Nissan Versa

flightnurse · July 2007

what so cutting edge about the engine? For the last 8 yrs, ford hasn't changed the focus much, and you have to wonder why there are incentives.... Because they arent selling..

Before buying my Versa, I looked at the Focus, the lease payment would have been higher then what I'm paying for my versa for the same lenght and Mileage.. Even with the incentives ford gives the Focus was higher payment, so which car is better ??

Tony

flightnurse · July 2007

The Sedan has been out now for 6 months...

flightnurse · July 2007

Well its alittle more then a year, I got my Versa the 9th of July, I have 16K miles on it, and I have really gotten to know the car well. The mileage is getting better, I'm averages 32, I am not sorry for getting the car at all but I do like the new Altima Coupe tho...

Since I have one more year before my lease is up, the new Murano for 08 is due out by the end of the year, that looks like my next car..

TOny

dtownfb · July 2007

>

Toyota knew exactly what they are doing. They did not want the 5-door Yaris to compete with the 2008 Scion Xd which will be on the dealer lots later this month. It's based on the same platform as the Yaris.

mschmal · July 2007

If you are worried about problems that people have after taking the car home, Nissan does not seem to be a good choice. In the 2007 JD Power Inital Quality Survey, Nissan came in 19th! behind Kia, Hyundai, Chevy, Buick and others.

Nissan was reported at 132 problems per 100 vehicles.
Averave was 125 problems per vehicle
Oh and Ford was at 120 problems per vehicle.
Mercury finished at 113 ppv one behind Toyota at 112 ppv.

SO your anti american sentiment is not supported by the facts.

And if you are looking at leasing, don't compare a Versa to a Focus, look at the Fusion.

Thanks.

jd10013 · July 2007

thats initial quality. bassed more on manufacturing process and considers all flaws equaly. for exaple, car a has transmission problem, car b has a loose button on the dashboard. both cars have 1 problem.

those studies are usefull, as the do point to quality of manufactur and assembly, but says nothing about how that car will be in 3, 5, or 10 years. those would be long term reliability studies. and ford doesn't fare well in them. but, If the build quality is improving, then that could very well change

and what new and improved engine are you talking about, and why would you cross shop a versa (subcompact) and a fusion (midsize sedan) for? the fusion competes with the altima, malibu, camry ect. Don't tell me ford is selling their focus for more than the fusion

bikedorian · July 2007

and why would you cross shop a versa (subcompact) and a fusion (midsize sedan) for?

That's easy. The government considers the Versa a midsize based solely on interior volume. The Versa is one good size cabin.
Yep. J.D. Power is a joke. Basing a buying decision on J.D. is a good way to shot oneself in the foot. Their criteria isn't meant to inform the end user.

David

lemonhater · July 2007

Actually I like the Focus, and the way it looks. However, given the fact that my family has had two bad experinces with Ford. And the fact that the Focus is the most recalled car in recent history and some of thoose recalls were SCARY....like brakes.

Even if they fixed the problems, the Focus messages board is still full of issuses some very recent! Basicaly I could not buy a Focus and sleep well at night with the descion. And I really don't care about the warrenty, if I have got to waste time in a dealer getting something fixed arguing with said dealer about what it covers. So the Focus was out of the running for me personally.

I was worried about the Vera since it is a new car to the U.S. market but it looks like the worry was missplaced.

There were some build quility issuses on the versa like air bag cover popped up which were correted early.

There were some very minor things like the TPMS being a bit too sensative and a brake cap that lacked a required warning but that is about it.

And none of thoose issuses affected me and my sedan that I bought in Febuary.

Given the fact that the car was released in July the few things that were bad were fixed pretty darned fast.

This is a great contrast to the Tempo my mom owned. The air conditioning system on the Tempo failed every summer(and a couple of time again before the end of summer).

