This
new Primera is probably the last Nissan designed without the
involvement of Renault. Nissan started developing it in early
98, just before the French company acquired 34% of the
then-Japanese no. 2. In just 3 exact years, the new Primera went
on sale in Japan. A year later, production will be spread to the
Sunderland plant in UK and, surprisingly, Nissan boss Carlos
Ghosn promised it will invade the great USA mono-market as well.
See, the new Primera will be a world car thus no longer a
European-biased car as its 2 predecessors were. Also unlike its
predecessors, it was developed mainly in Japan, without
undergoing extensive test program and tuning work at Nurburgring.
This may imply ....
The exterior design, however, was responsible by the Brussels
studio of Nissan Europe, based on the Fusion concept car. This
is a clever decision because Japan is really lack of design
talents these days. First look at the new Primera is really
eye-opening - the near-monospace shape is surprisingly pure and
neat, with edge-cutting lines running across the sides of the
car. The whole roof is an arc - obviously limiting rear headroom
- even more so than Audi A6, sending a clear message, "I belongs
to the 21st Century !" For the first time, the Nissan logo and a
decent corporate grille merge flawlessly into the nose and in
concordance with the stylish headlights. Expect this grille will
appear in other family members in the future.
While admiring its determination to differ, I am not a big fan
of such radical shape. Basically, I always feel cars with low
shoulder lines and big windows more beautiful. However, the
trend of car design is shifting towards this kind of fat-looking
shape, so we cannot blame Nissan. What I want to point out is
that the high trailing edge of bonnet (a common problem of any
monospace) deteriorates forward visibility while the high boot
also worsen rearward vision.
The
cockpit was designed in Japan. Like Tino MPV, it is a
revolutionary design that worth admiration from the Western.
First of all, the dash is wrap-around by the plastic extending
from doors, creating a UFO-rivaling sense of special. All three
instrument gauges locate over the center console instead of
driver’s side, sheltering by a stylish arc of plastic. The
console is simple yet ground-breaking, it consists of a 7-inch
LCD and a control panel which controls air-conditioning, audio,
DVD navigation and other equipment. The whole dashboard design
is not unlike Renault Avantime, just more beautifully executed.
Nevertheless, plastic quality could be better.
The new Primera has stretched wheelbase by 80mm and width by
65mm, but it is still smaller than new generation of European
rivals. This is not without a reason: if it were larger, it
would have overlapped with the new Altima and Cefiro. Moreover,
keeping it smaller and simpler may position it against the
higher spec. C-segment cars, say VW Golf and Honda Civic. In
fact, the smaller Sentra / Almera / Sunny is not spacious enough
to rival many C-segment opponents, so maybe Primera will help up
to certain extent. Nevertheless, the space-saving rear
suspensions contribute to good rear legroom, although the
sloping roof limit headroom. All passengers sit higher, in
addition to thinner door sills, getting in and out becomes more
natural in movement.
The
chassis is basically derived from the previous generation, with
front multi-link and rear so-called "multi-link beam axle" - a
derivative of the half-independent torsion-beam. The Japanese
Primera is set to favour ride comfort than handling, so there is
a lot of body roll into corners. The softly-sprung chassis is
unresponsive to change direction and, predictably, understeer a
lot when pushed. Steering is light and lifeless. Although we
know European version will be retuned, the new Primera was not
designed for European taste from the beginning, so it is
unlikely to be able to reproduce the famous track record of its
predecessors - both of which were praised as the best handling
family sedan accompany with the old Ford Mondeo.
In the engine compartment, there is nothing surprising. The new
car is powered by all four-cylinder engines, reinforcing the
believe that it competes with lower market segment instead of
rivaling new Mondeo etc. The familiar QR20DE engine is now added
with drive-by-wire throttle and continuous variable valve
timing, boosting torque to 147 lbft while retaining 150 hp
output at lower emission level. Itself and the larger, 2488 c.c.
long-stroke version are both equipped with twin-balancer shaft
to cancel vibration, so smoothness and quietness are good, if
not too remarkable. The QR25DD also has stratified direct
injection to save fuel. It outputs 170 hp - not very impressive
but OK for a large-capacity four-pot - and a useful 181 lbft of
torque.
As before, the engine works with Hyper CVT, with or without the
"M6" sequential manual override simulating a 6-speed manual. In
auto mode it shifts continuously and smoothly, but the strange
feel of "rubber band effect" still exist as before. When
accelerating, the CVT keeps varying its ratio as rev rise,
therefore the engine keeps roaring while the car doesn’t really
accelerate. Admittedly, only Audi satisfactorily solved this
problem. In manual mode, the CVT is still slow to react,
therefore performance is quite far off from manual.
To summarize the Primera, a few words is enough: new bottle, old
wine.
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