Nissan NOTE 1.4 Visia 5dr Car Review - March 2012

The Note’s 1.4 litre, 4-cylinder, 16v petrol engine produces 87 bhp at 5,200 rpm, while the torque figure stands at 94 lb-ft at 3,200 rpm. The Visia 1.4's top speed is 101 mph, whilst travelling from 0-62 mph takes 13.4 seconds. The car is nippy around town and copes well on faster roads.

Light steering makes the Visia 1.4 easy to drive around town, while providing plenty of feedback at higher speeds. The car’s firm suspension gives it good stability through corners and surprisingly the ride remains smooth and composed. The suspension can be a little noisy, but wind and road noise are well isolated.

The Note’s dashboard is a model of common sense and functionality.

Getting comfortable, however, can be an issue as the steering wheel does not adjust for reach and the driver’s seat will not alter for height. All-round visibility is excellent.

The Note’s styling is a little bland but inside the cabin, high-quality materials are used and it is well-built.

The Visia 1.4 comes with a CD player with MP3 connectivity and electric front windows as standard. Rear-parking sensors, air-conditioning and metallic paint are available for £365, £500 and £420, respectively.

The Note has a spacious cabin. The rear seats slide back and forth allowing you to trade rear leg room for storage capacity. Getting five people in is a squeeze, but there is an abundance of compartments for extra storage space within the cabin. The boot is a little small, offering a capacity of just 280 litres with the seats up and 1,332 litres when the seats are down.

In terms of safety kit, twin front and side airbags come as standard but curtain airbags and stability control are unavailable. An immobiliser and deadlocks come as standard to protect the car from theft.

Reliability is excellent too and in the JD Power customer satisfaction survey the Note finished a respectable fourth in the supermini class.

The car also comes with a three-year warranty for 60,000 miles.

The Visia is priced at £11,200 which is fairly reasonable for a car of this type.

The Visia 1.4 offers low running costs, coming under a fairly mid-range road tax band E. It incurs a low insurance premium under insurance bracket 10 and also offers good fuel economy at 47.3mpg and excellent green credentials with a Euro 5 emissions rating and a carbon footprint of 139g/m.

The Note is amongst the most reliable cars in its class but resale values are weak and this could be a problem. The Visia is the most affordable car in the range but lacks the equipment and safety kit of other models. With this in mind it is the slightly more expensive Acenta provides the best value for money by offering better features for a marginally higher price.