Although the dealer would try to fix it. It never stayed fixed. I have only had the car since febuary and yet I have not needed to see a dealer to fix something....something the Tempo didn't achive it's first year. I hope that the Versa is as realiable as my Trecel was but so far so good.

mschmal · July 2007

Well the most recent JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study from 2006 which measures problems after 3 years puts Nissan at 21st place with 242 problems per 100 vehicles and well off the average of 227.

Ford came in above average at 224 and Mercury came in 2nd with 151! Toyota was 5th with 179. Yes, thats 18% more problems in a 3 year old Toyota vs. a 3 year old Mercury.

I'm not trying to bash Nissan or the Versa in general. I am just trying to keep conversation about the strenghts and weakness of Versa as a car and not about how bad american cars are.

There are no recalls on 2005 to 2007 Focus.

As for whether the Power tests mean anything, I think that the difference between brands is significate.

Mark

Mark

bikedorian · July 2007

"As for whether the Power tests mean anything, I think that the difference between brands is significate."

It's what/how J.D. measures that's at issue. GIGO. Garbage in, garbage out. J.D.'s customers are the auto companies. They need to tailor their data to make it appealing to their customers. They do that extremely well.

David

jd10013 · July 2007

I wouldn't consider 3 years "long term", and once again, it does not address the types of problems, or cost of repair. the best indication of the long term quality of a car is in its resale value.

Ford is deffinitly on the right track, but only time will tell. So far ford is doing very well in both inital and 3 year reliablitly. If, the cars also hold up well after 5-10 years, ford may once again be able to challenge the asian companies.

But, that particular reliablity study was conducted on 2002 year vehicles, across all vehicle classes, not a particular vehicle, or vehicle class. I would suspect the focus is well below FoMoCo's average as a company.

nissan has redesigned all its vehicles since then, and the versa was 5 years away from comming out.

stickguy · July 2007

lets see, 242 vs. 227 per 100.

That means if you had 100 cars, only 15 more would have a problem.

Or on a particular car, it you have .15 more problems!

What I am getting at is that just because a brand is farther down the list, doesn't mean that it is unreliable in abstract terms.

jd10013 · July 2007

more importantly, it doesn't say anything about what kind of problems. say the focus for example, has two relativly minor problems. say a misaligned headlight, and window switch. Now, lets say the versa has one problem, the engine leaks oil and looses 2 quarts a week. according to the reliability ratings, the versa is a better car becase it only had 1/2 the problems of focus. despite the fact the problem with the versa makes the car undriveable and costs 50x as much to fix.

I'm not badmouthing ford, they've made enormous improvements in quality, and are finnaly begging to match (or even exceed) that of their asin competition. Just don't read too much into those relability ratings, they only tell 1/10th of the story.

mschmal · July 2007

its problems per 100 cars.

on average each Nissan had 24.2 problems over the 3 years.

A problem is anything a customer dislikes enough to report. The mechanical failure, "Bad" fuel economy, cheap feel to the knobs, whatever.

It is important to car makers because it measures how well that car maker is meeting the expectations of its customers as well as how reliable the cars are.

Mark

iluvmysephia1 · July 2007

Toyota was pointing forward to but the argument was also made that Toyota didn't want Scion xA buyers buying the 5-door Toyota Yaris hatch/crossover. Either argument makes sense to me and answers the question.

Still there's a certain segment of people who love the Yaris 5-door design and wanted that particular car model. Not the other Toyota designs. It's as simple as that and remains a disappointment for them.

jacksan1 · July 2007

As much as I sometimes have difficulty with them, CR at least puts down what area of which car is having problems, using the dreaded "black circle" or much sought-after "red circle" and in between. My issue with J.D. Powers is that there is no weighting on a "problem." A transmission falling off the car counts as one problem. So does the, like mschmal says, a cheap-feeling knob.

