The Nissan Versa Shines We Love It! Road Test

By Miguel Caparros, Bob Sarda With Mike Thies
First Look
Expectations of testing the least expensive new car in America were running cold just coming out of the Infiniti M37. The retail price of the base model is $10,990, the black SV model we tested  looked good. Black cars can show every defect in the paint and body. Our example on close inspection revealed a flawless finish and all body panels lined up properly. It did not look cheap, to the contrary we have seen some high end models that (Click Here For The Intro Video)                             would be shamed by the exterior finish of  this car. At $14,990 it is still very affordable and a good value. Although it is listed as a subcompact there is nothing compact about the inside room. even with the seat adjusted for our tallest driver, 6'7" Mike Thies, I could still sit comfortably behind him.  No magic mirrors or trickery just sound engineering and planning. Most small cars and even some large ones have a very upright rear seat that pushes you forward. The Versa rear seat is slightly reclined and the tall height of the seat cushion to the floor make it a comfortable place to sit even for long periods of time. 
( Click Here For The Close Ups Videos)

The trunk does not scrimp at all on space either, taking our full mixture of suitcases, garment bag and a small duffle bag. enough for a family of 4 for a vacation. This car also has the largest glove box I have ever seen. You could put the baby in there (not recommended) a better use would be to carry a roasted chicken meal with all the fixings for four!
Click Here For The Road Test Part 1

The Engine is a 1.6 liter of 109 horsepower and it moves this car rather acceptably with a 0 to 60 time just under 10 seconds, our tester was equipped with the automatic CVT transmission that works great but does take a little getting used to. For those those drivers that enjoy the experience of shifting their own, a 5 speed transmission is standard equipment. Either way the fuel mileage is rated at 30 city 38 highway.
Click Here For Road Test Part 2 

Driving

Al four of us liked the driving and feel of this car. Doreen loved the way it felt, it reminded her of the first gen Scirroco she had in high school, peppy, agile and did exactly what you asked of it. She wished it was a 5 speed. Mike though it was to firm and jiggly, he did like the steering and how the brakes felt. I liked it! I was pleasantly surprised at how flat it cornered and how well it accelerated. 


Bob Sarda who had volunteered his 2007 Honda Aaccord to show just how big the Versa is, he wrote a whole chapter. 

Here it is in his own word

It was a stormy, rainy night, the night before I was tasked to drive the Versa.

On the day of my test run, the sky was Carolina Blue, the humidity was mid to late 60 ‘s percentile and the roads were clear, clean and freshly washed. One could not ask for better weather-a cool morning, temp in the upper 60’s.  Near perfect.

I did a thoughtful walk around the car. Not too big, not too small, and yet it just bearly made the cut in the sub-compact class.

 As I settled into the driver’s seat, I began to realize that this little car was very big inside. My co-captain who is not a small man by any stretch of the imagination, and yet, he is sitting in the suicide seat with plenty of leg and head room. And for him to have plenty of head room is saying a lot. ( I thing Bob Is calling me a fat head)

After the drive we checked out the trunk and the back seat room.  There is plenty of room in the trunk for 2 dead bodies and the back seat has more room and more comfortable seating than my V6 Honda Accord.

The Test Drive:

The car is quick and smooth. The ride is excellent for a sub-compact car. Heck! It is very good for a mid-size car. It carried us down the road at speeds that required you to double check the speedometer. You did not feel like you were merging onto the highway at 90 miles per hour. I had stomped the gas pedal on the on ramp to watch the tachometer and feel the constant velocity transmission work its magic.

It was smooth as glass and high revving as one would expect of a 4 banger.  It never approached the red line and before I merged into traffic, there I was, staring down at an impressive 90 mph. There was some pedal left and yet, I did not need any more.  I backed off the throttle. Mission accomplished.

I felt a little hollow. There is something empty about getting up to 90 and not feeling the rush of acceleration. The feeling of power, raw, hoary, stick- it- to- the- man HORSE POWER.

