Car Review: Nissan Versa

I've been driving a Nissan Versa for a week now. I hate it.

I'm not a fan of the ultra-light, all-plastic feel of the car as zips along the road. I was in constant fear it would be airborne if I encountered a breeze, a pebble or a mosquito. The turbulence trailing a semi was entirely too uncomfortable.

I could understand if not approve of the engineering decisions which lead to such a ride: it's an entry-level vehicle so it won't have the deluxe ride of a high-end car. And obviously, one of the easiest way to make a vehicle more fuel efficient is to reduce the mass of the vehicle overall.

What I don't get are a number of very obvious user comfort decisions which seem to be to have been weighted in the direction of annoying the hell out of the driver.

There are no interior lights for people in the front seats, as I discovered these past few evenings. The sole interior light is in the far rear, accessible to the driver only with extreme contortions; I had to undo my seatbelt to reach it without overextending my shoulder. Even then, its brightness would be best described as perhaps 25% of a firefly. The "message waiting" LED on my Blackberry is brighter.

I dislike auto-locking doors on principle but I can deal with that: all four doors lock when the car approaches 10mph. What pissed me off is that all doors stay locked by default when the car is subsequently parked. IMHO, at least the driver's door should automatically unlock when the driver pulls his interior handle.

The glove compartment is too small to be useful. Seriously, I couldn't fit any map into it unless I folded the map in half yet again and pushed firmly.

I haven't been able to obtain a comfortable driver's seat arrangement even after a week of driving. I'm a pretty average build but my two choices seem to be either having my legs overextended to reach the pedals while my arms are comfortable on the wheel or having my legs comfortable while my arms overextend. I haven't been in any other car which made it so difficult to find the correct seating balance.

In short, it may be a nice car for some but the Versa is not a car I'd rent again and certainly wouldn't buy.

Car Review: Nissan Versa

I've been driving a Nissan Versa for a week now. I hate it.

I'm not a fan of the ultra-light, all-plastic feel of the car as zips along the road. I was in constant fear it would be airborne if I encountered a breeze, a pebble or a mosquito. The turbulence trailing a semi was entirely too uncomfortable.

I could understand if not approve of the engineering decisions which lead to such a ride: it's an entry-level vehicle so it won't have the deluxe ride of a high-end car. And obviously, one of the easiest way to make a vehicle more fuel efficient is to reduce the mass of the vehicle overall.

What I don't get are a number of very obvious user comfort decisions which seem to be to have been weighted in the direction of annoying the hell out of the driver.

There are no interior lights for people in the front seats, as I discovered these past few evenings. The sole interior light is in the far rear, accessible to the driver only with extreme contortions; I had to undo my seatbelt to reach it without overextending my shoulder. Even then, its brightness would be best described as perhaps 25% of a firefly. The "message waiting" LED on my Blackberry is brighter.

I dislike auto-locking doors on principle but I can deal with that: all four doors lock when the car approaches 10mph. What pissed me off is that all doors stay locked by default when the car is subsequently parked. IMHO, at least the driver's door should automatically unlock when the driver pulls his interior handle.

The glove compartment is too small to be useful. Seriously, I couldn't fit any map into it unless I folded the map in half yet again and pushed firmly.

I haven't been able to obtain a comfortable driver's seat arrangement even after a week of driving. I'm a pretty average build but my two choices seem to be either having my legs overextended to reach the pedals while my arms are comfortable on the wheel or having my legs comfortable while my arms overextend. I haven't been in any other car which made it so difficult to find the correct seating balance.

In short, it may be a nice car for some but the Versa is not a car I'd rent again and certainly wouldn't buy.