I do grant that CR's tables do not really show a weighting per se, either, but at least you generally know what problems they are reporting on (engine, transmission, electrical, brakes, etc.).

jd10013 · July 2007

its problems per 100 cars.

correct. so if nissan has 242 problems per 100 cars, that averages out to 2.4 problems per car. not 24.2

basically what its saying is, if nissan sells 100 vehicles, then they can expect 242 problems. not 2,400.

mschmal · July 2007

bobw3 · July 2007

Even though the JD Power studies may be flawed and some folks are reporting bad MPG as a "problem" why would Nissan owners report more of these "problems" as compared to Ford during a JD Power survey? If there are errors, they're probably spread evenly across all makes and models, unless you think that Nissan owners like to complain a lot?

jd10013 · July 2007

as someone else posted, the difference is minor. nissan cars average 2.42 problems per car. ford averages 2.2 problems per car. but, you can conclude from it, that ford is building a less problematic vehicle than nissan. Now if they can keep it up for 10 years, the could once again become the automotive powerhouse they once were.

mschmal · July 2007

3 pages of American car bashing. Then someone posts studies that show factual evidence that the quality of Ford for instance is better than Nissan and now we have 3 pages of about how the numbers don't mean anything.

Incidently, even though the current Focus is on the way out, sales are up.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070716/FREE/70716005/1024/L- ATESTNEWS

Mark

flightnurse · July 2007

Mark,

First off someone came on to the Versa Board and started bashing the Versa saying that the Focus is much better car. When in fact it is not.

Maybe the reason why the sales are up is the hefty rebated, LOW APR and the fact that Ford Motor Credit is taking on some risky customers to move the Focus out of inventory. I was in Detriot last week and saw lots of 08 Focus sitting in a lot waiting to be shipped. I'm sure Ford wants to move as many of the 07 Focus's before they start shipping the all new 08's...

mschmal · July 2007

will let you know what the changes are.

blang · September 2007

Hi Mark,

Just checked recalls at /www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov.

2005 Ford Focus has three recalls, but only one really counts as two of them are actually for aftermarket problems.

The Ford problem is perception that they said they had fixed their quality problems before. But those earlier fixes weren't true. Remember "quality is job 1"? Lots of people just don't believe them anymore.

Ford really is making better cars and trucks than they did. But the competitors are improving too.

BL

PF_Flyer · September 2007

I'm not sure number of recalls is an accurate representation of anything one way or the other. What the recalls are for is much more important. There's a big difference between a recall for possible fires (Mazda 5 comes to mind) and a recall about power window regulators like I had on my Altima.

But thanks for tickling my warped brain and giving me an idea for a future blog enrty! :P
Alternate Route

daniknight · September 2007

I'm a newbie here and having browsed only a few pages back in the messages, I see a number of posts about the Focus. I sold my 2000 Focus SE just yesterday after 7.5 years of very satisfied ownership. I must say I was extremely disappointed in the number of recalls on that car. Seems like every other week I was getting a letter from Ford about yet another recall. I only had the most serious ones completed and never had one out-of-the-ordinary problem with the car. I was almost sad that it was time to sell it but I like to buy a new car every 7-8 years once it hits the high 90's in mileage.

I've had Fords for the past 22 years (an '85 EXP, '92 Explorer, and the Focus... none of which gave me any trouble) so going with a Nissan is quite a change for me. Time will tell if my new little Versa turns out to be as good of a car as my Focus was.

I've had it a just over a week now and so far, I love it. :-)

Pics here, including one of both cars...

http://www.pbase.com/fotogrfr/new_car

daniknight · September 2007

I've had my Versa SL HB for almost three weeks now. I absolutely love the car, however, like anything, there are yea's and nay's about it. Here are mine. What are yours?

Yea - I'm short so the adjustable driver's seat is a GREAT feature. Also had it in my Focus and knew I wanted it in my new car.

Nay - Having the driver's seat cranked all the way up, the armrest is now totally useless. My right arm kind of just dangles there and has a lot of trouble being comfortable. Why don't they consider this and make the armrest adjustable too??? It was this way in my Focus also but not anywhere near as bad.

Yea - Seats are very comfortable and I like the cloth material.

