Nissan Versa?

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I test drove one the other day, and I have say, I liked. Strictly utilitarian. I missed the power locks, clutch had a weird short pedal travel, it revs too fast at 60mph (3k!), and it turns out the BT works with phones but will not stream audio. Only two speakers in the front doors, but who cares, the kids in the back never listen to me anyhow. No center armrest but I see one on Amazon for $70 so no big deal there. No usb input but there is an aux input on the am/fm/cd player.

Simple controls, no gizmos, but it did have an mpg readout. Cool. I actually thought it accelerated fast. Maybe not sporty, but decent. I thought it was plenty peppy. In some ways I wonder if that high rpm is a good thing: rather than attempt to keep up with traffic, might one rather live life in the slow lane, and see if 40mpg is attainable? I did not get the feeling that this had to be flogged, nor downshifted for every hill.

The door pulls on the outside were flat black, and the rear seats did not fold at all. And there is no trunk release--you have to use the key. Which may be a selling point: instead of locking the doors the hard way when at walmart, put your laptop into the trunk instead, and never lock the doors. The door sills looked like they would get scratched stupid fast. Would want to cover those in short order with plastic film.

As opposed to the Mirage, no power stuff to break. More rear seat room, larger opening rear doors. Longer wheelbase, I thought it rode better. Certainly more quiet. Also, Nissan has more dealers in case one wants to visit one. But the Mirage has a better warranty.

I did see mention that changing sparkplugs on this 1.6 was a pain, have to remove intake manifold and drain coolant and whatnot. But the coolant and plugs have to be done at the same time, so maybe that is trivial.

In ending this mini-review, I am curious what others think, and if there are trouble spots on these cars. I mean, like how Matrix manuals can eat input shaft bearings, or Altimas eat pre-cats or that the oil filter is hard to change (been meaning to youtube that bit, have not yet). I saw 5k OCI but missed oil type; I suspect nothing fancy there needed.
 
Hopefully, the spark plugs require replacement at the 100k mark and not any sooner.

I'd test drive the Honda Fit manual and see which one you like better. I would guess the Fit would be much more fun to drive. But even a base manual version is prob $2k more than the Versa I'm guessing.

edit: yikes, sticker is $16.5k on an LX manual with dest. Maybe a 3yr old certified one for 12k(negotiated) out the door after tax.
 
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I'm thinking of a cheap new car too. However, I bought a brand new Nissan Titan in 2007 (still have it) and won't buy Nissan again. Their overall quality has declined and do not like to provide warranty service. It's a good thing my model is reliable. I'm sure if it had significant problems it would be miserable trying to get them to honor the warranty. Example: tail pipe fell off due to rust during warranty period and their response was I should have drove the truck more to prevent rust. 8 year old truck with 73K miles.

Go test drive the Jeep Patriot base model. 30MPG new car with longer warranty for $11,871. I'm typically an "import" buyer but this Jeep's motor has "import" written all over it.
 
Not a huge Nissan fan, but sounds a lot like the old base Saturn SL which was also elegant in its simplicity back in the day.

Sounds like the Nissan unfortunately is not stupid easy to take apart like the Saturn was though.
 
I had one of these as a rental a couple months back when my Honda was in for a recall. I had it for two days and did a lot of driving in it. I do like the simplicity of a bare bones vehicle, but I felt the Versa was very cheap feeling. The plastics scratched easily, the door panels were loose, the fabric on the seats was thin and not attached well. It seemed more like they were seat covers. The engine noise inside the cabin was too much for me to be comfortable with, it did have a CVT which didn't help as it just droned around 3000 rpm when accelerating. It got the job done, and got great MPG's. I guess it would make a good city runner. I would probably step up to a Civic/Sentra/Corolla if money allows.
 
I have owned a older Nissan (1982 Stanza) and the Mercury version of a Quest (1998 Villager) The first one was decent, the second went through the Lemon Law.
Rented a new Altima during a 2010 trip to California. Liked the car, couldn't stand the CVT. I did look at an Altima and a Versa (tried to convince myself to go cheap prior to retirement,) prior to buying my Accord.
Without trying to sound disrespectful or start a trolling war, my issue with them is there is a "little too much" Renault in them for my taste. Really have doubts about them standing up over the long haul. My .02 on the issue.
 
Same idea as the Aries/Reliant America cars back in 88,no frill cars at an affordable price.However the K cars could last 20+ years with care,no way a Versa will last even 10.
 
Excellent, excellent, real world review Supton. If this were a commercial car review all you would see are cliches about "penalty boxes" and how you would have to be a failure in life to drive one. There would be no discussion of the manual transmission, either.

I see small car with a reasonable back seat. I'm interested.
 
I love my versa. No issues for 60000km so far. It's got the 4 speed manual and 1.8. It gets great gas mileage and has decent power. I like the looks as well. Not so much the new ones though. mines jet black with everything painted the same as the body. I got a moonroof installed when I bought it. The original tires are still on the car. They wore perfectly even with two rotations. No flats either. granted they are at about 2 percent tread left
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only did one season with the new studded winters.

twice the heater fan didn't work for about 10 minutes when I started it at minus 45 celsius two mornings. I think the dielectric grease froze.

