Nissan Almera - What the Heck's Got Into Nissan?

Nissan makes great cars. They're extremely reliable and trendy, generally speaking.

The Nissan GTR is one of the best super cars around, followed by the 370Z, etc.

Then there's the ever popular Nissan Grand Livina and its derivative, the X-Gear, and the superbly powerful Navara SUT (or sports utility truck).

And then there are Nissan's silly looking cars, which I don't get (or understand). I mean, why? Why have these silly looking cars when they go against Nissan own styling trend that could easily stand up to other leading marques?

Check out the latest addition to Nissan's long line of silly design cars - the new Almera. One look and you know this car is meant to appeal to the Toyota Vios fan, but it doesn't even come close to the Vios' cute appeal.

If, by definition, cute means "ugly in a nice way", then the Almera is extremely ugly with just a dash of nice - not much or rather, it has too little of "nice".

To put it differently, labelling the Almera "cute" would be too generous a description.

It does have its winning points though. The Almera's cabin space is larger than the Vios', albeit the Almera remains a baseline-class or B-class car like the Vios. This means that there's quite a bit more legroom for rear passenger comfort, which one usually finds in compact-class or C-class cars.

The Almera's boot space is also on the larger side, which is good for mega-store grocery shopping and holidaying with the family, albeit the car's practical boot space is not all that bigger than the Vios'.

The engine is pretty standard, but it has been configured, not for power like the Vios, but for best fuel economy, which is reportedly 14.9KM per litre of RON95 fuel. Of course, the downside to this is that the Almera would feel rather sluggish, like the Sentra.

In short, the Almera would probably sell like the silly looking Silphy and Latio. But I seriously doubt that it would win over significant market share from Toyota just because it tries very hard to appeal to Vios-loving car owners.

By the way, the new Almera is actually the latest variant of the Sentra, but it's not called Sentra probably because Nissan Malaysia wants to keep selling the Sentra.

VW Jetta - An Odd Little Magnificent Car

The new VW Jetta is not a compact or C-class car, although it looks almost big enough to be one. It's a people's car that is supposed to compete against the likes of Japanese and Korean sub-compact or B-class (baseline-class) cars of the likes of Toyota Vios and its ilk.

But this makes the Jetta extremely odd, because it is not within the price range of a Vios and performs way better too. Yet, it's not a C-class car.

Priced around RM150,000++ with insurance and road tax, the Jetta comes with a 1.4L dual turbo engine that can churn upwards of 150BHp, but without leather seats. At this price range, it competes directly against E-class cars like the hugely popular Toyota Camry, Mazda 6, Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima.

So, one can hardly consider the Jetta a B-class car. If anything, it is a sports enthusiast's car because - wowiee! - the Jetta can really fly.

In short, the Jetta is truly an odd little magnificent car.

Mazda SHINARI Concept - New Mazda 6

If you think the new Volvo S60 is beautiful, then check out the Mazda SHINARI Concept car, which is rumoured to be the template for the upcoming new Mazda 6. It's far more beautiful and stylistic.

In anticipation of the launch of the new Mazda 6, Bermaz is clearing stock of the outgoing Mazda 6 with a RM20,000 discount promotion. According to one of the sales persons who has seen the new Mazda 6, the new version has smaller headlights and sleeker looking front (pretty much like the SHINARI Concept).

Price? Don't know yet.

But for those who want to see what the new Mazda 6 could look like, check out the similarities between the SHINARI Concept and the new CX5.