IT never ceases to amaze me how once humble little lead-in models grow to be advanced powerhouses of technology in their own right.

Take the Nissan Micra for instance, a little hatchback that appeared in 1982 to replace the Nissan Cherry.

This was a neat but basic model that had a big following when it came to British shores because of its reliability and amazing economy due to a specially developed petrol engine, low weight and particularly high gearing.

It soon became a favourite with the Micra fan club growing beyond expectations and it is still here, now in its fifth generation, being regarded as a textbook example of how a model moves with the times.

The Micra of today is a five-door hatchback aimed at providing first class supermini travel for the family.

It has an upright, upswept edgy style to it as though the hatchback is trying to burst from its shell and transform into a SUV Crossover.

And it is packed with technology including a system called Intelligent Trace Control which prevents understeer by softly feeding in an element of braking.

It keeping with competitors, Nissan goes a long way with colour options and there are co-ordinated touches all over the car that make it special in its quest to stand out from the supermini crowd.

The car driven was an up-range N-Connecta powered by a punchy and surprisingly silent 1.5 Dci 90 diesel via a five-speed manual gearbox.

Overall this was a surprisingly balanced car to drive and, in keeping with the Micra of old was massively economical with a combined mpg readout of 88.3 with the start-stop system on.

The 0-62mph sprint is achieved in 11.9 seconds and where permitted this little powerhouse can zoom along to 111mph.

In N-Connecta trim, the Micra comes with a raft of safety and convenience technology including NissanConnect seven-inch touchscreen navigation and entertainment system including a DAB radio which I consider a must in a car like this touching the £18,000 mark.

A traffic sign recognition system is another plus.

Comfort is there in abundance and there is plenty of room in the rear seats which ticks the box for those looking for compact family transport.