The Nissan Versa Found here:
http://www.nissanusa.com/versa-hatchback/?next=Versa_Sedan.VLP.Versa_Hatchback.VLP
I took this car on a rather long trip:
It was about 600 miles. The weather was cold, with some rain and some snow.
I had the car for a week.
Ok, so first off I have a confession to make. I
wanted to hate this car. You see I want american cars to be better than the little cheap foreign jobs, so that's what I wanted to happen.
It didn't. A few weeks ago I had a Chevy Aveo, and well you saw how that went. UGH...
This time around I was given it's competitor from Nissan, and well....
First off it's small right? Not so fast... it actually had ample room front and back, as well as plenty of space for my luggage, ect...
It also didn't feel cramped... I'm not sure if this is the headroom talking or not, I'm a little short for that to matter most of the time, but I have to say I didn't feel like it was a tinny tiny car.
The right rear seat does fold down, I was just being lazy, and the front seat was all the way back, so the headrests were arguing.
It is a bit of a downer that the seats don't fold truly "flat".
You can see the extra headroom I'm talking about here on the right -->
Now, on the down side... the lines of this car are or at least seem to me, to be a little feminine. At least at first glance, I think it's the front and rear styling that does it, while the sharp angle on the rear doors may offset it some, you have to be looking for that to notice it.
The hatch has an electronic "button" rather than a handle, which adds a nice upscale feel, and is self assist... most of the time, however in the cold, it did need some pushing, this is obviously due to excessive use from being a rental car.
Nothing special from the front, but nothing bad either.
The Versa is rated as 28-34 MPG. My drive was mostly highway, with two days of in town buzzing around, and I got 30 on the money.
I wanted it to do better, which tells me I had started to like it. This is one reason I wouldn't buy this car, for now... 30MPG just doesn't qualify as a reason to buy a "little" car anymore.
You can get a Chrysler 300 with that!
The power plant is a little one, however it is geared well for buzzing around town, with no scary lag between mashing the pedal and getting out of the way. At highway speeds it did feel a little exhausted, however nothing that was "out of the ordinary". What I found odd, was the nagging feeling that it was missing one more gear... I was usually sitting around 3000 RPM at highway speeds. While this added to a sporty feel with better throttle response, I couldn't help but wonder about wear and tear, and the over all MPG that was lost in the end.
One other issue that would give me pause on this little car is the driving position... it's... just wrong.
The steering wheel is tilt, but from too low, your choices are uncomfortable or more uncomfortable... and don't get me started on what that means in an airbag deployment...
Also, it really would benefit from a right side arm rest... you just have no where for that right arm to go....
As a plus, the "elbow pad" on the door is AMAZING, it's soft and feels great... but with the wheel at such a crazy angle, you can't really use it for your elbow...
So over all I wanted to hate it, wound up liking it, and would consider one if I was looking for a cheap, little buzzer car. It's well appointed, well thought out, sans the driving position, and that pesky missing gear...
I'm going with 3.5 out of 5 on this one. As I would have one if I was collecting cars.
