Review of the new Nissan NOTE Visia+ Special Edition

You have a right to expect a lot from a family runabout costing you over £10,500. Yet you might be surprised to find just how little such a budget will actually get you. That being the case, it might be worth including this car on your shopping list, Nissan's Note Visia+ special edition.

Before we get to the 'Visia+' bit, it might be worth profiling the Note model itself for you since there's just a chance that it could have slipped under your radar. It's worth profiling too - at least if you believe 'Which?' magazine who recently noted that 'a well equipped Nissan Note is all the car you'll ever need'. If you're looking for a compact family car, that's as good a recommendation to start with as any.

The Note is one of those 'supermini-MPVs', a breed of small hatches with slightly larger dimensions and a series of MPV-style touches. Cars like Renault's Modus, Ford's Fusion, Vauxhall's Meriva and this Nissan all campaign in this sector - and more are coming.

To keep their offering fresh, Nissan introduced a series of improvements. The latest model year cars come with fully body coloured bumpers, Bluetooth phone operation with steering wheel activated controls, an MP3 auxiliary jack socket, front seat storage nets and foldaway tables, plus front electric windows. That's in addition to side airbags, a CD player, remote central locking and immobiliser, ISOFIX childseat mounting points and a flat reclining front passenger seat that's useful should you need to transport long items like bicycles or surfboards.

To this tally, the Visia+ special edition model we're looking at here adds manual air conditioning with a pollen filter that can also be channelled into the 9.0-litre glovebox - a storage area that's big enough to swallow 12 cans of drink. Nissan's novel Flexi-Board system is also included, a system that adds to Note's already versatile load area. Here, twin steel-framed boards cover an additional stowage space beneath the floor which is ideal for stowing valuables. With the rear seats in place, there's 280 litres of luggage space. Slide the rear seat forward (it has a 160mm adjustment) and lower the luggage boards into the well, and you get an extra 100 litres, giving a total load space of 437 litres.

"This Visia+ model represents probably the best value route into striking the right Note."

In Visia+ guise, this Note model carries a reasonable £500 premium over standard Visia variants, with the range starting with the 88PS 1.4-litre manual version. Alternatively, customers can opt for a 110PS 1.6-litre petrol engine (with a manual or automatic gearbox) or the 86PS 1.5-litre turbo diesel.

Designers of supermini-MPVs can make them bigger, smarter or both. The Note's stylists opted for the latter option. This car was designed by Toyota - Taiji Toyota that is - one of Nissan's most talented stylists. Toyota points out that the car is "tall, but not too tall. We wanted a roomy interior and the benefits of a high driving position but we did not want to make the car look top heavy. With the long wheelbase and body, we feel we have achieved a shape that will appeal on both a practical and emotional level."

It would be natural if potential buyers were comparing this car to its French cousin, Renault's Modus, a car which shares all three of the Nissan's engines. However, at 3.99m long, the Note is significantly longer (by 20cm) over its Gallic stablemate. At first glance, the Modus looks cheaper but only because it comes with the option of a 1.2-litre engine the Nissan doesn't bother with. Compare like-engine derivatives alongside each other and the Note is a few hundred pounds cheaper car for car.

The Nissan's interior certainly feels very spacious and that's in no small part down to the fact that the wheelbase of 2.60m is longer than that of cars like the MK5 Volkswagen Golf. This available space can be optimised between luggage and rear passengers with the aid of a sliding rear bench seat as well as the usual folding rear arrangement. The Note's most interesting feature, however, is that Flexi-Board split level luggage bay. Cup holders, bag holding hooks and umbrella stowing points also hint at the Note's attention to detail.

Although the exterior design isn't going to set pulses racing, the Note has an athletic, wheel at each corner stance that gives it a rather more masculine look than the rather mimsy supermini-MPVs that have become the norm. The dashboard isn't going to have designers in black turtle necks swooning but it's a tidy piece of work with even entry level models like this one offering a level of fit and finish that's rare in this sector. Colour and material choices are far from conventional and the cluster of instruments around the centre console is rapidly becoming a Nissan trademark.

The underpinnings of the car are nothing too novel with MacPherson strut suspension up front and a torsion bar at the back. A 'sporting' RX version is on sale in Japan although it's doubtful that enthusiast drivers here will queue up for such a Note, especially when Vauxhall seem to have that sector of the market squared away with their 180bhp Meriva VXR. For the majority of supermini-MPV drivers, however, the Note is a model they'd be ill advised to overlook.

Perhaps Nissan are rather belatedly realising that this car has been rather overlooked by buyers up to this point. Unfairly so in fact for it's an excellent product if you're looking for affordable, no-nonsense family travel in a compact package. Should that be the case, then this Visia+ model represents probably the best value route into striking the right Note.

TOP 5 NOTE DEALS

The results below show the top NOTE deals on buyacar

Nissan Note 1.4 N-Tec+ 5dr Hatchback Special Editions
Price £11,229 Read Note Reviews	Save £2,266
Nissan Note 1.6 N-Tec+ 5dr Auto Hatchback Special Editions
Price £12,884 Read Note Reviews	Save £2,406
Nissan Note 1.5 [90] dci N-Tec+ 5dr Hatchback Special Editions
Price £12,144 Read Note Reviews	Save £2,356
Nissan Note 1.6 N-Tec+ 5dr Hatchback Special Editions
Price £11,966 Read Note Reviews	Save £2,329
Nissan Note 1.4 Visia 5dr Hatchback
Price £9,113 Read Note Reviews	Save £2,082
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