement. The backside.. still feel like kena banged.
still more reliable than a proton
yes almera, city more reliable than vios
This almera copied 80% of the previous two generations of vios. The other 20% that doesn’t look like vious are the nissan logo and backside, which is more ugly that old vios.
Almera, City, Attrage… sushi cars rock!
Proton? The cars sound good in the fanboys’ words, not in reality.
sam loor butthurt
try to friend friend with tan chong n drb
but rakyat smart oredi
umw cant friend with drb n tan chong
As long as it is kimchi cars, it will have no RV.
As long as it is Proton, it will have no build quality.
No matter I friend with whom, Proton junk build quality still the same.
Yaka Abu Sayur? Ah Beng selalu nampak Almera skidding tepi longkang jalan. Almera poor safety and ride & handling..Hahaha
no matter… drb proton honda, tan chong different class with low class umw
umw vios only comparable with proyon saga flx
hahaha
Are they changing the headlamp same like Latio?? The front grill similar like X-Gear..Ah Beng don’t like Latio the design aren’t attractive in Malaysia market..Nissan you can do better than this. Anyway, new buyer will look for Iriz sedan and new Saga if Nissan continue to use backward design..Sigh..
the render look good but the rear light need to go..
If the facelift does look like this… Then here we have a good looking car for RM 70k segment… which is big contrast to the pre-facelift Almera…easily the ugliest car in the market along with Panamera… or i called it, ‘vomit-induced’ design… or some say, ‘constipated design’
Nothing is uglier than Vios rear light design even much hated proton has a better design. I vote the Vios design worst design in century head to head with Proton Juara.
nice said nissan
sam loor malu
tried to fried with almera.. praise almera bash proton
but tan ching nissan guy bash umw vios
hahahah
sam lor butthurt
looks way better than Nissan sunny facelift India. hope its coming soon to msia :D
This is rendered by theopilius chin, so there is no change it will come to malaysia.
The facelift (the one already launched in Thailand) is worse than the pre-facelift Almera. The renderings by Mr Teophilus looks much better in comparison. Seriously, is Nissan trying to shore up sales by making it uglier? If really can’t improve on the looks, how about improving on safety and quality of the interior instead.
This is a vast improvement than the previous ugly stuff…
The main prob of Almera design is the rear and the interior.. Can’t understand why they focus more on the front..
the front look much more matured than the last ugly one. but the rear.. oh why.. why they don’t facelift the rear design.. pity. but all over, it is way better now.
THIS IS NOT THE REAL FACELIFT. This is only a rendering by Theophilus Chin…READ the article carefully and completely…..this is the problem with majority of our readers…..
current one really is hideous…just unflattering…doesnt have any interesting angle
its like these are the words where u never mention talking about almera,nice,attractive,well propotioned,pretty,muscular,sexy….!
and from a horrible experience few months back , this car CANOT take the hills in Genting , i kid u not , if u dont rev more than 5k rpm u r not going anywhere…hillarious seeing wira’s 1.3 jus passing by….
only the huge space inside is going for it….
Nice rendering. Thought it was official for a while, up to the point where I started reading. It’ll be a nice change from what’s currently available, make the Almera actually look desirable.
good job tan chong
tan chong tag team with drb honda…. now vios sales getting worst
umw salesman sweating
Facelift model dah lama keluar di Thailand…hampir 1 tahun…Malaysia baru nak keluar…come on Nissan Malaysia…Sama macam Honda Civic FB…model di Malaysia masih tak keluar facelift…di Thailand dah lama keluar…
Please improve the butt! It is UGLY. It is not proportionate nor balanced visually. The tires looked skinny fom the back. Change the bumper!
nice. but interior need to improve .
Proton! Hire this Theopilus guy. And give that man a cookie!
Ask Paul Tan what it takes to be a real car designer. Being just a Photoshop expert is not good enough, unfortunately. I have yet to see a free hand sketch/ideation from Theopilus.
You have thousand ways of designing car. You can even design using clay. If someone don’t really good at free hand sketching doesn’t mean he/she cannot be a “real” designer. And Photoshop can be considered as a designing tool. Heck even it is not,at least we can see realistic car designs.
The front of the rendered facelift is not bad. But the rear, still can be improved hahaha
Another name of it the Nissan ALMARI.. (cupboard)
ugly side profile
and we go like “car designer! you had one job!”
New B-Segment Sushis will send shakes and shivers up the spine of C & D Segment kimchis
Afterall, 15 month old units of C & D Segment kimchis sell in the used car market for around the same price as a 3 year old sushi B-Segment.
Trading in value is another story altogether
Nice.. Theo.. you just gave free ideas to Nissan. . I ve tested Almeera. . Honestly. . I like it.. hit 120km with ease. .
Unfortunately. . I can’t accept the current look.. too feminine. ..
vios = dugong
Almera = beluga whale
the body ratio is so wrong, no matter how u change the face, it still looks ugly.
theopilius chin is so talented. Nissan should hire him!!
sad part is that 85% of the readers don’t even bother reading the article, they just look at the pictures and start bashing.
THIS IS Theopilus RENDERING AND NOT EVEN AN OFFICIAL FACELIFT!
Geez you guys, i blame our education system
front looks better but the rear OMG almost the same…esp. that ugly tail lights…
Ugly or not is very subjective to individual.
However, it satisfied many families with limited budget and provided another option besides national cars.
almera.. good
city.. good
preve… good
low class segment
umw vios
ptoyon saga
New Vios E still the best from the rest of its rivals with its legendary VVT-i engine and super-ect gearbox . plus good resale value .
Almera was never a cup of tea for me. Besides the design (although with a facelift), still does not capture my attention.
The main reason..safety and handling. Very poor.
some of the above text is misleading. Actually B-segment car is just a small market in australia, unlike malaysia where B-segment car is majority of the cars on the road.This is why Almera stop selling in australia. Australians prefer SUV type vehicles. As a matter of fact, vios and city are both not even sold in australia. Vios market is just limited to asean countries.
ahem
http://honda.com.au/cars/models/city.html