(Thu 03 Dec 09)

The Nissan Cube will finally go on sale in the UK next January - more than a decade after its launch in Japan - and it seems fair to say that people will either love it or hate it.

Described by its designers as "a bulldog in sunglasses", the appropriately-named Cube is a city car which is saved from looking like a packing case by plentiful use of curves, both inside and out. One of its standard features is a large sunroof made of three layers of glass and fitted with two protective blinds; one of these is pretty much what you would expect it to be, while the other, known as a "shoji shade", is designed to let in light but keep out heat.

In standard form the Cube also comes with rear privacy glass, Bluetooth connectivity and cruise control, and costs £14,000. For £15,100 you can have the Cube Kaizen, which gets an audio/navigation system, a rear parking camera and climate control air-conditioning.

If you are one of the UK's first hundred buyers, however, you won't get either of these. Instead, you'll get the Cube LDN, which is painted in a colour called Bitter Chocolate and has matching suede interior trim, along with climate control air-conditioning and automatic wipers and headlights. That one costs £14,600.

All these prices are based on cars with a 108bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine and manual transmission. A CVT automatic gearbox is available for an extra £1200 on all models, and in May Nissan will be introducing a 1.5-litre turbo diesel engine which will undoubtedly cost more initially but will easily beat the petrol car's 42.8mpg combined fuel economy and 151g/km CO2 emissions.

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