Brand-spanking new, shiny, red...Nissan Note 1.2 DIG-S Tekna
Discussion
New car for my fiancee arrived this afternoon, 5 miles on the odometer and complete with new-car smell. 
Not exactly PH fodder of course, and a looooong way from "sporty", but quite a nice little family runabout nonetheless:
It replaces a 2012 Note 1.5 DCi; this new one is the 1.2 petrol DIG-S, which is quite an interesting little lump. It runs on a Miller cycle at low loadings (low power, high efficiency) but switches to a conventional Otto cycle and engages a small supercharger at higher RPM and throttle levels. It produces 99bhp, so while not in any way fast it's got enough poke for comfortable day-to-day driving.
We chose it for similarly dull, practical reasons to our first Note: it's a small car with loads of space inside, a decent boot, a handy sliding rear seat, lots of toys (both being top-of-the-range variants), and the high roofline makes life easy when lifting our 2-year-old in and out of the back. And it claims to average 65mpg, although I expect reality will be less. As well as the Note, we'd test-driven a Fiesta Ecoboost (which was faster and a little quieter, but tiny and cramped inside, and even in Titanium trim seemed basic compared to the Note) and a Clio 0.9TCe (nice engine, nicely styled, again quite cramped and short of equipment).
I quite like the front-end styling, which looks a bit sharper than the old Note, but I'm not so struck on the back end, which is rather bland compared to the distinctive look of the original. Also, our old car being an N-Tec+ version had rather snazzy little diamond-cut alloys with the inner parts painted black; this new one makes do with a rather more staid design. Which are probably far more in line with the character of the car...
Interior-wise, the new car is definitely a step up. It's no Bentley, but it's solid and comfy, the seats are comfier than before, and I'm quite taken with the new instrument pack. Impressive gadget count for a little car, too: it's got cruise/nav/USB/bluetooth/climate/auto lights/auto wipers, like the old one, and additionally has the Around-View cameras, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, and a selection of Eco indicators, buttons etc.
Driven gently (running-in), it managed just over 60mpg over 20-odd miles of mixed driving today, with the air-con running. Not bad for a brand-new engine that will still be quite "tight". That little three-pot isn't quite as quiet as a Fiesta Ecoboost but it's still quite a refined little thing. A lot smoother and quieter than the diesel one, and as I recall from the test drive it should make a fairly pleasing sound at higher engine speeds.
Most importantly, our little daughter likes mummy's new red car! She wasn't too happy to see the old one go off on the back of the transporter, I think she still expects it to come back
Not exactly PH fodder of course, and a looooong way from "sporty", but quite a nice little family runabout nonetheless:
It replaces a 2012 Note 1.5 DCi; this new one is the 1.2 petrol DIG-S, which is quite an interesting little lump. It runs on a Miller cycle at low loadings (low power, high efficiency) but switches to a conventional Otto cycle and engages a small supercharger at higher RPM and throttle levels. It produces 99bhp, so while not in any way fast it's got enough poke for comfortable day-to-day driving.
We chose it for similarly dull, practical reasons to our first Note: it's a small car with loads of space inside, a decent boot, a handy sliding rear seat, lots of toys (both being top-of-the-range variants), and the high roofline makes life easy when lifting our 2-year-old in and out of the back. And it claims to average 65mpg, although I expect reality will be less. As well as the Note, we'd test-driven a Fiesta Ecoboost (which was faster and a little quieter, but tiny and cramped inside, and even in Titanium trim seemed basic compared to the Note) and a Clio 0.9TCe (nice engine, nicely styled, again quite cramped and short of equipment).
I quite like the front-end styling, which looks a bit sharper than the old Note, but I'm not so struck on the back end, which is rather bland compared to the distinctive look of the original. Also, our old car being an N-Tec+ version had rather snazzy little diamond-cut alloys with the inner parts painted black; this new one makes do with a rather more staid design. Which are probably far more in line with the character of the car...
Interior-wise, the new car is definitely a step up. It's no Bentley, but it's solid and comfy, the seats are comfier than before, and I'm quite taken with the new instrument pack. Impressive gadget count for a little car, too: it's got cruise/nav/USB/bluetooth/climate/auto lights/auto wipers, like the old one, and additionally has the Around-View cameras, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, and a selection of Eco indicators, buttons etc.
Driven gently (running-in), it managed just over 60mpg over 20-odd miles of mixed driving today, with the air-con running. Not bad for a brand-new engine that will still be quite "tight". That little three-pot isn't quite as quiet as a Fiesta Ecoboost but it's still quite a refined little thing. A lot smoother and quieter than the diesel one, and as I recall from the test drive it should make a fairly pleasing sound at higher engine speeds.
Most importantly, our little daughter likes mummy's new red car! She wasn't too happy to see the old one go off on the back of the transporter, I think she still expects it to come back
Jonny_ said:
... a handy sliding rear seat,
.......
