by David Finlay (21 Dec 09)

The UK media launch of the Nissan Cube was based at the Cube Store, a venue buried in east London which no longer has anything to do with its previous existence as a brewery. The presentation was largely about the style of the car rather than its substance, and the few references to its substance were often questionable. The route book for the driving part of the event was one of the most elegantly-presented I have ever seen, but at times its instructions were ambiguous or even just plain wrong, causing considerable confusion. Do you see a pattern emerging here? Form over function every time. And that's what the Cube itself is all about.

Not that form over function is necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes I like it a lot, which is why I would be happy to own a Fiat 500 but would not even consider buying the mechanically identical (and slightly better) Ford Ka. The success of the MINI may be partly due to its tremendous cornering ability, but surely it is mostly because of the styling. And if anyone had ever compared a Beetle to its close relative, the Golf, on some criterion other than its looks, Volkswagen would never have sold any.

The 500, the MINI and to some extent the Beetle and Ka are the Cube's closest rivals, and it could do well against them (a) if people fall for its Japan-cute looks and (b) if Nissan keeps up its strategy of marketing it as a design object rather than a real car, which it presumably will.

But my job is to consider it as a real car, so here goes. This is probably the last vehicle which will be based on Nissan's B platform which underpins the Micra and the Note (and Alliance partner Renault's equivalent models, the Clio and Modus) and it's actually the third Cube to have been introduced since 1998, though the first to be sold outside Japan. There is no irony in the choice of name - the Cube is as near to being the shape it says it is as any car reasonably could be, though the fact that nearly every straight line ends in a curve means that the effect is relatively soft. And, of course, cute. That goes without saying.

The main practical advantage to the shape is that it leaves a lot of room inside. Four adults can be seated very comfortably, and if you're prepared to compromise the space for those in the back by moving the rear seats forward the luggage capacity increases from 255 litres (respectable) to 403 litres (excellent), with more available if you fold the seats down. There are, however, several disadvantages too, one being that the aerodynamics are absolutely terrible. Nissan says that the CO2 emissions are good, but they simply are not: the 1.6-litre petrol version with manual transmission has a rating of 151g/km, which is very high for a supermini, and the forthcoming 1.5-litre diesel won't beat 130g/km.

A Nissan spokesman has also described the Cube's visibility as "perfect", which would have been a risky thing to say even if it had been industry-beatingly magnificent. In fact it's awful. One design feature is that the right rear corner is completely panelled in, but at first sight it looks as if there is much more glass area at the left rear (an asymmetry which is swapped over for left-hand drive markets). Unfortunately, the "extra" window is so small and so heavily shrouded that it is hardly any use at all. The claim of the Cube's designer that the window serves to "enlarge the rear view, allowing drivers to reverse with confidence" is a piece of nonsense.

Another awkward feature caused by the shape is that, since the top of the windscreen is much higher and further forward than in a more conventional car, the sunvisors are correspondingly hard to reach (a problem for me, with arms as long as a gorilla's - what must it be like for a smaller person?). The interior, which owes some of its design to the shape of a jacuzzi, has other strange quirks too, such as the fact that the controls for adjusting the headlights and door mirrors are set way down the dashboard and can't safely be looked at if you're driving. And the steering wheel, crazily, is not adjustable for reach.

None of this is compensated for by the Cube's ability on the road. There is much talk of it having been developed for European roads, but the truth seems to be that it has been developed for German ones, since it rides and handles well enough when the tarmac is smooth and flat. In all other circumstances it's bouncier than it needs to be, reacting clumsily to bumps even in the city. As a driver's car it lags well behind the conceptually similar Daihatsu Materia.

That applies to the petrol versions. There are no diesels in the UK yet, and they may be better, but they won't have the CVT gearbox which is available with the petrol engine. The CVT limits the performance to some extent, though if you're going to be driving your Cube mostly in town it's definitely worth the extra £1200 investment.

Speaking of investment, prices start at £14,000, and there's an £1100 premium for the Kaizen version, which comes with climate control air-conditioning, the Nissan Connect system (including satellite navigation), USB input for the audio system, a rear parking camera and automatic headlights and wipers. Kaizen versions of the diesel and of the petrol CVT model will cost more than £16,000, and that's the kind of money you'll be prepared to pay only if your intention in buying a Cube is to make a statement about how stylish you are.

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