We need to accelerate to make a proper merge and the machine simply responded-“Compliance”.  Just a walk in the park to go 90 miles per hour. As if the machine  responded back to my wishes, “Should you require anything else, just press the accelerator or the brakes. This is what I do.” (Bob Just finished watching a Sci-Fi marathon) 

My first car was a 1947 Mercury, business coupe, flat head 8- 88 HP on a good day. When I got the car with 54,000 plus miles on it, it used a quart of oil every 9 gallons of gas or every 108 miles. I was 16 at the time and that car never saw 90 MPH.  I tried. Lord knows I tried. 60 MPH was an accomplishment and you felt like you were flying, cheating death, living on the edge, bare knuckle riding the wind, flirting with disaster. And  heaven help you if you came near a curve. Better get those horses under control and whoa back down to 45. Thanks Bob.

So to sum it up it gets 4 thumbs up from all of us. We like to get blind opinions we get random people for a quick look and ride and get their impressions, this is where we find out what people think of the car.  

We snatch random people at the mall. 

Beth a late 20s secretary having launch, loved the room in the car and she noticed that in this car she could face the baby seat to the rear without interfering with the front seat, something she cannot do in her Honda Civic. When asked what she would pay for this car, her answer was, giving that her 3 year old civic cost her $ 17,000 she would expect to pay 18,000 for the larger Versa. 

Bill an options broker in his late 40's has a new Acura SUV. He has an Au Pair that he has currently in a 4 year old Camry. He was impressed with the ruggedness of all the materials and the fact that it has all the latest safety gear to keep his kids safe as they are driven to the various soccer practice and ballet rehearsals that are part of their daily life. He was awe struck with the size of the trunk as the Camry is always jammed with all the gear that has to be moved around. Bill did a quick calculation in his mind when we told him the fuel mileage, he said that the savings in 3 years would permit him to get the BMW 5 series that he wants! He made us an on the spot offer of  $16,500 plus fees right now. We told him to head to his closest Nissan dealer as this one is not for sale. This is the first time we encounter people willing to pay more than the MSRP. They were all speechless when we told them the base price of $10,990 and the price of our second level SV model of $15,490. 

Tell Us About Your First Car

By Miguel Caparros

Strangely enough I have not put on paper much about my first car. It was 1968, I was attending Plymouth High School in New Hampshire. I had my learners permit at 14 and could not wait until my 16th birthday to legally get on the road with out an adult. Your past rules your future and mine was thick with European car influences. Among those that influenced me was my apprenticeship teacher,Claude Meder who was an ex works driver for Peugeot, Renault and Dyna Panhard, also my fathers rally tested Peugeot 404 made me want one of my own. I wanted a car that was up to the challenge of the back roads of rural New England, a young man's dreams of the Monte Carlo Rally or the East Africa Safari Rally. I was destined to race with the best, so I needed a world class car to cut my teeth on. Besides my father's 404 a few VW's there were not many foreign cars in central New Hampshire, except for this grey Peugeot 403 that I would see in town every so often. One day I approached the driver of the car and asked him if he was interested in selling it. The answer was yes, as anything he drove was for sale, he was the owner of the local junk yard in Plymouth. The car was a 1959. It ran and shifted well, the sun roof worked and it had all the things a proper New England car has, rust holes here and there but for the most part it was in good shape. The 4 on the tree confounded my friends and the American hot rodder in me wanted to convert it to a floor shift. The French must have had a very serious problem with hub cap theft as all of our French cars had caps that bolted on to the center. $125.00 dollars exchanged hands and I now owned the Junk Mans Car. First thing I did was to take it home and clean it. After I washed it I started to polish the paint with compound. The grey chalky color came off on the polishing cloth and below was a light green color with some great shine.  All the bright trim on the Peugeot's was stainless steel and after I polished all the trim and bumpers it was another car altogether. The summer of this car was full of adventures and happy times that are still fresh in my mind, "give or take a lie or two".