I'm doing my first drain and fill of the tranny in a couple weeks. using nissan matic d. done all my own oil changes. name brand syn at about 5000km.

One cut polish so far with fine compound and it gets waxed every month and I wash underneath and touch up little blemmishes underneath so you can pretty much eat off it! paint looks wonderful. You can see a perfect reflection of yourself and no swirl marks. Would recommend that car to anyone!
 
My sister has a versa. She had a CEL for something at 65k and the radiator fan will come on for ten seconds, off for ten while it idles. Seems they could have programmed that a bit better.

3k RPM is nothing, though, if it's "up on the cam" or otherwise in the sweet spot for efficiency. Yeah, it's annoying, my 89 Mazda 323 turned 3500 on the highway and could pull 5th at 25 MPH. Us armchair engineers think a taller gear could lug it better and get better MPG, but I bet they know what they're doing. Hopefully intake and exhaust tuning mean it's not a buzzy 3K.
 
Much of my travel time in my 5spd MT 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek is at 3500RPM ~65-70mph. Lots of foot to the floor. Average MPG tank/tank is 32mpg in the summer regardless of how I drive it.
 
A base 370Z 6mt would be tempting to test drive. Esp with 332 HP and on sale for $28,995 at the dealer.
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That is basically it. NH road salt , no matter my level of diligence, will eat anything. I would like to do better than "five and done" mentality but really, for what I want as a single occupant commuter... I need very little. I loved my loaded Jetta but in the end, ten was my limit. 11 has many people shocked. Maybe five is a good target, and if/when it lasts longer, enjoy it until it no longer does its job.

As long as these models lack stupid repairs then I am game. I would like the notion of getting five years and 100kmiles with just oil changes and a set of tires. On autotrader in a different thread it was pointed out they can be had for under $10k--how true that is I am not sure. But for point a to point b, need I more?

I actually had to look at the tach to realize it was at 3k. It does have the same level of road noise at 60 as my Jetta has at 80.
 
where are you finding a patriot for
Originally Posted By: Shrubitup
I'm thinking of a cheap new car too. However, I bought a brand new Nissan Titan in 2007 (still have it) and won't buy Nissan again. Their overall quality has declined and do not like to provide warranty service. It's a good thing my model is reliable. I'm sure if it had significant problems it would be miserable trying to get them to honor the warranty. Example: tail pipe fell off due to rust during warranty period and their response was I should have drove the truck more to prevent rust. 8 year old truck with 73K miles.

Go test drive the Jeep Patriot base model. 30MPG new car with longer warranty for $11,871. I'm typically an "import" buyer but this Jeep's motor has "import" written all over it.
 
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
.. my issue with them is there is a "little too much" Renault in them ..


Precisely, Watson.
 
I have a 2012 Versa Sedan S. So far is has been a good experience. Bought it new, in Sep 2012 for $11,930 cash out the door. I bought it for utilitarian purposes also, ultra short trip commuting, between 6 and 10 two mile trips daily and at the time an occasional 1000 mile trip.

Likes: 36-39 MPG Hwy, 28-32 MPG Short trips, Manual Trans shifts nicely, A/C, CD Player, Aux input on stereo, easy maintenance, large rear seat area (great people hauler to meetings/lunch), easy to park, cheap insurance, not a desirable car to steal, great wearing engine (see UOA link below), manual windows, good traction control on ice, has spare tire

Dislikes: No door key hole on passenger side, manual locks, shifty handling at 85MPH or in high wind, poor heater performance below -20 (covering radiator helps), no tachometer, traction control also interferes with controlled slides with E-brake around corners on ice, bumper recovery screw/hook not included, only 2 stereo speakers on board

So far I have racked up 40k miles without any component failures.

UOA Link:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3533335/Kendall_SemiSyn_5w-30,_4083mi,
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
where are you finding a patriot for
Originally Posted By: Shrubitup
I'm thinking of a cheap new car too. However, I bought a brand new Nissan Titan in 2007 (still have it) and won't buy Nissan again. Their overall quality has declined and do not like to provide warranty service. It's a good thing my model is reliable. I'm sure if it had significant problems it would be miserable trying to get them to honor the warranty. Example: tail pipe fell off due to rust during warranty period and their response was I should have drove the truck more to prevent rust. 8 year old truck with 73K miles.

Go test drive the Jeep Patriot base model. 30MPG new car with longer warranty for $11,871. I'm typically an "import" buyer but this Jeep's motor has "import" written all over it.


Dealer here is selling base model 2014 for 11870 and a 2015 for 12970. Manual windows, manual locks, no A/C, 2.0L, 5 speed. I was considering this vehicle but no longer. There's a class action lawsuit against Chrysler because enough of them have leaks in the sheet metal welds causing lots of water to seep in and in my climate cause mold. They got the motor right but couldn't seem (pun!) to get their welds waterproofed at the seams. No thanks.

http://www.jeeppatriot.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5&order=desc

http://www.dodgechryslerjeepofkirkland.com/inventory/view/Model/Patriot/New/SortBy0/
 
Originally Posted By: Y_K
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
.. my issue with them is there is a "little too much" Renault in them ..


Precisely, Watson.


Can you elaborate? I have never driven a Renault.
 
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