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BBC MUNDO RADIO
The new Cube is fun to drive and incredibly roomy; whether its peculiar look is the styling coup Nissan touts remains to be seen
MIAMI — Nissan's Cube is a stylistic coup or a catastrophe.
Car buyers will make their call when the car goes on sale in late May. Whatever their verdict, the Cube presents so many angles and peculiarities as to render other rectangular vehicles - Toyota's Scion XB, Honda's Element, Kia's Soul - square by comparison.
Your basic rectangular box holds more stuff than does any other shape, but the great challenge in putting this principle to work in vehicle design is in making it fascinating.
Nissan has developed its chops in this area having combined toy-like and retro cues in Japanese small vehicles like the S-Cargo and Figaro, and the Cube is merely the first product of this sort of collision of fantasy and reality to come to North America.
It's fun to drive and incredibly roomy.
An ultra-tight 10.1-metre turning circle eases progress through Miami and South Beach traffic. U-turns and parallel parking of the sort practised in Toronto also promise to rank high among Cube's assets. It zips around intersections and skates through exit and access ramps, remaining reassuringly upright.
Not that it's a Hot Wheels pretender. Rather, the 127-horsepower, four-cylinder engine is up to the task of keeping up with traffic while remaining sufficiently quiet for tunes appreciation.
The SL model of the Cube includes an upgraded audio with extra tweeters in the windshield pillars, MP3/WMA playback capability, speed-sensitive volume and radio data system.
The automatic transmission (continuously variable as on most other Nissans) suits the car better than the six-speed manual that's available only in the base Cube. We drive both and shifting gears seems more effort than reward.
But, what a surprise, the Cube fails to astound onlookers.
Perhaps South Beach denizens are suffering from Ferrari fatigue, but most seem not to notice Cube's over-the-top molten box of a body with windows reminiscent of the Renault R4 (1961-1994).
Check out the asymmetry of the rear glass. The glass wraps right around one rear pillar, but not the other. One side of the car doesn't look like the other.
Nissan's marketing campaign in the United States calls the Cube a mobile device, not an automobile, but apparently Miami doesn't recognize the difference.
"Our basic view is that vehicles under $20,000 accounted for 573,000 sales in calendar-year 2008 - 35 per cent of all light vehicles in Canada - and there is potential in this sub-$20,000 class for something different to do well," said Ian Forsyth, director of product and corporate planning at Nissan Canada.
The company believes it can achieve 8,000 sales in a calendar year, on top of the 22,000 for the more mainstream Versa, Nissan Canada's best-selling model. The corresponding increase in Nissan's market share would indeed qualify the Cube as a styling coup in the eyes of the company.
Few vehicles try so hard to please.
Getting in is easy. Cube's unusual height and the near-vertical windshield creates a larger-than-usual opening for climbing behind the wheel. Just step right in, little bending required.
Once there, whether you're wearing an Afro do or Stetson hat, you'll applaud the superfluity of headroom.
Elastic bands are optional - the dealership parts counter has genuine Nissan bands, although unauthorized rubber would surely do the job - to make use of the anchoring hooks built into the front doors to hold a cellphone or what have you. Two pegs (provided) fit into sockets built into various points in the luggage area as well as the lower dash, from which bags can be hung. The standard pegs are black; an additional supply of coloured pegs is optional.
Shag carpet is available not for the floor but for a spot hollowed into the top of the dash, where it sits looking for all the world like a bad toupee. Why? You can toss coins and sunglasses and stuff on it (although a lawyerly warning underneath advises against it).
Nissan claims Cube owners will come to think of their cars as rooms away from home.
Is the idea beginning to stir that Nissan is pitching this car to younger buyers? Does Disney hope to make a few more millions promoting Miley Cyrus? Yes.
Did we mention the optional 20-colour interior illumination? But Forsyth said that, beyond the digital generation that the Cube is expected to win over, older drivers also are expected to move from sedans and SUVs and to be attracted by a small vehicle with a large interior.
Room in the rear isn't as extraordinary as in the front, but is very good. A 6-foot-2 colleague lounged in comfort behind me so long as the rear seat was in its most rearward location (it slides among three positions as well as reclines).
Cargo capacity is of course affected by the rear-seat configuration, but Nissan claims an extraordinary 1,645 litres with the seats folded.
Because the rear door is hinged on the driver's side, the cargo area is easily accessed from the curb, in contrast to the doors of earlier Honda CR-Vs and the Nissan X-Trail, which followed the Japanese practice of swinging open to the right, blocking the sidewalk. The new-generation Cube - two previous models have been sold in Japan since 1998 - varies its door placement according to steering wheel location because it's intended for Europe and North America as well as Japan.
There are belts for three in the rear, but only two headrests. For more mature, i.e. full-figured, buyers, the Cube should be thought of as a roomy four-seater. Five leaner, more athletic, undoubtedly more digitally accomplished individuals can jam in for social outings about town - and none will complain of there being no place to put soft drinks. Holders are everywhere.
Pricing is to be announced before the end of April, but Forsythe indicated that the bulk of sales are expected to be in the sub-$20,000 range for fully equipped vehicles. Elastic bands and dashboard rugs, remember, will cost extra.
*****
2010 NISSAN CUBE
TYPE: Five-door sedan
BASE PRICE: TBA
ENGINE: 1.8-litre, DOHC, inline-four-cylinder
HORSEPOWER/TORQUE: 122 hp/127 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION: Six-speed manual or CVT
DRIVE: Front-wheel-drive
FUEL ECONOMY (litres/100 km): 7.3 city/6.5 highway; regular gasoline
ALTERNATIVES: Kia Soul, Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Matrix, Suzuki SX4
*****
Like
- Adaptable interior
- Loads of headroom
- Places to put stuff
- Tight turning circle
- Great city vehicle, okay on highway
Don't like
- Engine noise at high rpm
- Some wind noise at highway speed
- Ride not good over bumps
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