March is bigger, more powerful, more economical than Sunny!

bhoot — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:19:54 +0000

I feel like taking it all out whenever I see someone still buying a N17 Nissan Sunny VIP. It’s ugly (to me), DISCONTINUED in Japan and SMALL INTERIOR for it’s exterior size. It is an improvement over the past Sunny in terms of space use, and it remains an economical engine to run and service (lower second price about Rs 100k less). But can’t you see that the Nissan March is BIGGER THAN the Sunny interior?

Nissan March AK12

The Nissan March’s engine is 1.2L 90 horsepower on about 900 kg (about 100 hp/ton) – compare that to the Sunny’s old 1.3L 87hp on 1100 kg (that’s about 80hp/ton), for about Rs 50,000 more (and it the March is the best selling Nissan in Mauritius). Even the Tiida is here now. Tiida is the official successor of Sunny – which I doubt many Sunny-addicts realise.

Tiida’s interior is its best feature of all – it’s as big (or bigger) as the old Bluebird Sylphy, bigger than a VW Golf or Civic hatchback. The gearbox is a gem. CVT means that there is unlimited gears! It’s not the old uneconimical step-auto 4-speed that we used to get 10 years ago. CVT Automatic’s give better mileage because you can reach your reasonable speed (say 50-90) without pressing hard on the pedal (while keeping a low RPM): just like a 6-speed uses less fuel than a 4-speed manual. All that while driving smoothly without any gear-change shocks and drops in torque/power. More on CVT here.

The price of demanding big sedans and SUV in US

bhoot — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:09:13 +0000

Wander about almost any forum where people from US post their comments on Japanese cars, most of them will say that 4-cylinder cars are just too underpowered, or how a 2.0 litre engine in a car is kind of ‘lacking in power.’

Now, European and Japanese car makers all promote fuel efficient cars and make engines enough to power their vehicles according to their segment. You find 50-100hp power in the budget range, right up to 500hp+ super cars (Nissan GTR). That doesn’t mean that they look down upon smaller engines? What do Americans buy? I’m not saying that everyone in US likes big 6-cylinder and V8 engines. It’s the sale figures that are speaking.

Ford F-series Raptor from Wikimedia Commons

Speaking of sale figures, wouldn’t that explain the big problem of the American car makers. The big 3 GM, Ford and Chrysler all spend big in making large vehicles and mid-size cars (that’s larger than many european family cars). If only these were smaller and available with smaller than the 2.4L minimum that they’re sold with… Those sleeping stock in dealers around the continent could be salvaged…

Oh yes, they’re very much into buying hybrids now… I don’t blame car manufacturers for making 2.4L to 4.0L hybrids. Market demands… 1.4-1.5L hybrids have started to become popular with the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight. But US people are still buying 2.4-4.0L machines. That trend is going down with more people buying sedans (saloons) than SUV/Pickups since a couple of years (can’t remember the source for this…). There’s a long way to go…

European makers who sell in US have started to sell economical modern diesel engines. And the once hated diesel engine is not becoming a hero of fuel economy… The ‘small’ 2.0L turbo Audi TT has shown that it can give the same power as a 3L V6 and even more torque than it, despite having only 4-cylinders – and being much lighter. That’s the efficiency of turbos in engines… But that’s another story…

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March is bigger, more powerful, more economical than Sunny!

The price of demanding big sedans and SUV in US