Confessions Of A Motor Head, To Dartmouth In A Mini

by Miguel Caparros 

Miguel Capaross Photo

My friend Leslie, Who I lost touch with for a long time, reminded me recently of the Austin Mini I had in high school. It was a Countryman woody wagon, Red in color. I bought it for $35.00, the price of the Sears battery just installed by the previous owner. The details of how I came to buy it or who it was I bought it from are gone from my memory. It did not run when I bought it, a good tune up and that I was able to get the fuel flowing, got the car running well enough to get me to school. I was already well established for the unusual cars I had during high school the mini was just another chapter. 

The first adventure with the Mini was A road trip to Dartmouth form Plymouth to meet some girls at the “BIG GAME”. Bob. Rick and I managed to survive the game and not get caught doing the things that high school boys and girls do. All of the post game traffic was clear and we headed home. It was about 5 miles out of Dartmouth that at a stop sign I experienced some difficulty finding a forward gear. After much stirring of the gear shift lever I managed to get it into 2nd and get rolling. I kept my fears to myself as the shift into third failed and I was able to muscle the lever into 4th. About 10 miles later another stop sign. I was in a sweat, as I came to the stop and tried down shifting with no results as we came to a stop. All the stirring, banging and cussing was not helping to find a gear. Forward motion stopped right then and there, not even half way home. 

Now you are saying, breakdowns happen, it should not be a big deal to hitch a ride home or call some one to pick us up. The circumstances dictated otherwise. Bob was nicely pickled but functional, Rick was slurring a lot, and I was not supposed to have taken the car out of town. As I was about to tell the boys to get out and push, I found reverse! I was able to get the car turned into the direction of home and I drove from there on in reverse, the engine screaming as flat out all it would go was 25mph. All was almost right in the universe for a brief time until we got pulled over, still short of our goal but close enough where my short life should not be snuffed out by the wrath of my dad. We were just 5 miles outside of the town line, Bob and Rick now appeared sober and I told the Officer that I could call home and get a ride. Ha! From the house where we came to a stop in front of, the lady of the house was kind enough to let me use the phone. I called home knowing no one was there as dad was in New York. I faked the conversation for the officer telling him that dad would be on his way. Once he was out of sight I started the Mini once more and drove another 8 miles or so when the engine died. We were out of gas, out of time and out of sunlight. But… we were inside of the Town limit. We got out and hitched a ride home. Survived to get into trouble another day.

Confessions of a Motor Head. The Cop And The Brownies

My friend Leslie who moved back to where we grew up in Plymouth New Hampshire sent me a recent picture of my old Texaco Station. We were there but a fleeting moment in our lives, yet I have great memories from that brief moment in time.
I remember one night a VW Micro Bus pulled in, all painted up with rainbows and peace signs. A young hippie couple with three young children got out of the Bus. The engine sounded real sick, oil and smoke were pouring out out the back. I took a look at it and saw a hole in the side of engine. The Bus would go no further. The couple had just taken over the Jack o Lantern Motel north of town and would not have any money for e few months until the crop came in. Neal and I agreed to fix up an old 36 hp engine I would supply the know how and the Mike, the Hippie would provite the labor. He could pay us for parts after the crop came in. We finished the work in about a week of. Mike would come in after his chores were done at the motel and the farm to work on the engine. It was late on a Friday night that we saw him off with the newly refurbished engine. Early October on a nice sunny New England fall Saturday, at about noon, the Bus pulls into the station. The whole family is out for a drive and they came to pay their bill and brought into the gas station 3 huge trays of Home made Brownies. We had recently started selling fuel to the Plymouth Police Department since we were the only station in town that was open late, they started to give us some of their fuel business. 
It did not take us long to figure out that pumpkins were not the only crop brought in and everyone that had a brownie had the giggles, Neal was in low orbit. At about 3pm a Rookie Officer was there to fill up the cruiser before starting his shift, he came into the office to sign the charge and saw the Brownies. He put down the pen and grabbed 3 of them and headed out the door stopped in mid bite turned back in and grabbed two more. About an hour later I had to run an errand and took the then new Plymouth bypass. I saw the officer by the side of the road with his lights on and it appeared he had pulled over some one on a bicycle. 45 minutes later I was coming back and the car, with the officer sleeping with the cruisers lights still blazing, were still in the same spot. I stopped behind the cruiser, got out and walked up to the cop cars window. There was the officer sitting perfectly still passed out, two of 5 brownies remaining in the seat next to him. I reached across the seat and grabbed the remaining Brownies and noticed his ticket book, I took a quick glance and and saw that he had given the bicyclist a speeding ticket for 85 MPH. If I recall you had one of those Brownies too.