As well as the Note, we'd test-driven a Fiesta Ecoboost (which was faster and a little quieter, but tiny and cramped inside, and even in Titanium trim seemed basic compared to the Note) and a Clio 0.9TCe (nice engine, nicely styled, again quite cramped and short of equipment).
Did you by any chance compare it to Honda Jazz?.......
As well as the Note, we'd test-driven a Fiesta Ecoboost (which was faster and a little quieter, but tiny and cramped inside, and even in Titanium trim seemed basic compared to the Note) and a Clio 0.9TCe (nice engine, nicely styled, again quite cramped and short of equipment).
We have one in the family and thinking of getting another for our daughter but the boot space is too tight for many of the current prams so I wondered how Note compared?
Sheepshanks said:
Did you by any chance compare it to Honda Jazz?
We have one in the family and thinking of getting another for our daughter but the boot space is too tight for many of the current prams so I wondered how Note compared?
No, although it's probably the closest competitor we didn't actually try a Jazz, purely because on the "Salary Sacrifice" scheme I use the Jazz is comparatively expensive. We have one in the family and thinking of getting another for our daughter but the boot space is too tight for many of the current prams so I wondered how Note compared?
Does the Jazz have the sliding rear bench like the Note? That came in handy with the Britax travel system we used for the first year or so. The current folding pushchair is much smaller and fits in easily even with the seat all the way back and a travel cot plus bags in the boot as well.
Jonny_ said:
Does the Jazz have the sliding rear bench like the Note?
It doesn't. I've done a bit of Googling and as best I can tell, there isn't a lot of difference in the boot space even when Note's seat is slid forwards. One thing that did surprise me is Note is 200mms longer (4.1metres vs Jazz 3.9metres).Apparently the 2015 Jazz (which, connected to your comments, should have been out this year but has been delayed until next year for lower emission engines) has a smaller boot as they've pushed the rear seat back - but it's still doesn't slide.
You'll definitely enjoy it when you're finished running it, it's not fast - DIG-S is actually the "eco" model, despite adding the supercharger it also nets better fuel economy figures - but it sounds really quite entertaining at high revs! I'm glad three-pots are coming back a bit, this and the Ford 1.0 Ecoboost are both good fun little engines.
Crazy amount of tech in the Note as well, stuff that would have been impressive in an S-Class a few years ago. Sometimes nice to see appreciation for "everyday" stuff on PH!
Crazy amount of tech in the Note as well, stuff that would have been impressive in an S-Class a few years ago. Sometimes nice to see appreciation for "everyday" stuff on PH!
Yes, I'm quite looking forward to the end of the running in period. When we test drove one a few months back I noticed a hint of supercharger whine as well as a satisfying three-pot warble
I find it astounding how far small, relatively cheap cars have advanced in the past 15 to 20 years. In the 1990s you would have struggled to find air con in a supermini; electric windows and a rev counter were luxuries! The only thing unavailable on the Note that I'd have liked is a DAB tuner.
We went to test drives complete with pram, car seat and small child, as the most important factor was that we could fit her and all her kit in comfortably. It's definitely worth doing; we quite fancied the Fiesta until we found that our poor daughter had hardly any legroom and that the boot was barely big enough for the pushchair.
I find it astounding how far small, relatively cheap cars have advanced in the past 15 to 20 years. In the 1990s you would have struggled to find air con in a supermini; electric windows and a rev counter were luxuries! The only thing unavailable on the Note that I'd have liked is a DAB tuner.
Sheepshanks said:
It doesn't. I've done a bit of Googling and as best I can tell, there isn't a lot of difference in the boot space even when Note's seat is slid forwards. One thing that did surprise me is Note is 200mms longer (4.1metres vs Jazz 3.9metres).
Apparently the 2015 Jazz (which, connected to your comments, should have been out this year but has been delayed until next year for lower emission engines) has a smaller boot as they've pushed the rear seat back - but it's still doesn't slide.
That is surprising, I'd always assumed them to be very similarly sized.Apparently the 2015 Jazz (which, connected to your comments, should have been out this year but has been delayed until next year for lower emission engines) has a smaller boot as they've pushed the rear seat back - but it's still doesn't slide.
We went to test drives complete with pram, car seat and small child, as the most important factor was that we could fit her and all her kit in comfortably. It's definitely worth doing; we quite fancied the Fiesta until we found that our poor daughter had hardly any legroom and that the boot was barely big enough for the pushchair.
Sheepshanks said:
Did you by any chance compare it to Honda Jazz?
We have one in the family and thinking of getting another for our daughter but the boot space is too tight for many of the current prams so I wondered how Note compared?
If you're looking for a compact MPV with good boot space have a look at the Kia Venga / Hyundai ix20. These have 440 litres space which is considerably more than many C segment hatches.We have one in the family and thinking of getting another for our daughter but the boot space is too tight for many of the current prams so I wondered how Note compared?
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