|
|
| Nissan
Tiida 1,6 Acenta Five-Door |
Broadcast
date : 8th October 2006 |
|
Much has been expected from
Nissan’s new entry into the C-segment of the new car market
– the one where major volumes are realised for any serious
manufacturer in South Africa.
Until now, Nissan has been doing battle with the somewhat
ordinary Almera, a car which was looking decidedly dated.
While the Almera was seen as a good fleet vehicle, Nissan are
hoping for more fashion-conscious appeal with the Tiida,
especially as it’s being built at the company’s Rosslyn
plant after a substantial tooling-up investment.
It’s an ambitious line-up that Nissan has gone for, with
both four and five-door variants being locally-manufactured.
The Tiida is certainly vastly different to the Almera in
styling terms, and one’s first impression is that it’s a
big car – especially in this five-door format.
The conservative styling of the Tiida is somewhat puzzling as
it goes against Nissan’s desire to radically change its
image. But in practical terms it has a lot going for it.
The cabin has a straight up-and down uniformity that is almost
drastically utilitarian, and it doesn’t feature any of the
current "must have" items, such as remote audio
controls, or a trip computer.
It also lacks a reach-adjustable steering column, but
generally the materials used are quite good, and some have a
pleasing soft-touch feel.
Space is where the Tiida scores, and scores again. It has a
very tall roof-line, and this Acenta-trim model offers the
sliding rear seat as standard. By sliding the seat far
forward, boot space grows to over 400 litres. In the
"go" department, our Tiida used the 1,6 litre
engine.
As with the styling, Nissan seems to have been quite
conservative with its engine specs on the Tiida. While the
engine is ultra-smooth, the torque peak at 4400 rpm is quite
high up the rev range.
|
|
|
|
|
The rest of the car’s dynamics
are profiled towards Mr and Mrs Average, like the
electrically-assisted power steering.
The ride on the car is good, and the steering is accurate
enough at higher speeds, even though we would have liked more
weightiness in the system.
In fact, there’s a remoteness to the Tiida that’s
surprising from a Nissan product, where Nissan cars in the
past have always looked conservative, but been dynamically
very pleasing.
The performance figures from the 1,6 litre model are
nevertheless impressive. Car Magazine achieved a rather zesty
10,6 second 0-100, which goes to show what it can do when you
wind it up at sea level.
There’s a total of five sedan and three hatchbacks in the
range, and the 1,8 litre engines deliver substantially more
urge – 95 kiloWatts and 175 Newton metres of torque, which
will make this large hatch considerably better in the low-rev
pulling-power department.
The Tiida doesn’t really stand out amongst the C-segment
crowd. But the entire range is very well priced, and that
roominess in the cabin will win a lot of fans.
Nissan Tiida 1,6 Acenta
Five-Door
- Engine:
Four-cylinder petrol, 1 598 cc
- Power: 80 kW @ 6
000 rpm
- Torque: 153 Nm @ 4
400 rpm
- Transmission:
Five-speed manual, front-wheel-drive
- 0-100 km/h : 10,6
seconds (Car Magazine)
- Top speed: 188 km/h
(Car Magazine)
- Fuel consumption:
8,6 litres/100 km (Car Magazine)
- Price: R158 700
|
|
|
|
|
Did you enjoy reading this article?
Why not recommend it to a friend - Click here
|
|
|
|