Nay - NO lumbar support whatsoever. (Same was true for my Focus). Will require small pillow or similar for long trips.

Yea - Rear seats fold down for added cargo area.

Nay - They don't fold FLAT. WHY?????

(No Yea for this one)
Nay - I think water/dew must pool on the rear bumper top because I'm seeing tiny (and I do mean tiny) specks that may be rust trying to form. Being only surface rust at this early stage, I can take care of it with some rubbing compound but I'd also like to seal it real well. Any suggestions? They should have installed a rubber piece there like other hatchbacks I've seen.

That's it for now. As more time passes with ownership, I may be back.

If you have any comments on the above or have your own yea's and nay's, please post!

grubster · September 2007

I've only had my Versa S HB (with VO package) for 10 days and I've already taken it on a 2-day highway trip. Here are my yea's and nay's so far:

Yeas:
Great build quality. The paint is flawless - smooth as silk, no orange-peel. Panel gaps tight and even. Amazing.

Incredible amount of space inside, especially in back. Feels like I'm driving a real car, unlike the mini-car feel I get in a Yaris or Fit.

High quality fit and finish and very good materials used inside. Woven-cloth headliner an unexpected touch and much nicer than the usual mouse-fur. Very comfortable seats have plenty of support - no backaches after sitting in the car all day.

Quiet and smooth engine, so quiet I often can't hear it idling. I tried to re-start the running engine at least once because I thought it had stalled!

I guess I'd better watch that tach!

The Versa is so quiet at highway speeds I can actually carry on a conversation without raising my voice. As a driver of small cars for years, this was a real surprise. :surprise:

Great fuel economy. I averaged 40 MPG (CDN) on my highway trip. It should be good in the city, too. If I remember, I'll keep you posted.

Loads of equipment for the price. Heated mirrors in an econobox?? :surprise:

Nay's:

The Versa has a few ergonomic glitches, like the power mirror switches located on the dash instead of the door panel where they belong and no interior hatch release. The domelight/dimmer switch should be integrated with the headlight control - the existing setup is awkward and unintuitive until you've used it a few times.

No coolant temperature gauge.

Inadequate cupholders. For some reason, the domestics do this much better.

The hatch opening is too narrow at the bottom. The price paid for styling, I guess.

The rear seat doesn't fold flush with the cargo floor. How much could it have cost Nissan to engineer this feature into the Versa?

The standard stereo is kind of lame, but that might be because I was spoiled by the Infinity stereo in my last car. An easy after-market fix.

The car could use a bit more horsepower, even 10 or 15 might make a difference. Passing on the highway takes a bit of planning and the car bogs down when taking steep grades.

That's about it.

grubster · September 2007

A couple of yea's and nay's I forgot:

Yea's:
A full load of airbags. These are too often optional or available only on more expensive models.

Nay's:
Nissan should replace the 4-speed A/T with a 5-speed A/T - this is becoming an industry standard.

Interior lighting is WAY too dim.

Door panels are intrusive. I don't know if this is because of the safety structure inside the doors, but this puts the seat levers inboard where they are more difficult to use.

ABS should be standard on ALL cars by now.

And my final rant - why doesn't Nissan include a standard center armrest? Are they THAT expensive??

m5pilot · September 2007

Can anyone give me details about the pre-installed alarm system on the Versa? Is it factory installed or dealer installed?

Also, on the sedan, if you lock the doors with the key fob and then open the trunk with the key, does the alarm go off?

If you are inside the sedan and lock the doors with the key fob, can you pop the trunk from the release button?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

samnc · September 2007

40 MPG? If you meant 40kmPG is probably about right!

lemonhater · September 2007

I have a 2007 versa sedan with the ikey

1. It is factory installed. It pre-arms itself 30 seconds after you turn off the car and after 30 more seconds of the doors not being opened it turns on.

2. The alarm is basicaly geared to go off if for some reason the car door is opened with out a key(or request swicth if using the ikey). Any key use will turn the alarm off.

