2009 Nissan Cube Review

2009 Nissan Cube Review Hi! I'm Kelsey Mays for Cars.com, and we’re at the L.A. Auto Show. If you're young and you're hip, you’d probably don’t hang out with me but you will appreciate Nissan’s new 2010 Cube. This is a third generation Cube, a car that has been on sale on Japan in its first and second generation since 1998. This is the first one we’ll see here in the States. The Cube takes cues from Nissan’s Denki Cube concept on display at last winter’s New York Auto Show. It doesn’t have that car’s plugged in electric drive train instead it’s got a gasoline force holder. Nissan says that should be good for highway models in the low of 30’s. That puts it on par roughly with Kia’s boxy New Soul, a little bit better than Scion’s 28-mile per gallon xB. Like in the XB, the Cube has upright pillars that create lots of visibility around you, decent rear visibility as well. Although, you'll notice that the wrap around rear window doesn’t create a glint spot free zone on back there like it might look like. The Scion xB has a little quirkier interior. This one looks a little more conventional. The gauges sit in front of you instead of hearing the center of the dashboard. There aren’t quite as many storage areas either although Nissan does have an absolutely enormous club compartment. You could really fit quite a stashing there of school supplies. One thing about a boxy car is that it creates a lot of cargo space. Unfortunately, city drivers will want to know that there is a swing gate here. So, if you're parallel parking you're going to need four or five feet of clearance behind you as opposed to a regular lift gate. The rear sits do fold and they fold down pretty easily. There is a little bit of a ledge here as you're putting stuff in. The Scion xB has actually a pretty flat load of floor comparison. All three competitors look similar but the Cube is actually the smallest. It’s a few inches shorter and narrower than either the Scion or the Kia and it definitely looks the strangest. The rear sort of slopes out at its end here and there’s no conventional de- pillar on the other side. The glass sort of just wraps around. Nissans says the front, with its wide headlights and multi tiered grill, has the look of a “Incognito K9”. In other words, it looks like a dog or if this was the 1980’s you might say it’s pitching. Cube seems well positioned to compete in this market. It has got similar features to the xB and important safety items like electronics stability control are standard. Really, in this economy anything that’s low priced and feel efficient seems positioned for relative success. So, if you're going into a Nissan dealership next year looking for Aversa or a Sentra, keep an eye out for the Cube. Its pricing may not be that much of a stretch.