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Motoring | Test Drives

Long-term review: Nissan Sunny - Week 4

Imran Malik finds his mates new born travels with everything — including the kitchen sink. Good job the Sunny has a huge boot

By Imran Malik, wheels magazine
Published: 14:07 September 20, 2012

Image Credit: Stefan Lindeque/ANM
The bug-eyed Sunny’s exterior won’t leave much of an impression. But it’s what’s on the inside that counts...

I’m back behind the wheel of our long-termer but I had to wrestle the keys off of Dejan. He wanted the roomy four-door for the weekend because his Jimny had a flat tyre. Sorry mate, taxis for you — I needed this tenth generation Sunny for a far more pressing reason — I was on airport duty. A good friend of mine, his wife and their new born were visiting Dubai for the first time. Rather than have them suffer a frightening cab ride to their hotel, I offered to pick them up and drop them off in our 2012 model, metallic silver Nissan.

Long-term review: Nissan Sunny - Week 3
Long-term review: Nissan Sunny - Week 2
Long-term review: Nissan Sunny - Week 1

My first problem occurred no sooner than I left wheels tower to get to the car, which was parked by the side of the road. I couldn’t see it. Not because it wasn’t where it was supposed to be, but, because it’s so drab in terms of looks, it managed to blend into the background like the invisible man. Some advice: if you’re buying one of these, paint it bright green because the six body colours available are just different shades of beige to me. Once located, in and on the way, the Sunny’s comfort and ice cold AC soon won me over. Since I was driving and therefore couldn’t see the car from the outside that Nissan claims is built with 20 per cent fewer parts compared to its predecessor, I was happy.

Now, I didn’t realise this, but babies have a heck of a lot of luggage. Aside from prams which, these days, seem to be the size of a hatchback, they have more luggage than an overflowing airport carousel. There was a suitcase filled with enough nappies for 100 infants, another stashed with thousands of jars of food that would feed a small country and a third bag filled with more cuddly toys than a fun fair. Don’t get me started on the bag with a million wet wipes... I wasn’t sure the Sunny would be able to accommodate all of this, not to mention my friend and his wife’s baggage. I wondered where I’d get a double decker bus but I needn’t have worried for the Nissan gobbled the lot up. Its boot is simply enormous. With 490-litres of space, the biggest in its class, I actually had the luxury of neatly arranging everything rather than having to cram it all in.

We headed out onto the road and the 99bhp 1.5-litre four-pot (the only engine available) was huffing and puffing and clearly struggling to cope with the extra load. The ride was still smooth (even though the Sunny had fallen to its knees) and the little nipper was out like a light. This tells me either one of two things: he was snug as a bug back there, or so bored by the dreary ride that his only option was to blot the ordeal out by sleeping through it. Hmm, a career in motor journalism awaits the clever little man...

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