In addition the car has a imoblizer which means that the only keys that can turn the car on are the ones registired to the car. This means that replacing your key is expensive but it also means that the car is more difficult to steal by hot wiring or just coping the key at a hardware store. If you copy the key you can get in but you can't start the car.

Another intresting thing is the ikey. In theory someone could steal the car if you were next the car and have the ikey but they would be unable to start it again without the key once they turned it off.

Another nice feature of the ikey is it makes it almost impossible to lock your keys in the car. There are some locations in the the cabin wither the system can not sense the key(like the glove box, on top of the dashboard and ont op of the shelf area in the rear) but if the ikey battery is working and the key is left in the car the doors will unlock if you try to lock them from the outside and the car will make a beeping sound.

3. You can not pop the trunk on the sedan at all!(Well barring being traped inside and using the emergancy unlacth). This is the only car I have ever driven where you can not open the trunk from either the key fob or inside the car. You can unlock the trunk from the key fob and infact you unlock the trunk by every time you open the driver side door but the trunk will not pop untill you press the trunk lid release.

Despite thoose flaws the ikey is a great thing. It is great being able to open the door and drive off without having to get the key out your pocket.

jacksan1 · September 2007

If he meant 40 MPG (Imperial), then it would be about 33.3 MPG (US). Canada used to use Imperial gallon before (wisely) metricating like the rest of the world, so that must be it.

samnc · September 2007

MPG is a mess. I like xy.z litres per 100km.

zombietom3 · October 2007

I've driven M/T all my life but now looking at '08 SL Hatch CVT because I want to stay married. I'm familiar with overriding the shift points on a traditional A/T by manually selecting gears other than "Drive," or by using the now-available paddle shifters on some models. But how does an active driver tell the CVT to give him more torque than it would be programmed to give? Or is that fuhgedaboudit?

flightnurse · October 2007

regarding your question, there is no way to manuel shift the VERSAs CVT. Remember this is Nissan Entry level car.. I have noticed that the CVT has LOTS of torque right off the line. I have "raced" many a versa with the stick or auto, once you get the hang of the CVT you can really know when the car is in its torque curve or not.

The New Rouge has a the CVT but also have "shift Paddles" the CVT has 6 different shift points when you use the paddles. That sounds like something you should look into. They are a great SUV and sounds like something you are looking for.

Tony
23K miles on my Versa and loving it.

jacksan1 · October 2007

I agree with Tony that the Versa with CVT has a good low-end torque. The Versa's CVT is very well-programmed to give you that. One thing that people have to often make an adjustment to is to let the RPM go and stay where the CVT programming is taking it which is the optimal RPM for that throttle opening. A lot of people who are not used to driving CVT get confused by that behavior and either let the foot off the pedal which leads to the RPM dropping (defeating the program and losing the torque!), or stepping in too much without waiting for the CVT to take care of itself.

zombietom3 · October 2007

Thanks for the reply. You had me thinking I must be too old to shop for a car without adult supervision when you mentioned the "Rouge." I had to do a little Googling to realize you meant the Rogue. It's an attractive young beast but a little more than I want to spend and a little too big for us and our small garage (I'd have to get rid of stuff I'm storing in there to make the parking space big enough for wife to use comfortably). I'll just have to drive the Versa CVT to see what it feels like. Maybe I can learn to love it too.

flightnurse · October 2007

Jacksan how have you been ? The CVT is not for everybody and that is what I tell people when they ask me about the Versa, but I am sold on the CVT and my next Nissan must have it..

flightnurse · October 2007

Just remember this, you dont have to "nail" the throttle" to make it go fast. That only works if you want to pass someone on the freeway, but around town,1/3 or 1/2 throttle is all you need to get moving very smartly..

jacksan1 · October 2007

Hi Tony. Not bad, thanks for asking - just busy. How is everything with you and your Versa?