Confessions of a Motor Head. How fast will she go?

by Miguel Caparros

Living in New Hampshire through my formative years was a teenage motor heads dream, driving at 14 with a parent, full license at 16. I took my drivers test in Mom's new 66 VW, like everything else that comes near me, I was already modifying it before the ink had dried on the title. Dad had agreed to pay for the rear camber compensator, front sway bar, and 4 Koni shocks, I also sneaked in an Abarth exhaust. I re-clocked the torsion bars lowering the car about 2 inches. Mom was the envy of the college parking lot for her cool VW.

But this story is about another VW, a 57 oval window car that belonged to a Librarian at the College. Janice had gotten the car from her dad who bought it new, it had very few miles the original 36 hp engine and one very nice option if you live in a place where the average temperature during the winter is 18, a gas powered heater. It was a tiny furnace that could heat the VW from 30 below to, "turn that thing off" in 5 minutes. On cold snowy days it was my number one choice to make the 20 mile drive from the Ski area where we lived to school. Equipped with studded snow tires it was unstoppable. I had other projects during the winter to keep the mod gene in check but as spring started to loom on the horizon I started to think of at least painting the faded out baby puke green of the 57 bug. As April began to melt the snow the 57 got a new 66 Ford Mustang dark metallic green paint.

Being in the mountains the snow melts last. The lower elevations in Laconia show their bare ground first. I had an unfinished assignment from my mechanics Master Claude Meder, that he gave me the previous summer in Florida. It was to rebuild completely a modern twin cam motor that had belt driven camshafts as opposed to chains or gears. There was a junk yard near Louden, not very far from the race track, it had a good collection of imports and some totaled race cars. This was a true junk yard not the clean organized recyclers we have today, there was junk there going back a century and it was where it fell. Sloshing through the wet ground from the melting snows I found a Fiat 124 Coupe that had been hit very hard from behind. Being a regular customer of the yard the junk man let me use the ancient 30's tow truck to pick up the Fiat and take it apart in slightly dryer and level ground. When I was done with it he pointed me to take it to a part at the back of the yard where the real old junk was. As I was lowering the Fiat my eye was drawn by something that did not seem to belong. Once I had lowered and unhooked the Fiat I walked over to the pile that had caught my eye. I thought I saw a VW headlight under a pile of hoods, as I started to remove the heavy American hoods from the late 40s and early 50s I began to see that it was not a VW at all but a Porsche. It was a silver 550 Spyder, and it was a mangled mess. Immediately my mind raced to how many of these parts I could use in other projects. Amazingly enough most of the car was there including the twin cam Carrera engine and transmission. I went to the junk man and asked him what he wanted for the Fiat engine and transmission he said $50.00, I then asked him what he wanted for the Spyder in the back of the yard. He did not remember it or how it got there he saw the mangled mess and told me $25.00 and told me to use the wrecker and load it myself onto the flat bed I was driving.

Once home I became consumed with the 550. I started removing all the sheet metal as there was not a panel that was of any use. In short time I was left with Spyder chassis that had some bent tubes and bent axles. I began measuring to plan an attack on fixing the frame. I replaced the front axle with a VW one and installed the Porsche brakes, not to get lost in the details I was able to replace the bent tubes and with a 40 hp VW engine had the chassis driving in a couple of weeks. The original engine turned over but did not run. It took three weeks and a pile of money to get an overhaul kit and a workshop manual for the twin cam engine. Ignorance and youth are bliss, the complication of that engine rivals a modern day Formula one engine. Instead of a chain to drive the 4 camshafts the German engineers used gears and shafts to connect the crank shaft to the cams. The complication of this drive train has brought many mechanics to their knees in frustration. I got lucky on the first shot and it all worked.
The engine went into the chassis and I scarred myself stupid the first time I floored it. At 700 lbs, with the 140 HP the engine was supposed to make, the acceleration would have been dragster level. Not knowing any better I diverted some of the air from the colling fan to supercharge the engine, I would estimate it made close to 200 HP.

