Kicks a value-priced small crossover
2019 Nissan Kicks SV: A long test in a new Kia Soul-fighter.
Price: $23,103 as tested, including $545 for two-tone paint. Standard items include blind-spot warning, rear crosstraffic alert, and Sirius XM.
Conventional wisdom: Motor Trend likes the “strong value, clever interior, kickin’ stereo,” but not “no AWD, seat comfort, noisy at speed.”
Marketer’s pitch: “Own your moment.”
Reality: It takes more than a moment to grow on you, but it’s got many redeeming features.
What’s new: The whole Kicks, front to back. The little crossover replaced the Juke for the 2018 model year.
First impressions: I’m not a shoot-from-the-hip reviewer. I like to mull cars over for a couple of days before I start making notes.
Good thing for the Kicks that I travelled close to 1,600 kilometres in this baby. Sometimes I’m just being cranky, but after a couple of days, I soften up.
Up to speed: The Kicks features Nissan’s 1.6-litre fourcylinder and makes just 122 horsepower. I thought for sure this would be a dog on the highways. But once I got used to it, the Kicks kicked pretty well. Still, it gets to 100 km/h in 9.9 seconds, according to Motor Trend.
Shiftless: Though I missed having any shift control with the CVT, the Kicks didn’t do badly overall. Only on one long, uphill entrance ramp to the turnpike did I feel seriously outmatched by other vehicles.
On the road: The curves are nothing to excite drivers about when piloting this little box, but the performance there matches such competitors as the Subaru Crosstrek, Toyota C-HR and Soul. The Kicks’ forebrother, the Juke, offered nicer handling.
The highway manners of the Kicks, though, are fairly pleasant. It’s a little harsh on rough roads, but high speeds are no problem at all.
Driver’s Seat: I drove a barebones model with inexpensive cloth seats and manual seat operation. I’m happy to report they were comfortable. They’re a little on the soft side, but they keep occupants in place.
Friends and stuff: From the rear, my six-foot-two son dubbed the seat comfortable and roomy, though he was relegated to sitting directly behind his five-footfive, well-scrunched mom. Behind me, there would be too many unpleasant Kicks in the rear.
Cargo space is 25.3 cubic feet behind the rear seats and 53.1 with the seats folded.
Play some tunes: Here is the point where the Kicks and I part ways. The bare-bones stereo just made my ears weep. (Motor Trend’s SR must have had the $1,000 Premium Package, which adds Bose premium audio.)
The Kicks stereo offers bass, treble and mid-range adjustments, and even something called bass booster. Bass was just fine, but despite adjusting the controls from one end to the other, it always sounded like I was listening to my favourite songs through a telephone line.
Keeping warm and cool: One knob controls fan, another temperature, and small buttons control air source and other functions.
Fuel economy: I averaged about 29 mpg in a more highwayheavy range than my usual testing grounds. Feed the Kicks any grade of fuel you like.
In the end: It’s not that easy to find a roomy-ish $20,000-something car nowadays. The Nissan Kicks isn’t a bad deal: Upgrading the stereo means a bit more money, though.