Overview & Reviews

User Reviews:

Showing 1 through 3 of 3.00

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  Fun to drive, great mileage - 2016 Nissan Versa Note
  By David Allin - January 15 - 1:36 pm

  First, the Versa Note is almost totally unrelated to the other Versa models. Its a different platform that is more solid and much better looking. When you close the doors, you hear a nice muffled thunk, not the tinny clank of most economy cars. The whole car feels very tight, and is extremely quiet inside, with no squeaks or rattles and little tire and wind noise. The interior is simple, but the materials all feel sturdy and look attractive, which is standard for Nissans. I traded in a 2005 Sentra with 108K miles, and the cloth interior of that car still looked just like new. The Notes interior is very spacious, especially for such a small car, with plenty of leg room in the back seats for two adults. The cargo area is adequate, with a floor that can be positioned at two heights, and the rear seatbacks fold down almost flat. Unlike most cars these days, the rear side windows roll all the way down and out of sight in the doors. The car handles extremely well, and stops on a dime. In order to make it good great mileage, however, Nissan put a very small engine in it, combined with a CVT transmission that is programmed to save gas. As a result the car is not a pocket rocket, although the acceleration is adequate. Going up Nine-Mile hill at 75mph with the AC on is a strain, but otherwise the car can keep up with traffic pretty well. Ive found that a gentle pressure on the gas pedal will actually result in better acceleration than pushing it to the floor. Still, we use our Murano for long trips, and the Note in town, where it scoots around happily. Theres an old sports car saying that its more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow, and it applies here. I bought the SL, with all the bells and whistles, and for the most part they are worth the extra cost. The satellite radio is great, and the cars sound system is better than the one in my Murano. One of the main features we were looking for was visibility, and in addition to the great arrangement of windows, the SL has the around-view monitor, with cameras on all sides that produce a picture on the center screen of a birds-eye view of the car when backing up. The cameras can also be turned on when pulling into a parking space. The navigation systems is okay, but not as good as my Garmin, and clearly has not been updated for at least four years. The Sirius Travel Link is a nice feature, giving you the prices of gas at nearby stations, movie listings in the area, stock prices, and weather info. It also provides you real-time traffic alerts. All of these can be accessed using voice commands that work fairly well. Instrumentation is limited to tach, speedo, and gas gauge; all other systems are just warning lights. The HVAC is the same one that was in my 2005 Sentra, but it works well. Judging by our experience with previous Nissans over the last 20 years, we expect this car to be trouble-free for as long as we own it. Yes, I wish it had a little more power, but we love the car anyway.

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  Great for parking garage. - 2016 Nissan Versa Note
  By Erik - April 25 - 3:00 pm

  Forgive the wall, Im on mobile.So got this as a rental, it looked cool and I wanted to try it. It had just over 2k milkes and I put 350 miles on it. Did a bit of city ( vegas!!) freeway and some "mountain" driving. Lets point out the Pros of this. The blue tooth is simple and easy, and you can take it a step further by downloading an app. But I just used Google maps, which only works if you have the stereo on Bluetooth mode) Its great for parking, tight turns, great for those u turns, braking, and decent fuel economy. The steering response is middle of the road, maybe a bit above because the car doesnt roll if you have to jerk it over to the next lane. It does have a back up camera and you can see all around when in traffic. I didnt get a chance to see how well The traction control worked. The A/C did okay for 110F heat and no window tint. Meaning it was on full blast 95%, even when it was under 100F. The audio system sounded better then I imagined! Weaving in and out of traffic is a breeze, and youll have plenty of room. Its not the ugliest or boring for a compact. There was plenty of room for just the two of us. The dash is nice to look at and the double glove box was very convenient. Heck the knee one was very deep. Seating was firm but comfy. Combine the seating and suspension for a sporty feel. Now the cons; even if you are at the front of the line at a stop light, youll be last. Not only is take off unnaturally slow, the actual throttle response is about a whole second behind. Then after that youll start to crawl forward ( no need to worry about burn outs!) This can actually be annoying because if traffic speeds up a tad while rolling down the road itll be a few before youll catch up. It was amazing that it could go 70mph ( okay there were times we may have went 85mph but we were just keeping with the flow!! And the ride was challenging due to the swaying. Well get to that later) Imagine you are getting on the freeway, you hit the Apex and pin the throttle, the rpms jump up and as need to start merging, desperately, you look down and realize you are only doing 55-60mph, pending if the hill was in your favor. Okay you get it, accerleration is not what this car is meant to do. But you may think this can hold its speed. I mean come on, its modern, it has a CVT, and its small! Well sure it can. But only if its minor. If you start climbing a little itll rev up. And if its a 6% grade, you might want to take the slow lane with the truckers. So how does it handle? Well on a flat road its perfect, that goes for the pavement. If its concrete with slits youll start swerving like a tractor trailer with high cross winds, sad part is its only a slight over exaggeration. At around 50mph it becomes noticeable. Maybe its a safetly feature to keep you paying attention! I too thought maybe someone hit something. But seeing another versa I had to follow and see if they did the dance, and they did. With all the negative I wrote, I really do not hate this car! Sure its gutless, the road surface can be a challenge, and the suspension is borderline cheap feeling, but it was fun! The only way I would own this was if I got it with 6sp and 30 more ponies. ( I do kick my self for not getting the fiat 500!)

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  Easy, Reliable, and Fuel Efficient - 2016 Nissan Versa Note
  By Aaron King - July 29 - 10:41 pm

  ... which is basically all I wanted. Not many bells and whistles, but its a really great car.