Kicking it up a notch

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Kicking it up a notch

Friday, 21 December 2018 | Kushan Mitra

Kicking it up a notch

The Hyundai Creta is in a segment of its own. But can the newly launched Nissan Kicks give it a run for its money? We drive it and find out

Nissan finds itself in the news for all the wrong reasons. It has been alleged by the company that their erstwhile Chief Executive and current Chairman Carlos Ghosn under-declared his income when he headed the company and used company funds to lead a lavish lifestyle, acquiring prime properties across the world on company dosh. The allegations are for the prosecutors to prove but this is certainly a fall from grace for a man once considered a Japanese business icon, possibly the only “gaijin” (foreigner/white man) to be considered such. His rescue of Nissan, achieved with some very tough decisions to shut factories and lay off employees, is legendary. The decisions he took were very difficult and “un-Japanese” but Nissan still survives and in partnership with Renault and Mitsubishi a.k.a “The Alliance”, they remain a global leader in the automotive space.

Now, it is far from appropriate to comment on what the future holds for Mr Ghosn other than a massively publicised legal case, which will definitely be one of the top trials ever in the Japanese legal system that will be closely watched by millions in Japan and across the world, including all of us motor industry observers and writers. However, the future for Nissan is a bit clearer across the world where they have the rather successful “Leaf” small electric car, which is trying to prove that a cost-effective small electric car can be made. But making a few good cars across the world has not really helped them much in India. Nissan does not even sell the current generation of the Micra in India anymore as it is more than four-metres long, their extended-wheelbase Sunny sedan sank without a trace thanks to the sub-four metre sedan market dominating and the Terrano was a Duster trying on some new make-up. There is the GT-R, which is a phenomenal car but there is no point in having a “halo” product in showrooms if you do not have much to sell.

Now, however, there is the Nissan Kicks. The Kicks is the Nissan version of the Renault Captur, which shares the same M0 platform with the new Duster but unlike say the old Duster and Terrano,  which were identical twins with different hairstyles, the Captur and Kicks appear more like fraternal twins. And that is important simply because the Captur did not exactly set the sales charts ablaze. First things first, the Kicks looks much sharper than the Renault, with better defined lines and more solid implementation of the “floating roof” concept. It looks more SUV-ish and that is important since it is going up against the mighty Hyundai Creta which prints profits for the Korean carmaker.

The Creta is popular because people believe it provides a great value-for-money proposition, good service thanks to Hyundai’s network and serves a purpose. Personally, I prefer sedans more and the Verna is a much better car to drive, but that is another topic for another column. I also believe that Hyundai is well aware of the demand for the Creta and the car has become quite expensive towards the top of the range, the range-topping diesel costs close to 18 lakhs ex-showroom.

So with a mountain to climb against the Creta, how does the Kicks do? Well, it starts off well. The tried-and-tested K9K diesel engine with 110PS of power has been around since the Duster first landed in India. Like the Captur, the engine in the Kicks is mated to a six-speed manual transmission and the power delivery is very smooth. While there is discernible turbo-lag if you try and accelerate from very low engine speeds, the car’s pick-up on sixth gear between 50-80 is praiseworthy. We were testing the Kicks on the relatively straight and flat roads between Bhuj and the Rann of Kutch and really did not get a chance to throw the car around any corners because there were no sharp ones. However, the road was uneven in some stretches, so one must admit that the ride was excellent.

The interiors are equally nice, the eight-inch floating infotainment system very similar to those on some Audi’s and BMW’s was brilliant, the screen resolution, contrast and colour levels were superb. This is no cheap LED screen that some manufacturers fit on their cars, this is top-quality and unlike the German luxury cars this was a touchscreen. The dual-tone finish on the interiors was nice and did not feel forced in anyway, although the faux carbon-fibre finish was a bit much in my opinion.

Now there were some negatives. Some are things you will learn to live with if you buy the car such as the fact that the phone and audio controls are behind the steering wheel, and the controls on the steering wheel are just for the cruise control and speed limiter. Also, there was an issue controlling Apple Carplay from the (behind) steering controls and I had to revert to the touchscreen. But then there are the small issues that can be a bit irritating, rear legroom is not that great if you are a large adult and can be a problem on long-distance drives. That said, the Creta has a similar problem.

The big issue for me though, and many of my motoring journalist peers also commented on, was the driver’s footwell. The fact is that the Kicks was likely designed for a left-hand drive market and as a result of that the tunnel of the central control unit seems slightly biased to the right. As a result, there is no space for a dead pedal on the car, which given that this is a manual, is particularly irritating and you find yourself struggling to find somewhere to rest your left foot. The irony, which is why I made the left-hand drive comment earlier, is that the passenger-side footwell is extremely large, well maybe not spread-eagle large but large.

On top of that, Nissan is not entering the market with an automatic variant at launch, which is a clear negative in my opinion. The market in India, particularly the urban buyer, is rapidly shifting to automatic transmission cars and the lack of one will be a problem for Nissan, especially if they want to give the Creta, which has automatics available in both petrol and diesel variants. An automatic will also mean a place to rest your left foot, which should be the prime reason the carmaker brings one along.

How will this car do? Will it finally establish Nissan as a strong presence in India? That remains to be seen, it will not be tough to undercut the expensive Creta but displacing it from the minds of buyers might take a while, and a big service network. Nissan’s future in India, however, rests on the Kicks.

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