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End of an era at Nissan

ALMOST 18 years of history came to an end at Nissan’s Wearside plant on Friday night as the last Micra rolled off the production line

Between 1992 and today, the plant has built close to 2.4m units of the popular small car which will now be produced in India, Thailand, China and Mexico.

Staff at the plant will now build the new Juke model on the former Micra line from mid-August.

Nissan said the Micra had “attained iconic status at the plant where it has been produced for almost two decades”.

“I think everyone will be sorry to see the last Micra come off the line. When you produce a model for as long as we have produced Micra, it almost becomes part of your plant’s identity,” said Kevin Fitzpatrick, VP Manufacturing.

“Micra’s departure frees up capacity on our lines meaning we can now look forward to producing the Juke in August.”

“It’s sad to see Micra production end in Sunderland, but we have a fantastic product replacing it in Juke. It’s quite an achievement for the plant to think there are well over two million Sunderland-built Micras out there,” added production supervisor Keith Watson, who worked on the very first Micra produced in Sunderland in 1992.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .