Never too samall for comfort

When a magician pulls a bunny and goodies out of his hat, the most fascinating thing about it is not how these items got inside, but how they actually all fit in there! Obviously a trick to the eye (if not a wicked manipulation of tiny wormholes that would bend space and time to teleport these things), this classic technique does not fail to impress an audience.

A similar astonishment came over me when I got the opportunity to test drive the all-new Nissan Almera, Nissan Motor Philippines Inc.’s latest subcompact car (to be launched in the country next week) over the recent holiday season. Certainly beyond being a well-planned illusion, the new Almera caught me by surprise with its generous legroom and overall space, especially for its class. The car is a classic 4-door, 5-seat vehicle equipped with a fuel-friendly 1.5L engine, and an even friendlier price tag (it starts at P710,000). Its wheelbase is at 2,600mm—comparable to the generosity found in premium D-segment cars—and its luggage compartment is set to accommodate 490 liters; truly among the most commodious in its class.

In its perfect holiday timeliness, I personally got to experience the benefits of the ample space the Almera had to offer when I used it to fetch my balikbayan relatives from the airport during the Christmas season. Fitting their bulky luggage into the car’s trunk did not raise any concerns, with its deep load space making it easy for us to slide the thick dimensions of their fat maletas conveniently into place. And with my big-bodied, half-Italian cousin sitting in the front seat, legroom for him was not cramped at all, nor was the roofline uncomfortably low for his head. In the back, my buffed Filipino cousin comfortably sat with two more male relatives, who all enjoyed the exceptional rear legroom as my cousin kept his hand-carried backpack on his lap. Coming from Chicago and weary of the heat, he immediately took control of the rear fan vents and adjusted them to his liking. In a nutshell, it had actually worked out perfectly for fetching and taking around our balikbayan family for a comfortable drive. It was awesome to find these conveniences in a compact car, as vehicles in this segment tend to lean towards being small and more often than not, a little cramped, in exchange for lower tag prices.

Already successfully launched in many other countries including Thailand, the US, China, India, Singapore, and more recently, Malaysia, the Almera has in fact, already become Nissan’s best-selling sedan worldwide, with global sales reaching more than 500,000 units. Its mantra of being an “affordable, dynamic sedan” has obviously found a good market in these countries and is bound to do quite well in the Philippines, where consumers are especially particular about value for money.

The new Nissan Almera will be offered in three variants: the 1.5L base manual, 1.5L base automatic and 1.5L mid-automatic, in colors that include brilliant silver, alpine white and bluish black. The unit that I drove came in the brand’s communication color: an elegant titanium grey.

Although the new Nissan Almera’s public launch is set for mid-January, customers may already reserve units as early as now, and avail of a free exclusive accessory (including a chrome side molding, exhaust finisher and chrome front lower grille finisher) as part of its introductory offer. For more information you may visit their website at www.nissan.com.ph.