IT may be aimed at a youthful market, but the new Nissan Cube is no kid: while new to Americans, the 2009 model is the third generation of a vehicle that introduced the box-type car to the Japanese market.
“It looks as if it’s going fast even when it’s standing still,” is the clichéd compliment auto designers like to hear. But Nissan’s design director, Shiro Nakamura, jokes that the Cube looks as if it’s standing still even when it is going fast.
It is an antihero of a car — a cartoon car perhaps. Mr. Nakamura says it is appropriate for these belt-tightening times when expensive, macho and very fast cars seem out of place. The Cube’s engine has fewer horses (122) than a Tweet can have characters (140).
“The Cube is the least carlike of cars,” Mr. Nakamura said. “It is more product design than automobile design.” No wonder he likens the rear door to the one on a refrigerator.
Mr. Nakamura presents the Cube as a kind of value proposition: lots of space with a small footprint. It is like a studio apartment with a cathedral ceiling. The New York Times
Under the hood, the Cube is pretty conventional: A 1.8-liter, 122-horsepower four-cylinder, like the one in the Sentra and Versa, with either a manual transmission or a Continuously Variable Transmission that works like an automatic. The test model, a Cube SL, comes with the CVT, and fuel mileage is quite good at an EPA-rated 28 mpg city, 30 mpg highway. With the manual transmission, standard on the base-model, $13,990 Cube, mileage is 24/29.
Even at that base price, which does not include $720 shipping, the Cube is well-equipped, with air conditioning, stability control and six air bags. The next step up is the S model, then our SL, which has a standard CVT and came with a $1,600 option package, then the top of the line is the Krom, pronounced “chrome,” because it has a lot of it. It’s hard to get a Cube over $20,000, Like the similar Scion xB. Orlando Sentinel
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