Today's car of the day is Tomica's 2010 Nissan Cube.
The Nissan Cube is a Mini MPV produced by Nissan and currently sold in Japan, North America and Europe.
For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Nissan Cube
It's not often that a real vehicle can generate such a strong feeling of hatred in me. I cannot stand the looks of this thing. Cars should not look as if the person who designed the left side of the car was having artistic differences with the designer of the right side. Perhaps this a case of the car being designed by committee and discovering that the two leading designs had tied, and rather go with one or the other, the idea was 'let's just do both even if we can only afford to really do one!'. Has any automaker really lost their way as badly as Nissan lately? There's this monstrosity, there's the awkward Juke, and the ill-conceived Murano SUV convertible. That last one retails for over $40,000. Let's just review that last piece of information. A four-door crossover SUV was turned into a two-door convertible. And nobody at Nissan sees anything wrong with this. On the plus side, I will give Nissan props in the naming department- the Juke rhymes with puke (which most people will do upon seeing one) and the Cube is appropriate simply because I would like nothing more than to crush every single example of this styling atrocity into a cube and then send it to South Korea specifically to be turned into Kias, only because I can't think of a worse fate for an automobile to suffer. Did I mention I absolutely hate this real car? And to this day people mock the Edsel, Gremlin, and Pacer for their looks, but see nothing wrong with the Cube, Scion xB, or Honda Element. I guess AMC was ahead of their time in making ugly cars- they'd probably be the world's #1 automaker right now thanks to Jeep (think of the SUV boom in the '90s and remember who owned Jeep before Chrysler) and today's trend of producing the ugliest possible designs in order to stand out in a crowd.
The third generation Nissan Cube was revealed for the first time at the Los Angeles International Auto Show, on November 19, 2008. While this is the third generation of the vehicle, it is being offered for export markets, including Europe and North American market, for the first time. The Cube went on sale in Japan in November 2008 and the U.S. in May 2009.
Brian Cooley shows the 2009 Nissan Cube 1.8, will also featured the 2009 CNET web news Car Tech.
The updated Nissan Cube features more rounded and curved styling cues than its predecessors. This evolution is most striking in the rear bumper area, in the asymmetrical rear window, which wraps around to the passenger side, and in the oval-shaped driver and front passenger windows. The rear hatch is hinged to open along its vertical axis, towards the curb. This helps loading and unloading when street parking in a crowded urban environment. The hatch hinge is on the right side for right-hand-drive countries such as Japan and the UK, but it is on the left side for left-hand-drive markets such as North America.
Seating capacity remains at five. According to Nissan designers, the interior is inspired by the 'enveloping curves of a jacuzzi to promote a comfortable and social atmosphere.' Design cues include a water ripple motif that appears in the headliner and is repeated in details like the speaker covers and cup holders. Nissan has developed an extended line of accessories for Cube to encourage personalization. These include multicolor appliqués that can be placed around air vents and window switches, utility hooks and elastic bands in different colors, variable color LED accent lighting for the footwell and cup holders, and a sculptured piece of color-coordinated shag carpet that sits in a shallow well on the top of the dash.
The third generation Cube is built on the Renault Nissan Alliance's front-wheel-drive B platform and powered by a 1.5 L HR engine, 16-valve engine with 109 PS (80 kW; 108 bhp). For North America, it uses the 122 hp (91 kW; 124 PS) 1.8 L four-cylinder engine of the MR family, while for Europe it uses the HR 1.6 petrol and 1.5 dCi Diesel. All are also used for the Nissan Note and Tiida/Versa. Depending on the engine, it is available with a 5- or 6-speed manual transmission or Nissan's automatic Continuously Variable Transmission. The Cube is capable of averaging 20 km/l (5 l/100 km; 47 mpg-US) in Japan and doing 28 mpg-US (8.4 l/100 km) city, and 30 mpg-US (7.8 l/100 km) highway with its Xtronic CVT transmission. The e-4WD trim contains an electric rear wheel drive motor to assist the gasoline engine powered front wheels.
Sarcasm for the real vehicle aside, this Tomica is a fairly detailed replica of the car. I can't complain about the replica, and it finds a place in my collection for being a faithful replica of a real car. No obnoxious tampos, no neon colored glass, no over-sized wheels or blinged out rims, this is just a nice model of a not-so-nice car. This is why I love Tomica- they get the clue that not everyone wants only Lamborghinis and 1969 Camaros. Minivans, kei cars, station wagons- all have a place in the Tomica range and generics need not apply.
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