Ross Finlay finds the Primera has a place for everything

The old boundaries between ''British'' and ''foreign'' cars have long since been breached. Diehards may regret that, but the linking together of management know-how from other countries, and British production-line workers' ability to adapt to new systems, means that most of our present-day car factories are unrecognisably better than the automotive versions of dark, satanic mills which represented the motor industry as recently as the early eighties.

Japanese-owned factories, in particular, enjoy the benefit of having been designed from the ground up on greenfield sites. But there is more to it than that. Last summer, Nissan's factory near Sunderland was rated, in an independent economic report, as the most productive car factory in Europe.

Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) was set up in 1984, to operate in an area with no previous experience of volume car manufacture. Its first staff member, Peter Wickens, not only had the job of firing up the process of building the factory, but even had to design an application form for other would-be employees to fill in. John Cushnaghan, second man on the staff, is now deputy managing director.

The first car built for sale at Sunderland was a white Bluebird two-litre saloon which came off the line in 1986. In the years since then, investment has been poured in, facilities improved, and space allocated in and around the site for a number of Nissan's suppliers. Just-in-time production is a lot easier when the suppliers are almost within shouting distance.

Activity has increased to the point where the factory now builds the Micra and the Primera in various body styles, in record numbers. Last year it turned out more than 271,000 cars, more than 200,000 of them for export.

These cars are not just being flung together. Sunderland matches Nissan's Japanese factories in quality audits, and the Micras and Primeras, when looked at closely, prove to be very well finished.

Latest model in the Nissan range is the Primera estate. It has the same general mechanical specification as the saloon, which means a choice of 1.6 or two-litre 16-valve petrol engines and a two-litre turbo diesel.

There are GX, SLX and SE trim and equipment levels, and on-the-road prices range from #15,995 to #19,625. Nissan's NATS II alarm system, which has proved embarrassingly effective on previous Primera test cars, is standard on the two upper grades, a dealer-fit extra cost option on the GX.

Styling was carried out under Frenchman Stephane Schwarz's direction at Nissan's European design studio in Munich. Then the company's European Technology Centre at Cranfield in Bedfordshire played a major role in the engineering of the car, which is, of course, actually built at Sunderland.

Nissan in Japan left its European design and technical groups to ''convert'' the Primera into an estate, a process which is by no means simply a case of slapping on some extra panelling. Suspension changes, to cope with the possibility of carrying heavy loads at the back of the car, have to be made too.

What they have come up with is a fine looking estate whose rear-end styling avoids the two faults from which some other examples in the same class suffer. It is not so squared-off as to appear like a converted van, and the side window line looks entirely natural.

This is a carefully thought-out estate, with rear seat fold-forward arrangements, suspension elements kept well out of the way so as to obstruct the load floor as little as possible, a 12-volt power point, a cargo net and a separate under-floor storage area.

However, somebody at Nissan had a brilliant idea which had not occurred to any manufacturer before. It was so sensible and clever that the company craftily applied for a patent on it.

The main part of the load floor looks...well, like a carpeted estate car floor panel. Turn it upside down, and it becomes a 4in deep take-out washable tray, which will either extend the height of the luggage which can be accommodated under the security blind, or cope with things like garden refuse, muddy boots or a dog which has spent too much time dashing around on a wet sandy beach.

Is the Primera estate, though, so practical that it tends towards the stodgy and utilitarian? Far from it. The multi-link suspension system, which gives the saloon and hatchback such sporting and responsive handling, has transferred very satisfactorily.

On a route which featured miles of winding roads well provided with cambers and brows, I felt the estate was slightly down on ride quality compared with the other versions, something unavoidable after the suspension has been firmed up.

But the way in which, when driven hard, it hugged the road, with each ''corner'' playing its part in keeping the car four-square and stable, made it clear that those enthusiastic drivers in the Nissan engineering team have done it again.