Nissan cube – Day 2
The Nissan cube seems to attract attention where ever I take it and many people ask, how much? Since I wasn’t given a price sheet, I’ve ask the good folks at Nissan to send one to me after which time I’ll gladly post it. It will of course be Canadian pricing and in Canadian Dollar. I mention that in case someone from the US sees the price and says, “How MUCH?”
How is to drive?
It’s nice. This morning’s ride was pleasant albeit uneventful. This model particular model has a manual 6-speed transmission and I found gear shifting to be smooth. I double de-clutch out of habit – a habit I picked from when my very first car (a Mini) had lost its synchromesh. However, neither double nor single de-clutching is necessary since the Synchromesh in the Nissan cube is extreme efficient. There does not appear to be any lag waiting for the syncho to work its wonders.
Road comfort
Even on Ontario roads – the Nissan cube is surprisingly good for such a small vehicle. Handling is superb and so far I’ve not encountered any idiosyncrasies, even those usually associated with front-wheel drive. No torque steer, although there is a tendency for the front wheels to want to go straight, but this is normal. In the pouring rain on the way home after picking up the vehicle, I did encounter a little bit of under-steer which grabbed my attention but again nothing out of the ordinary for a “fronty” – my term for a Front Wheel Drive vehicle.
An odd feeling
A couple of times, I’ve gotten out of the vehicle and looked back it only to ask myself, did I really drive that? I mention this because being inside the cube does not seem to match the outside of the cube. I gave this some thought to understand what was happening. There is so much room inside the vehicle and the seating is so far back from the front windshield, there is an impression that the front of the vehicle is quite long. After all, the front of the hood is actually quite far from the driver’s seat, but once outside the vehicle, the relatively short length of the hood seems tell another story.
Another oddity is the fact that the interior appears larger that the exterior – a phenomenon known as dimensionally transcendental, a term made famous by Dr Who’s TARDIS – look it up on Wikia. If I press that big red button and start to travel though time – I’ll add a few more chapters on that experience, but in the meantime, back to reality…
Headroom – I like headroom
Why is it little vehicles have huge headroom and some large vehicles insist that your head rest against the lining of the roof. The cube offers all kinds of headroom. Oh what a joy!
Stay tuned for more stuff on the Nissan cube.