So now I had a very fast 200 hp chassis and a very nice Beetle with 36 hp. You know where this is going. I flipped the Carrera engine and transmission so that the engine was at the back instead of the Spyders placement in the middle. I then cut the chassis side tubes off so that I could incorporate the whole thing into the VW floor pan. Put a well fitted roll over bar in the interior and welded the body, chassis and roll bar into one unit. This engine had been installed in the rear position of the 356 Spyder and coupes so I ordered an Abarth muffler for that combo. It all fit with minor modifications.

A note of humor. The first time I started the car put it in reverse to back it out of the garage, I almost went through the front wall. I forgot to flip the differential gears when I turned the engine from the mid engine position to the rear. I had 1 forward gear and 5 in reverse.

Once the gears were all turning in the proper direction it became instantly obvious that this car was scary fast and the baddest sleeper anywhere. The additional weight of the Beetle body helped keep the front wheels on the ground under acceleration, just barely, still had to be careful to not wheely under full power in first gear. It never lost a drag race on the street and only once at the drag strip when I had to let up racing a gasser and the front end got too light approaching the traps at over 130 mph, it still had one gear to go.

Everyone in the mid sixties was struggling with a way to make race cars stable at high speeds. I spend hours reading aircraft aerodynamics studies and looking carefully at what Ferrari (where I was a apprentice) and Jim Hall was doing with the Chaparral. The Beetle presented an unusual problem due to its shape. If you look at it from profile it looks like a profile of a wing, a surface to create lift. The solution was a combination of the aircraft knowledge and the work on the Chaparral. From the aircraft I learned that a simple fence or spoiler at the transition point (the crown of the roof line) would break up the lifting action, from Jim Hall I learned if I keep the air from getting under the car it lowers drag and lift. So I created a rubber dam system that was unseen from the outside and a very subtle lip on the roof.

So now to test it.
I knew that the car accelerated fast and handled real well. I also knew that it was very unstable as you approached 140 mph. In 1966 there was not much traffic on Interstate 93 after midnight. I figured there would be even less between one and two AM. So an a clear cool night I started south bound on 93. The car was stable at 140 I wondered just how fast it would go? My calculations of the gearing and the RPM's that the engine could turn in 5th gear came to a speed I was not convinced the car could really go. I got to a ten mile stretch that was hilly but did not have any major curves that might cause problems at high speeds. I worked my speed up taking the Carrera engine to 8,000 rpm in every gear acceleration was steady until a few seconds in 5th gear the progress was slower now. A curve that was feeling a little to tight forced me to lift at 7500 rpm. I gathered up the car slowed for the next safe stretch that was 5 miles away, I started accelerating hoping to at least hit red line before the downhill. I crested the long down hill run and in the distance the sky was lit up with flashing lights the interruption kept me from noticing the tachometer reading. I let up and coasted down to 70, the speed limit. As I approached the full road block I realized that this had to be a big deal. There are just not that many officers on duty at 2 AM. 4 police cars were blocking the road with guns drawn. I putted to a stop. And raised my hands registration and license in hand. I was told to get out of the car. They swarmed the car with flashlights blazing into the interior of the 57 bug, besides the tachometer there was no abnormality. Apparently they were expecting a monster V8 in the back seat all they saw was a 10 year old VW seat. “Okay kid open the trunk and engine compartment” at this point the guns were dropped and my id. returned to me as it became more apparent that I was not their suspect. After inspecting both ends of the bug and being satisfied that I was not their man one car was withdrawn to open the lane. I turned to the officer closest to me and asked, “what are you guys looking for?” “An officer 10 miles up the road said he clocked a car on radar at 168 mph, he must have been sleeping” I answered “there is no way you could get a 57 Bug going that fast” I slowly putted away, very slowly.