2010 Nissan Versa

By Nick Yost

Examiner Auto Writer

Okay, It’s not exactly what you’d call a looker. If it were a teen-ager, you might conclude that the Nissan Versa hatchback is at the awkward age, suddenly tall but not quite filled out in all the right places.

But don’t be deceived by its appearance. This competitor to the subcompact Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit has qualities that make it a lot more car than its outer appearance might suggest.

That seemingly tall exterior pays big dividends inside the cabin. Four adults of almost any size will fit comfortably, more comfortably than they would in a lot of cars that are significantly bigger.

And, despite its gangly appearance, the front-wheel-drive car handles well, rides comfortably and is reasonably peppy, at least with its larger 1.8-liter, 122-horsepower, four-cylinder engine. A 1.6-liter, 107-horsepower engine is the base power plant.

The Nissan Versa comes in two body styles, a three-box sedan and a five-door hatchback that makes the Versa more – okay, I’ll say it – versatile.

The sedan starts at $9,990. The hatchback, which is available only with the larger engine, starts at $12,990. The car offered for my inspection was the fully optioned 1.8 SL hatchback, which carries a sticker price of $19,120. Before we discuss the test car, you may be wondering how in the world a car that competes with subcompacts could have a price tag that stretches so far and so high.

It’s not exactly smoke and mirrors that Nissan is using, but the base sedan model is so lacking in comfort and convenience appointments that it practically gives new meaning to the term entry level. You really can pick up the stripper sedan for $9,990, plus delivery charge. If you had been lucky enough to get in on the Cash for Clunkers $4,500 rebate, you could have trimmed that figure down to a mere $5,490.

Be clear about this, though. The no-frills thing is no lie -- as in no air conditioning, no radio, no automatic transmission, no power windows, no power door locks, no cruise control, no fancy upholstery, no antilock brakes, no . . . well, you get the idea.

With a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine, it’s inexpensive to buy, cheap to drive and it doesn’t scrimp on safety features. If you can scrape together another $1,000 you can get air conditioning and a four-speed automatic transmission. You’re still on your own for the radio, though. Nissan hopes it can sell 10,000 of them a year.

Much more sensible, much more capable and much more than you might expect describes the top-of-the-line 1.8 SL hatchback I spent a week with. While it competes against subcompacts and its $19,120 price tag bumps into compact-car territory, it actually is designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as a mid-size car.

This one almost has it all -- air conditioning, power sunroof, premium sound system with auxiliary inputs, Bluetooth hands-free phone system, cruise control, keyless entry and ignition, leather-wrapped steering wheel, quality interior fabrics and trim, and, of course, power windows and door locks.

Its charms became evident to me on a particularly warm one-day journey of exploration from Manhattan’s New Jersey suburbs to the famed oceanfront playground known as Coney Island. I picked a mid-week day for my sojourn in hopes that the traffic would be light. I picked wrong and what should have been a 90-minute ride turned into three hours of highway hell – detours, traffic jams, wrong turns, and near fender benders. By the time I arrived it was almost time to head home again. All I can report is that Coney Island turned out to be smaller, cleaner and friendlier than I had imagined. Or, so it seemed.

Anyway, what I will remember more about the journey was how easily the pint-sized Versa squirted in and out of a nasty tangle of traffic, how easy it was to park, how comfortable it was on the open road (and crawling along in stop-and-go traffic) and how easy it was on fuel.

The four-cylinder engine was sufficiently peppy and willing to cruise quietly at extra-legal speeds. Hit the accelerator and the car could scoot into what few holes opened up in the herky-jerky traffic of lower Manhattan.

I know it contributed to the overall 30-mile-per-gallon average I compiled on my day trip, but I still found the continuously variable transmission annoying. To get it to perform, the engine must be racing near its red line before the transmission finds the best set of gear ratios and then the car takes off as if being launched by a stretched rubber band.
 
The suspension -- MacPherson struts up front and a torsion beam at the rear -- soaks up the nasty irregularities of overly traveled roads and pulls the Versa around tight turns with unexpected competence.
 
The electric power steering is reasonably communicative and the front disc/rear drum brakes do their job well.
 
The Versa’s safety features include dual-stage frontal air bags, front-seat side-impact air bags for chest protection and roof-mounted curtain air bags for head protection. A $250 ABS Package adds an antilock system to the brakes, plus electric brake force distribution and emergency brake assist.
 
Folks planning long-distance travel will be happy to find that the hatchback opens up into a 17.8-cubic-foot luggage compartment that can be expanded to 50.4 cubic feet by folding the rear seatbacks forward.
 
Those who can’t abide a $19,120 price tag will also be happy to find that by carefully choosing powertrain and comfort-and-convenience options the Versa hatchback’s price can be trimmed a lot closer to its $12,990 base.
 
All in all, the Versa does its job well. It’s easy to drive, pleasant to ride in, inexpensive to operate and a lot roomier than you might expect. It’s one more proof that beauty is only skin deep.