|
By
EWAN KENNEDY
17 April 2006
Nissan's new Tiida has a big emphasis on
practicality, yet it achieves this in a body with slick modern lines
that all who saw it during our test period admired. Some said its shape
could easily be mistaken for those of an expensive European car.
This small-medium Nissan has the sort of refined
feeling you would normally find in a car of the next size upwards.
Ride comfort is very good on all but the roughest of roads and
even then is generally acceptable. Handling is competent enough,
but the electrically-assisted system is rather light and vague.
The new Tiida has as much, if not more, legroom
and headroom in the rear as in many six-cylinder family cars. That’s
principally because it’s considerably taller than most cars in
this class. The really clever thing about the design is that it
doesn’t look like a tallboy, so doesn’t jump out from the
crowd screaming about its height.
Tiida's front seats are large, thanks partly to
a clever design that sees the seat adjustment levers being placed
in the normally unused space between the two seats.
The boots of both the sedan and hatch are large,
with the topline Tiida hatch having sliding rear seats that lets
you increase the boot size if you don’t need stretch-out legroom
in the back seat. When you push the legroom down to what would be
considered normal in other cars in this class there's a very large
boot in the Tiida.
Visibility while driving is normally good, but
the front windscreen pillars are thick and pushed a long way
forward. They create blind spots at times and the driver should be
alert to this problem. Tiida isn’t alone in this factor, it’s
creeping into quite a few later-models.
Nissan's Tiida was affected by the strong, gusty
crosswinds present during our original testing in Victoria. This
isn’t unusual in taller than average vehicles, but was more than
we had anticipated and could be disconcerting at times. We didn’t
strike similar conditions during our home test in Queensland.
Power comes from a new 1.8-litre twin-cam
engine. Shared with Renault, it puts out 93kW, with a torque peak
of 174Nm at 4800rpm. The latter figure is slightly misleading as
there's good torque from about 2000rpm upwards. At the time of the
press launch of the Tiida we commented that the engine was a
little reluctant to rev. That trait was much less obvious on the
car we recently borrowed, possibly because it had over 3000 km on
the clock and was well on the way to being run in.
Our road-test car was an automatic. An old style
four-speed unit, it doesn’t have any sequential features, but
you can lock out fourth gear if that’s necessary in some hilly
or winding-road conditions. The automatic works well enough,
though there are times when the car feels slightly sluggish off
the line if you’ve a load on board.
Nissan has provided a six-speed manual gearbox
for the first time in its class. However, the shift is surprising
noisy and gives a real clunk-clunk sound with every gearchange.
Frankly, we found it irritating, but you may get used to it in
time. At least one owner we have spoken to loves the sound of the
gearshift.
Fuel consumption was about average for this
class, typically being about nine to ten litres per hundred
kilometres in country and motorway driving. That consumption
rising to 11 to 13 litres per hundred in hard city and suburban
use.
Value for money is pretty good, though there has
been some obvious cutting in equipment levels to keep the price
down. One missing item pointed out by many was the absence of
mirrors behind the interior sunvisors.
Other than that the new Nissan Tiida is
exceptionally smooth and quiet and has interior space vastly
greater than you would expect from looking at its sexy exterior.
It deserves to succeed,
AT A GLANCE
MODEL RANGE
ST 1.8-litre four-door sedan - $19,990
ST 1.8-litre five-door hatch - $19,990
ST-L 1.8-litre four-door sedan - $22,240
ST-L 1.8-litre five-door hatch - $22,240
Q 1.8-litre five-door hatch - $24,490
Ti 1.8-litre four-door sedan - $26,490
FEATURES
ABS Brakes: Not offered on ST, standard on all other models
Air Conditioning: Standard on all models
Automatic Transmission: Not offered on Ti, $2000 option on all
other models
CD Player: Standard on all models
Central Locking: Standard on all models
Cruise Control: Not offered
Driver Airbag: Standard on all models
Passenger Airbag: Standard on all models
Front Side Airbags: Not offered on ST, standard on all
other models
SPECIFICATIONS (Nissan Tiida ST 1.8-litre
five-door hatch)
ENGINE:
Capacity: 1.797 litres
Configuration: Four cylinders in line
Head Design: DOHC, four valves per cylinder
Compression Ratio: 9.9:1
Bore/Stroke: 84.0 x 81.1mm
Maximum Power: 93kW @ 5200rpm
Maximum Torque: 174Nm @ 4800rpm
DRIVELINE:
Driven Wheels: Front
Manual Transmission: Six-speed
Automatic Transmission: Four-speed
Final Drive Ratio: 3.933:1
DIMENSIONS, WEIGHT AND CAPACITIES:
Length: 4205mm
Wheelbase: 2600mm
Width: 1695mm
Height: 1535mm
Turning Circle: 10.4 metres
Kerb Mass: 1110kg
Fuel Tank Capacity: 52 litres
Towing Ability: 600kg (1000kg with braked trailer)
SUSPENSION AND BRAKES:
Front Suspension: Independent, MacPherson struts, anti roll bar
Rear Suspension: Torsion beam, coil springs, anti roll bar
Front Brakes: Ventilated disc
Rear Brakes: Drum
PERFORMANCE:
0-100 km/h Acceleration: NA
Standing 400 Metres: NA
FUEL CONSUMPTION:
Combined Cycle (ADR 81/01): 7.6 L/100km
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
|
