Gadgetory

yeah at least they got a sense of humor pure Drive you're damn right it is because this car doesn't do really much of anything else but that's its mission let's drive the 2012 Nissan Versa sv sedan and check the damn near total lack of tech now bear in mind before you go be a big smartass and tell all your friends you bought the cheapest car you could get realize it if you do that you're going to get up a few things like power locks power windows wheels well I think it comes to the last part there no map light I mean nothing this cars a real stripper instead we've got the SV which is the middle one which is kind of a more reasonable buy more up to like closer to 15 grand now the head unit is base am/fm CD with speakers go with the convenience package for a silly 350 bucks and you're going to get an mp3 compatible CD reader interestingly enough an iPod connection with this proprietary cable but no USB and you're also going to get steering wheel mounted controls all bunch of them up here so you ask where is the navigation not available in this or the base trim level you got to go up to what they call the SL when you can option it for an embarrassingly cheap 750 the tech package which would get you GPS Navi XM radio XM Nav traffic a USB jack also for a whole variety of portables or thumb drives with this single line display scrolling your ipod is a bit like cryptography take some math classes okay more than once I've told you about car makers taking engines making them smaller and getting more power out over this is not one of those stories this engine is smaller and with less power 1.6 liter sidesaddle inline 4 they had a 1.8 in the last generation versa and the horse powers come down at a dozen or so 109 horse 107 foot-pounds of torque it's this very light 2,400 pound car up to sixty eventually 10.2 seconds but that isn't the point of this vehicle mpg is and that's where it shines 30:38 this fuel door and hood release are right next to each other invisible and require about the same effort yeah popping both open at once that won't get old one of the saving graces in this car is Nissan's expertise doing CVTs continuously variable transmissions I don't think anybody consistently does them well like this company CVT is tend to be a slip box they're always spooling and the ribs are all over the place and the power arrives sometime tomorrow around lunch but these have enough grip while at the same time not having any real gears that's what a CVT it has got belts and pulleys relationship all the time and that's a key thing to make this cars power always on cam it's got a very limited power band I'm sure but at the same time not feel like it's looking for grip the ride quality is actually far short of harsh it's bouncy but it's not harsh that's a key difference in making a cheap car feel a little bit less than cheap the thing I look forward to the day I bought one of these is wearing out the tires which I bet with a car this light will like never happen but when it does I'm putting on some wider boots this car is going to handle a lot better did you see the tires on this guy I mean they're like that one that's part of the mpg formula in this car but I will shave off a fraction of an mpg or so to get better grip and the part of a cheap car you look at everyday is not the outside others will sneer at you for that but right here the center stack and the gauges and look how nicely done these are as limited as they are in terms of Technology that's a good-looking instrument panel and center console now and that helps to make the car feel less cheap living with a day-to-day