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By
EWAN KENNEDY
8 January 2007
Thailand is rapidly becoming a big supplier of vehicles to
Australia. These have mainly been utes and similar light-commercial
vehicles until now, but an increasing number of cars are being sourced
from our near north as well.
There's a good reason for this, a free-trade
agreement between Australia and Thailand means there are
significant savings when cars hit the showrooms. Honda made a big
play of this during 2006 with its Civic and Accord models, now
Nissan is getting into the act with its small-medium Tiida.
One of the most underrated cars on the Australian
market, the Nissan Tiida now comes in at a real bargain basement
price. A price reduction of $2000 means that $17,990 plus on-road
costs will put you at the wheel of a Tiida ST, a sensible car with
a huge amount of interior space.
Tiida can indeed be used as a family car, even
when the kids are well and truly into their teenage years. That’s
thanks to a tall design that permits occupants to sit higher and
therefore gain better legroom and head space.
Yet this extra height is so well disguised that
the car looks neat and sleek in a somewhat French manner. Which
shouldn’t come as a surprise because the French Renault and
Japanese Nissan companies are close partners these days.
The just announced $17,990 Tiida ST comes with
additional equipment over the previous model, including the safety
of ABS brakes. That feature now being standard throughout the
range.
All Tiida models are powered by a 1.8-litre
four-cylinder, twin-cam engine designed in conjunction with
Renault and come with either a sporting six-speed manual gearbox
or a four-speed automatic transmission.
Ride comfort is very good in the large seats
within the Nissan Tiida and external noises and vibration are well
dulled. Don’t expect a sports sedan or hatch because pragmatism
was very much part of the design brief in this car. It’s safe
enough, but pushing the car out of its comfort zone makes it all
feel a bit on the soft side. Sensible drivers only need apply.
The complete Tiida range with new prices (previous
prices in brackets) is as follows:
ST 1.8-litre four-door sedan - $17,990 ($19,990)
ST 1.8-litre five-door hatch - $17,990 ($19,990)
ST-L 1.8-litre four-door sedan - $19,990 ($22,240)
ST-L 1.8-litre five-door hatch - $19,990 ($22,240)
Q 1.8-litre five-door hatch - $22,990 ($24,490)
Ti 1.8-litre four-door sedan - $25,240 ($26,490)
Note that these prices do not include on-road
costs.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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