HAVING KICKS ON ROUTE 66
This Suv/hatchback/subcompact has it all — safety, space, fuel economy, price, reliability
Getting my kicks, by taking a Kicks, on Route 66. Too much? Sorry, couldn’t resist. Though it’s generally frowned upon to work marketing slogans into car reviews, like writing “zoom zoom” about a Mazda or just blithely saying, “it’s a Jeep thing,” Route 66 was there first.
The first time I travelled this way with Nissan was more than five years ago, and the Kicks crossover Suv/hatchback/subcompact — pick one; it’s all of these things — wasn’t in production yet.
Seven back-to-back, 10-hour drive days is a fair test of many things about a vehicle. Though we had the opportunity to switch out between the 2020 Murano and Altima, it was the trendy little Kicks that had me most intrigued.
I’d driven the 2018, and we had the 2019 because the 2020 was still a few weeks away. No matter. The 2019 offers up a lot of reasons you should be considering this vehicle if you’re shopping in this segment.
Oh, this segment — crowded and noisy, all yelling, “over here!” to stand out.
With sales of sedans wilting and car sales overall dropping, manufacturers know they have to define their target with increasing accuracy. Safety, space, fuel economy, price, reliability — consumers want, and can have, it all. Nissan knows this, and has placed the Kicks at a sweet spot in its lineup.
First, the safety. Seven airbags, automatic emergency braking and auto high beams are all standard on all Kicks. The SV and SR trims — the latter of which we drove — also have blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert. The SR sports Nissan’s Intelligent Around View Monitor with Moving Object
Detection (MOD), with four cameras positioned to deliver a 360-degree bird’s eye view of the vehicle, and the monitor offering split-screen close-ups.
For 2020, Safety Shield 360 will be standard on all trim levels, which includes six features: high-beam assist, lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, rear emergency braking, front emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and rear cross-traffic alert.
And the Kicks has the space. Lots of it. Great headroom, and we were also chucking full-sized suitcases into the back, along with a lot of other gear, with ease. I’m a hardcore hatchback fan, and getting a subcompact crossover with this much space and clearance was a nice surprise.
The back seats are OK for a couple of kids, but nothing you’d want to cover 4,000 kilometres in as an adult. The front seats, however, are Nissan’s Zero Gravity seats. Created using technology perfected by NASA and available through open patents, the idea is to create a seat that removes pressure points. If astronauts have to be in space for weeks or months, how do you keep them the most comfortable? Anyone who has unfolded themselves from a car on a road trip knows the stretching and un-crunching has to happen at regular intervals.
Nissan promised us a hammock-like experience in all its cars, and the proof was in the forgetting: I forgot about the seats. I have back issues, I’d signed up for a seven-day gruelling trek across eight states, and I had no issues.
The styling is adorable. Nissan probably doesn’t want to hear that, but it is. It’s darling, especially the two-toned SR version I was driving. The interior doesn’t live up to the outer promise, but the Bose sound system is good and the speakers built into the driver’s headrest are fun. The console is a little pedestrian, though not much different than everything else in this segment at this price point. Oh, and those seats …
It’s a vehicle that does better in town than on places like Route 66, as it struggles to hold its place on the 120 km/h speeds on the interstate. Throw in some crosswinds, and it’s not as sure-footed as it is when turning on a dime in tight urban cores. It’s certainly got the nimbleness it needs from the 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine with 122 horsepower, if not the juice to let you put your boot into it at high speeds.
Unlike others in the segment, the Kicks is available only with front-wheel drive, but there’s no denying its fuel economy is a winner because of it. Its relatively light weight of 1,200 kilograms helps the Kicks earn an impressive rating of 7.2 L/100 km, combined city and highway.
Why should you throw the Kicks onto your shopping list? Bang for the buck. The loaded up 2019 SR trim we tested comes in at $23,398. The base S starts at $18,298, with the SV coming up the middle at $21,298.