On the way to the Mazda dealer the wife unit pulled into the Nissan lot next door and bought a Nissan Versa.
I wanted the Mazda 3 to be her next toaster, but have the wisdom to stay out of the equation.
I feel no love for this new bastard stepchild. Any idea how much it is going to suck or is it a decent toaster?
If you take it for what it is, you'll enjoy this fine appliance. Don't ask too much.
I can't speak for reliability, but I test drove a new 6sp 5dr when the Versa was new to the US. It made a 4cyl automatic Camry seem downright thrilling. I could wax poetic, but I shan't.
I still struggle to find any reason one should buy a Versa, and am failing.
I'm guessing that it has the CVT? Uggh, I feel your pain - we had one as a rental for a month. On the plus side, there's good head room, lots of storage compartments, and low ownership costs. On the minus side is pretty much everything else - style, comfort, performance, quality - the stuff that people typically look for in a car.
Roomy.
A friend (5' 10") bought one in part because her boyfriend at the time was 6' 7". They took me (6' 0") and my girlfriend (5' 10") to the local new car show. I sat quite comfortably behind Tall Guy.
While we were wandering around the show, we decided to all sit in a Hummer H2 because hellwhynot. Only we couldn't. By the time my front passenger's seat was far enough forward to get anybody behind me, I had my shins against the glovebox.
Not that the Hummer's ridiculosity has anything to do with your new appliance, but it's my favorite Versa-is-better-than-something story. And any way you slice it a six-footer comfortably behind a giant is pretty cool.
My wife bought one off the first truckload to hit the local dealership back in 2006. We had a need for a highway commuter car for her. We shopped everything in what I called "the scion class." Also keep in mind that back then the xB was still small and the Fit was not out yet. For all those cars, we felt the Versa SL had the best highway manners in the group. The Yaris and xB were crazy loud on the highway. The Versa SL seemed downright luxurious compared.
I never really liked it too much but it was not my car. The cvt takes getting used to. On the plus side, the damn back seat is huge. People would amaze every time they rode back there but being narrow it was only good for two in the back. At 6'1", I actually was more comfortable in the back than the front. As a driver I wished the front seat would have gone back two more clicks.
We thought we wanted the versatility of a hatchback. As it turned out, my favorite feature of the car was the squareness of the rear door openings. The rear door opening is actually larger than the hatch opening. I stuffed some big objects into the back seat.
We put 60k miles on that car. It was ready for shocks, brakes and a cvt fluid change. I had never touched any. I did put a set of tires on it. It never skipped a beat and never cost a single dollar in anything more than oil changes.
This past Feb we traded it in for a new, closeout, Mazda5.
Before the Versa, my wife had an early and small Rav4 that really was not a good highway car either.
Did she buy the first gen car or the newest one that just came out? Neither are super exciting. We shopped them when we bought our Fit. They're the true definition of "transportation appliance". She'll get too/from her destinations, but don't expect much more.
Don't drive a Kia Soul, Honda Fit or Scion Xb and you might not know how bad you have it.
pinchvalve wrote: Don't drive a Kia Soul, Honda Fit or Scion Xb and you might not know how bad you have it.
Or a new Focus, or a Jetta or pretty much anything else in the segment. Not to kick you in a sore spot, but where were you while this was happeneing? 
Hey, at least it's better than a Tata Nano! Oh wait, those are RWD and $2000...
At least it's better than a smartcar!
I've driven a couple, and have to say that they ranked #1 and #2 as the most boring-to-drive vehicles I've ever driven in my life. And that includes minivans, 12-passenger government vans, early 90s corollas, and a mid-90s camry wagon.
And as a Nissan, it doesn't have the quality/reliability upside that many other cars in the class have.
kill it with fire. quickly.
I do chuckle that my older neighbor across the street has a versa hatchback and he calls (with a straight face) his "little sporty car." The other two cars in his driveway: a late-model Camry and a late-model Accord. I once suggested that if he wanted a "little sporty car" he should check out a Miata. He commented that "it might be too much for him, and he doesn't want to die just yet"
It sounds like he already has!
Its a fantastic car. Its super cheap, has plenty of features, is smooth, quiet, and gets good gas mileage.
Speaking as a Nissan tech, they are reliable and roomy but not much else.
I'm pretty sure that the Versa came in dead last in a recent test of B series cars by Car and Driver. The Fit is still top of the class with the new turbo Sonic in second place. Don't drive it and you'll be fine with it.
