The new Primera T-spec won’t just be the most comprehensively equipped car that Nissan has ever sold in the UK when it goes on sale 1 March. It will also be the most feature-laden car that’s yet been made available for under £20,000.

Just as the Skyline has its V-spec range topper, the Primera range flagship will be the T-spec. The T stands for technology, a theme which runs right through the entire Primera range. And the features that Nissan has included in the spec of the T-spec have been designed to make life on the road as safe and as easy as possible. Though having said that, boys who are into toys will find hours of amusement to be had playing with the Primera T-spec. And that’s before they’ve even driven it.

But let’s list those standard features first – just the major items or we’ll be here all day.

7" colour display monitor and N-FORM dashboard

DVD satellite navigation

Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC)

‘Plug & Go’ mobile phone integration

Electronic Stability Programme (ESP)

Rear view camera

Rain sensing wipers

Auto dim rear view mirror

Xenon headlamps with wash, front foglamps

Electrically adjustable and heated front seats

17" alloy wheels

Climate control air conditioning

Thatcham category 1 approved alarm system

CD radio with upgraded speakers and subwoofer

Leather upholstery in choice of ‘Indy’ or ‘Parchment’ designs

Electric tilt/slide glass sunroof

Electric front and rear windows

See what Nissan means about this being the most comprehensively equipped car in its price sector? The company understands that some of the items listed above will have you scratching your head e.g. how can cruise control be intelligent? Well, the T-spec’s speed setting system uses lasers mounted on the Primera’s nose to monitor the car in front. If that car slows, the Primera will slow, too, and without its driver moving a muscle. N-FORM, too, has probably left you none the wiser. But sit in a Primera T-spec and you’ll certainly see Nissan’s wisdom in coming up with a totally new way of minimising the increasing number of switches that today’s car dashboards are cluttered with – this is N-FORM which at the same time makes the operation of the T-spec’s many functions quicker and more intuitive.

One of these is the satellite navigation system. Sat nav, as those in the trade call it, in itself isn’t an unusual standard item. But the T-spec adds DVD technology so more road information can be stored, all of Europe in fact, and to make the system react faster. It’s clever, too, for example routing you automatically to the nearest fuel station when it senses the car is running low on fuel.

The roads are shown on a 7" colour screen smack bang in the middle of the dashboard. This same screen also displays what’s behind the car when reverse gear is selected. Never thought your car needed a rear view camera? Try parking a Primera T-spec and you’ll wonder how you managed without it.

Same with hugely illuminating xenon headlamps, rain sensing windscreen wipers and heated, electrically adjustable seats. A CD music system with subwoofer is harder to justify but it makes being stuck on the M25 rather more bearable. That’s the time we often catch up on phonecalls, usually illegally by sticking a mobile to our ear. Ah, but you won’t be in a Primera T-spec which has standard ‘Plug & Go’.

Stop thinking hair shampoo, ‘Plug & Go’ allows the driver to plug his or her mobile into a cradle situated between the front seats. Phone calls can be made and taken using the controls on the N-FORM dashboard. Yes, the level of functionality varies from phone to phone (the latest Nokias being the most suited) but there’s a cradle for almost every mobile on the market. Before you take delivery of your T-spec, you tell your Nissan dealer what phone you’ve got and your ‘Plug & Go’ is tailored accordingly. The feature isn’t just convenient, it’s a boost to safety, too. As is electronic stability program which aims to prevent the driver losing control in the event of a high speed manoeuvre. Reassuringly, the T-spec is also fitted with a six pack of airbags.

At this point, most of Nissan’s direct rivals will tell you how much more you’d pay for the likes of an Audi A4 or Mercedes-Benz C-Class equipped to the same level. But there’s not much point carrying out this exercise with the Primera T-spec since some of its standard features aren’t even offered on its German rivals. At any price.

What Nissan will say, though, is that the T-spec’s bulging equipment pack yet low price relative to these cars makes it a very tax efficient choice for the company car driver. (It should also attract the ‘user-chooser’ who isn’t allowed to be too choosy with a car’s optional extras list which in the Primera T-spec’s case is minimalist in the extreme.) Talking tax – sorry, we must - the new Nissan is likely to fall into the 23% of list price benefit-in-kind banding as all six T-specs are powered by the same 140PS 2.0-litre petrol engine recently introduced in the X-TRAIL.

With this can be teamed two different gearboxes, a six-speed manual and, at extra cost, Nissan’s innovative M-CVT transmission that offers seamless automatic gear
changes with the option of manual gear selection should the driver be in the mood for some fun. And on top of this, Nissan offers three different bodystyles: the four-door saloon with that shape which has got everyone talking, an elegant five-door estate that’s more practical than it looks and from July, a five-door hatchback which will make tail-fins fashionable all over again. Can’t give you prices just yet. Or performance figures. These will be revealed closer to the car’s on-sale date.