I like CVT. I was really fascinated when I drove a car with CVT for the first time (JDM Honda Fit rental), since the tachometer needle stayed in the exact same spot while the car picked up speed. It took me about an hour to get used to it, and after that, I started wondering why more cars weren't using CVT.

flightnurse · October 2007

I think most americans aren't ready for change and the CVT is a big change.

Tony

snakeweasel · October 2007

I started wondering why more cars weren't using CVT.

It is my understanding that CVTs have to be used in lower HP cars. Something about the belt/chains ability to withstand friction wear.

Advances in CVT's may change this but as far as I know it is still restricted by HP.

flightnurse · October 2007

well both the max and altima V6;s have CVT and they are making more then 250HP

Tony

jacksan1 · October 2007

I think that up until fairly recently the big HP/torque was a critical issue with the durability of CVT. That is starting to change, as Tony has mentioned.

CVT's advantages become less obvious in cars that otherwise have a high number of gears in their AT's (such as 7- and 8-AT used in the Mercedes and LS430), and in cars that have a lot of torque across the wide RPM band. The latter is true because a car like that can drive well without shifting gears much. But in smaller cars that have to use their engines more efficiently to get moving, CVT is hard to beat.

jd10013 · October 2007

I think most americans aren't ready for change and the CVT is a big change.

I doubt most american even know/care. anybody who would consider themselves a "car person" would of course notice and be interested in the difference. so far though, the inclusion of the cvt in most nissan vehicles hasn't hurt sales. In fact, nissan car sales (just cars, not trucks and suv's) are up pretty good this year. If anything, the cvt is a plus for them.

zombietom3 · October 2007

I'm shopping slowly for a small wagon/hatchback for purchase next summer. I like the versa except for a few nits. Is anyone else bothered by the non-availability of body side moldings? If not, how did you feel the first time you found a parking lot ding in your door? Also, Looking at the hatch door and comparing it to others, the wedging of the door shape seems to make the usable cargo floor a little narrower that it could be, for loading the odd wide object? Any comments of that being a nuisance? I don't buy a car very often so want one that I can be happy with for a very long time. Thanks for your input.

toronado455 · October 2007

I have the same problem as you do with the narrow shape of the hatch opening. That and the extremely high lift-over are two very serious drawbacks to the design.

The cargo area inside is huge, but the access to it from the rear is severely restricted by the poor design of the hatchback which doesn't let you slide objects directly onto the load floor the way a true wagon would. And the rear seat, when folded becomes a rather large immovable obstacle and doesn't play well with large objects that you would want to load into the cargo area.

If I got the Versa I would be having to choose between removing the rear seat entirely and maneuvering/lifting cargo up through the awkward hatch opening. Or else building up a false load floor which is higher and positioned at the point at which the hatch opening is wider - which would facilitate sliding of large, wide cargo items directly in and out through the rear opening. But the latter would result in cargo sitting a lot higher in the cargo area and partially obstructing the view out of the rear window.

Not being happy with the idea of either of those two work-arounds, I am not looking very favorably on the Versa at the moment. A Versa wagon, if it were to exist, would be a much better design.

Re: bodyside moldings... are there no acceptable aftermarket solutions available?

zombietom3 · October 2007

Thanks for your feedback on the hatch opening. I really like the Vibe/Matrix better but have been trying to like cars that are just a tiny bit smaller than our old Escort wagon so my wife will be able to park in our small garage without too much stress and without me having to get rid of the other stuff we keep there. The Vibe/Matrix are 3" wider and will use up that much more of the tight clearance. But they have normal wagon openings in the back, and come with Body side moldings in at least some trims.

Speaking of body side moldings, I have never been much of an after market mod guy, but was prompted by a poster on another board to take a look. It seems there are paint-matched (so they say) body side moldings for a lot of models available at around $100 for 4 piece sets.

mschmal · October 2007

As side crash tests are becoming more important. Automakers are turning to high strength steel on body panels. Additional benefit is that door dings are fewer even without the moldings...Or so they want us to believe.

Mark

Nissan Versa

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