"Budget" cars with surprisingly high-end features
Discussion
Anyone else been surprised by a car they thought would be the usual boggo fare but turned out to have a surprisingly decent spec?
A fiend of mine has a Nissan Almera Tino, something like 2004 I think. Now, being a small, thrifty MPV thing made by Nissan, I was expecting the usual fare of pleblon upholstry, and a boringly styled sparsely equipped interior made entirely of cheap black plastic.
I was therefore extremely surprised to get in and sink into half leather/half alcantara luxury seats, and look forward on a swoopy and interestingly shaped dashboard of soft-touch grey and blue plastic. The piece de resistance was the 10" full colour multifunction screen in the middle of the dash which had modes for genuine full-climate control, radio, ecnonomy graphs etc, and... a reversing camera! A reversing camera on a 9 year old Nissan mini-mpv!
I'm staggered at the level of luxury in what most would consider to be a fairly ordinary car. Reminds me in some ways of the Renault 5 Monaco Edition. Sadly it seems that the only special editions of small cars these days are sport-based, rather than luxury/comfort based.
A fiend of mine has a Nissan Almera Tino, something like 2004 I think. Now, being a small, thrifty MPV thing made by Nissan, I was expecting the usual fare of pleblon upholstry, and a boringly styled sparsely equipped interior made entirely of cheap black plastic.
I was therefore extremely surprised to get in and sink into half leather/half alcantara luxury seats, and look forward on a swoopy and interestingly shaped dashboard of soft-touch grey and blue plastic. The piece de resistance was the 10" full colour multifunction screen in the middle of the dash which had modes for genuine full-climate control, radio, ecnonomy graphs etc, and... a reversing camera! A reversing camera on a 9 year old Nissan mini-mpv!
I'm staggered at the level of luxury in what most would consider to be a fairly ordinary car. Reminds me in some ways of the Renault 5 Monaco Edition. Sadly it seems that the only special editions of small cars these days are sport-based, rather than luxury/comfort based.
mat777 said:
Anyone else been surprised by a car they thought would be the usual boggo fare but turned out to have a surprisingly decent spec?
A fiend of mine has a Nissan Almera Tino, something like 2004 I think. Now, being a small, thrifty MPV thing made by Nissan, I was expecting the usual fare of pleblon upholstry, and a boringly styled sparsely equipped interior made entirely of cheap black plastic.
I was therefore extremely surprised to get in and sink into half leather/half alcantara luxury seats, and look forward on a swoopy and interestingly shaped dashboard of soft-touch grey and blue plastic. The piece de resistance was the 10" full colour multifunction screen in the middle of the dash which had modes for genuine full-climate control, radio, ecnonomy graphs etc, and... a reversing camera! A reversing camera on a 9 year old Nissan mini-mpv!
I'm staggered at the level of luxury in what most would consider to be a fairly ordinary car. Reminds me in some ways of the Renault 5 Monaco Edition. Sadly it seems that the only special editions of small cars these days are sport-based, rather than luxury/comfort based.
Adding 'extras' - especially electronics based ones - doesn't cost the manufacturer that much (certainly much less than would be charged to a buyer who specs them as optional extras) so manufacturers of lower-end cars like to bung them in to give themselves a competitive advantage.A fiend of mine has a Nissan Almera Tino, something like 2004 I think. Now, being a small, thrifty MPV thing made by Nissan, I was expecting the usual fare of pleblon upholstry, and a boringly styled sparsely equipped interior made entirely of cheap black plastic.
I was therefore extremely surprised to get in and sink into half leather/half alcantara luxury seats, and look forward on a swoopy and interestingly shaped dashboard of soft-touch grey and blue plastic. The piece de resistance was the 10" full colour multifunction screen in the middle of the dash which had modes for genuine full-climate control, radio, ecnonomy graphs etc, and... a reversing camera! A reversing camera on a 9 year old Nissan mini-mpv!
I'm staggered at the level of luxury in what most would consider to be a fairly ordinary car. Reminds me in some ways of the Renault 5 Monaco Edition. Sadly it seems that the only special editions of small cars these days are sport-based, rather than luxury/comfort based.
The more expensive brands often take the opposite approach of making the car appear slightly less expensive than their rivals (in order to attract more buyers) and then reaming the buyer for stuff you'd get as standard on most average cars.
Leins said:
talksthetalk said:
had a mk2 suzuki swift with electric mirrors. And wind up windows.
Speaking of which, can someone remind me what car had an electric passenger mirror only? Which is all you really need anyway I supposeMJK 24 said:
Leins said:
talksthetalk said:
had a mk2 suzuki swift with electric mirrors. And wind up windows.
Speaking of which, can someone remind me what car had an electric passenger mirror only? Which is all you really need anyway I supposeModernAndy said:
Leins said:
talksthetalk said:
had a mk2 suzuki swift with electric mirrors. And wind up windows.
Speaking of which, can someone remind me what car had an electric passenger mirror only? Which is all you really need anyway I supposeuuf361 said:
Thats lovely and a lot of MOT tooMy old saab 9-5 aero always surprises me to this day. Mine was fully loaded heated and cooled seats about a million buttons on the dash, loved the seats so comfy and with 250bhp is was nice to waft in. Its been a while since i owned it though i wonder if it would still feel the same today.
krissharm said:
uuf361 said:
Thats lovely and a lot of MOT tooGassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff