2010 Nissan Cube is Conventionally Unconventional; Looks Different, but is the Same

issan's Cube is a cute model, if you consider a high roofline, square lines and tiny size cute, but when you sit behind the wheel you realize there's more to this tiny transporter than meets the eye.

Week-long Check Ride

A few weeks ago, a Nissan Cube floated -- it could have been literally after all we've had a record month of rain in Boston -- into the driveway at Autowriter Acres and we had a chance to put it through its paces.

The first thing we notice was its lines. One of the new breed or micro-cars, it was square with a high roofline for its size and it was a surprisingly good handler. It even managed to sit four adults in comfort, although with the second bench seat in place we did lose lots of cargo space.

That made the Cube interesting was its design. We do't think we've ever seen anything quite so square in our driveway (over more than 30 years of autowriting and three cars per week, we've seen a lot of cars). Nor, have we seen a vehicle that's quite so tall for a small car.

First impressions

Yet, taken as a whole, once you get by your first impressions, you find that the Cube is a pretty smart idea, if you need an urbo-hauler that's good for two and cargo. For cargo-carrying capacity, we'd suggest leaving the rear seat down so that you can take advantage of the rather spacious cargo area. As noted, the rear bench does cost you a lot of storage, although we also noted that the seat was very comfortable for two and that, thanks to the rather tall roofline. There was plenty of shoulder and hiproom back there and, thanks to the space under the front bucket seats, there's plenty of legroom, too.

Overall, the rear seating was quite good.

Moving to the front, we found that the Cube handled reasonably well for a stock, factory mini-hauler. A light vehicle to begin with, the power steering was rather light and easy to use when first starting out. It seemed to be power-sensitive in that as you gained speed, it took a tad more effort to handle curves and corners. You'd expect this, though, in this type of vehicle.

Indeed, you'd expect somethings to have been dialed out years ago which are still there when you look for them. The first is the tendency to jump to the right on hard acceleration. This has plagued front-drive cars since Cord first tried putting one on the road more than 70 years ago. It has to do with the fact that a latitudinally mounted engine tends to put its power to the passenger-side first and then to the driver's side.

For the most part, the auto industry has dialed this out with the use of unequal length half-shafts and other front end fixes. This has meant that most cars, such as Honda's Civic or even its Fit, act "normally," in that you don't know which wheels are driving the car. In the Cube, we found the old jump to the right on hard acceleration was back, not that the 1.6-liter four was any engine that would win any traffic light drags because it won't.

Engine's Bullet-proof

Since it's a Nissan engine, we found it to be basically bulletproof, but we were surprised at not only the jump to the right but also with another nemesis that we thought had been dialed out years ago, trailing throttle oversteer. This is the tendency of a front-drive car to want to swap ends when you lift off the gas in a decreasing radius turn, such as an offramp.

Because about 70 percent of the vehicles weight is on the driving wheels, when you lift off the gas suddenly, the inertia wants to keep going forward (think of a heaving a weighted line and trying to get it to go in any direction other than the first direction you let fly, you pretty much can't), but, at the same time, the rear end is losing what little adhesion it has with the road and the suddenly rear end and suddenly heavier front end (it also acts like a fulcrum point) try to swap positions.

The front end stays put while the rear end tries to come around and thus you have trailing throttle oversteer. It can be disconcerting the first time you run into it, but once you are used to it, it's nothing at all. It's just interesting that in 2010 it's back again in an otherwise nicely designed vehicle.

Nice Driving Position

Sitting in the driver's seat, you are able to access the key controls and gear shift quite easily as the controls are mounted conveniently on the center console and the gearshift is just long enough so that your hand falls naturally to it. Although we're pretty average height, we suspect that the Cube will fit some pretty tall drivers as the roofline is tall.

Overall, we liked the production model we had the chance to drive recently. It shows that Nissan has, for the most part, done its homework and is putting out cars that are well made.

We also found that it handled quite well, despite our quibbles. Through turns and around corners we found the Cube held the line we chose. Interestingly, or maybe because it is so tiny and the wheelbase is so square, we found there was an absolute minimum of body roll or lean. The seats were also comfortable and provided good back and thigh support.

Overall, we liked the design that features a nicely designed front-end that seems to move organically into a short hoodline. The headlight cluster is fared nicely into the front bumper cover and right and left front fenders. Since it is a boxy design, the windshield was somewhat upright but the roof was rounded and finished nicely into a wide-opening rear door (it was a real door, not a hatch/door or a hatch pretending to be a door). Everyday hauling capacity was pretty good.

Price Range

About the only other surprising thing we noticed was price. With four trim versions available from the Base to the SL, we found the price to run from abougt $13,000 to $21,000, which is quite a spread, however, given the need of dealers to move their iron, we suspect that you'll be able to shave quite a bit off that.

So, if you are looking for a mini-car that's good on mileage -- 32 overall, not bad even in the wind with a stick -- and can carry a great deal with the rear seats down or a reaonable amount with the rears in place, then the Cube is worth a look. You'll probably like what you find, even if it does look a little funny.