What's up, Nissan? Don't tell me you're gonna let a little global auto market collapse keep you from hyping the launch--finally!--of your insanely awesome, new Cube!
After catching one out of the corner of my eye while driving past a lot last week, I made a point--crazy, I know--of actually visiting a Nissan dealership to check the car out in person. The way the salesman pounced on me before I even turned off the car, I wondered if I should've brought him some canned goods. Or at least some news from the outside world.
The word I would've given him is Scion. The Cube strikes me as the true inheritor of the quirky, utilitarian, awesome, cheap mantle Toyota forfeited when it redesigned ruined the xB. It had plenty of interior room, lots of headroom, and adequate rear storage [adequate in this case means, "will hold a folded up Bugaboo."]
The Cube's only obvious weakness as a family ride is its limited carpoolability: there's only room for two car seats in back. Which is better than Honda's quirkmobile, the Element, which only has two rear seats at all, but worse than the tiny miracle of the xB, whose three-across rear bench makes it a veritable clown car for kids.
If you're in the Cube market, or if you've driven one--or bought one, or didn't buy one, even--I'd love to hear about your experience with it.
Chad and I are considering a Cube. I've been driving the child around in the back of my 2001 VW since she was an infant, the frog travels with the seat portion in the trunk, and the frame folded on the front passenger seat. Now that child #2 is coming in the fall, I need to trade up to something larger. We're looking at the Element and the Cube. I love the aesthetics of the Cube (not to mention the price...), but I'm holding off until we see what the crash test results are. If we end up with one, I'll be sure to report back!
My dream car in high school was the Nissan Gobi, after I'd seen some promotional photos of it in a magazine. Obviously that didn't come to pass... We'll see what happens with the Cube.
Here in Canada Nissan is giving away 50 Cubes through a online contest, and a friend of mine is in the final 500 contestants, so if he wins I'll let you know all about it.
www.tinyurl.com/c9bg9k
http://hypercube.ca/en/hypercube.html#hypercube
Well, we went ahead and bought a cube. If the JD Powers tests come back with something appalling, we'll have some decisions to make, but we got an excellent trade on my old VW and decided to go for it.
We've only had the cube for a few days, but so far we love it.