I'm pretty sure the Versa is cheaper than the Fit or Sonic by a significant amount:
Versa: $10,990 Sonic: $13,735 Fit: $15,175
So its slow an boring... who cares? Its an appliance. Save some coin there so you can put it into a fast car.
nderwater wrote:pinchvalve wrote: Don't drive a Kia Soul, Honda Fit or Scion Xb and you might not know how bad you have it.Or a new Focus, or a Jetta or pretty much anything else in the segment. Not to kick you in a sore spot, but where were you while this was happeneing?
Actualy, I might have been looking at the 370Z whille she was doing the deed.
And yeah, I think you all confirmed my thoughts on this toy. And since you mention Focus, I have to ask what up with that car? 5k more than this thing and 3k more than the Mazda 3?! (web list price actually kept us out of the showroom)
I agree the back seat room is sureal, but so is the weird lack of acceleration with the CVT; a whole new world of concern.
While I am a big subscriber to the joy of driving slow cars fast, I just don't feel it with this thing!
Here's the icing on the cake. It's ugly too!!
We got one out of the rental pool on a four day trip a couple of years ago. Wasn't the hatchback, but I s'pose it was the same thing.
My wife and I still use it as the example of truly gutless motoring. It couldn't get out of its own way, much less up an entrance ramp on a freeway. I guess for the money it is OK transportation, but if I had to drive it every day I think I would literally die from the boredom.
Datsun1500 wrote: Are you going to constantly tell her she made a bad choice?
Ummmmmm, yeah. Apparently you are not married. 
Datsun1500 wrote: Why in the world do you want to know how lousy a car is after she bought it? She made a decision, acted on that decision, and is probably pretty happy to have a new car. Let her enjoy the excitement of buying a new car for a few days... What if it is exactly what she wanted and she loves it for many years? Are you going to constantly tell her she made a bad choice?
Our couch is not that comfortable and even though my shop is an awesome place, I would never tell her she made a bad choice. She shopped for over a year, saved the $$$ to buy it outright and loves it. She drives maybe a mile to work and won't even drive on the freeway, so the car is great for her. This car will literally burn more gas warming up in the driveway in winter than it ever will on its way back and forth to work.
For that matter, I am not a hater of toasters, quite the opposite since we have both been driving 2002 Proteges for 10 years and have come to enjoy the freedom of never cleaning or vacuuming a car or caring where it is parked. Just put the latest seasonal sticky tires on the fleet and drive em like you stole it from your stockbroker.
However, even with a set of Toyo R1's I cant see this thing being fun. It has no "Flingability Factor" if you know what I mean.
Totally agree on the keeping the wife happy. She worked very hard to save up for it, and no matter what car fanatics say about the Versa, she should be thrilled. Not everyone looks at cars the same way we do. Though sometimes I wonder why not....
A friend got one in highschool. Stickshift and he couldn't drive it, so I drove him to a parking lot to teach it. He didn't know it could rev that high
I have nothing good to say about it other than what has already been said.
Basil Exposition wrote: My wife and I still use it as the example of truly gutless motoring.
Whenever anyone says this, I get this image of an Amerikun redneck (berkeley yea) who needs his bazillion horsepower, 5000 pound land missile to drive daily that gets 9mpg and still doesn't know how to merge.
If I can daily drive a Firefly/Sprint with a stick and merge onto freeways fine, you can too! The Versa has more than adequate power for everyday driving needs. Will you be dropping a gear and passing people on single lane highways? No. But if you know how to merge, you'll be fine.
The CVT can actually switch to delivering good passing power. What is different (even more so than regular automatic) is that the cvt is all about gas peddle position. To drive the Versa quickly I would find that mashing the peddle was needed but once to desired speed a complete lift-off of the peddle was needed and then a gentle and light reapplication of peddle to sort of kick the car down to a nice low rpm state.
You may not love the car but I assure you that, like ours, it will not cause you any mechanical grief.
I agree with HiTemp. How much power do you really need.
The rental fleets may have had the less expensive 1.6L engine which is matted to a traditional 4 speed auto. The larger 1.8L gets the CTV but only if you buy the upper trim level SL model (with alloys). If you get the base trim (with hubcaps) then it is a 4 speed auto.
For manuals, the 1.6L gets 5 speed and the 1.8L gets 6 speed.
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