Nissan Dualis Ti 2009 Review

Road Test

Price Guide (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges): $27,990
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): nil
Crash rating: 5 stars ANCAP
Fuel: 91RON ULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 8.2L/100km
CO2 emissions (g/km): 199
Also consider: Toyota Corolla, Mazda3, Hyundai i30

Overall Rating: 3.0/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 2.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 3.0/5.0
Safety: 4.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 2.5/5.0
X-factor: 2.0/5.0

Japan made its way to the top of the mainstream global auto industry with cars that are nicely made, reliable and affordable. But I suspect there's one more factor adding to their attraction, and it's not spoken of often. It's certainly not something marques like Toyota and Nissan make explicit in their marketing.

It's their anonymity -- the whitegood factor. It is evident in the brilliance with which they address dull-but-essential criteria like build quality and reliability, up against their bare adequacy with fun factors like acceleration and cornering prowess.

The Japanese brands are perfectly able to implant ego appeal when they want, at any price they want. Witness elements of the Lexus lineup, Suzuki's Swift GTi, the Subaru WRX, Mazda's MX5 and Nissan's Z and GT-R. All well able to attract that mix of admiring glances, finger gestures and you-sad-little-wanker smirks denoting a fully sick machine. It's just that there's a very large market for people who don't want a fully sick machine.

For them, there are cars like this, the Dualis Hatch.

The entry-level front-wheel drive version of the softened X-TRAIL is as vanilla as they come – a classic Japanese achievement of excellence in the pursuit of general adequacy. Climb into it safe in the knowledge you'll be noticed by no one, year after year.

And climb into it is what you do. For this is a compromise model pitching the virtues of a compact SUV into the small hatch segment. Its primary competitors are the likes of Corolla, the Mazda3 and Hyundai's i30. After years of success with the Pulsar, Nissan might have been hoping for the Tiida to do that. It hasn't.

Nissan might claim the Dualis hatch fills the gap between Tiida and Maxima. Reality is it fills the gap left by Tiida.

What you get with the Dualis is a tidy expression of all those Japanese virtues, starting with an abiding sense of solidity. Turn the key, it starts and it feels like it will without a fuss for many years. The 2.0-litre four is modest in its aspirations, turning out 102kW at 5200rpm and 198Nm at 4400rpm. But 90 per cent of peak torque is available from 2000 revs, making it a sedate, sensible drive, even with the six-speed manual. It's helped by the reduction of around 75kg to 1482kg that comes with the loss of all-wheel drive.

All of which adds up to a pleasant if unengaging way to get around at commute speeds. It's unfussed in the engine bay and quiet through the exhaust system, with better insulation from the road than most or all of its low-set competitors. This is helped by the relatively high profile tyres on the 16-inch alloys and a mallowy suspension threatening enough body roll to encourage restraint through corners.

Steering is vague; cornering at speed pushes it into an understeer made uncomfortable by its high centre of gravity. On rough surfaces it can assume a bit of a pogo-stick feel at the rear. It's just not made for that kind of driving. But Nissan's betting the front-wheel drive model will repeat here the substantial sales hike it generated for the line in Europe.

To the pump, and here once more it's a satisfactory rather than standout performer. Nissan claims combined cycle fuel consumption of 8.2L/100km (8.3L/100km for the CVT auto); a week in the city cycle with no conscious effort to keep the foot off put us in the mid-late 10s.

The Dualis encourages economical driving using one of the oldest and most effective methods: by doing little or nothing when you put your foot down.

Inside, the front seats tell the story of the car's target market. They're designed to accommodate frames smaller than this 90kg six-footer. When the seat was right for feet on the pedals, the wheel was too close. And it didn't take long for the top of the backrest to dig in just above my shoulder blades, which doesn't bode well for long trips.

Rear seat legroom is reasonable while the 352-litres of bootspace is adequate for a four-seater. Dropping the 60:40 splitfold rear seat takes this up to around 1500 litres.

Over the base ST, the Ti we tested gets leather seats and wheel, front seat heating, wheel audio controls, six-CD in-dash audio with six speakers, Bluetooth, map and rear reading lights, underseat storage drawer in the front, rear seat armrest with cup holders, auto headlights, fog lights, rain sensing wipers and a trip computer.

What it doesn't have is an auxiliary audio input – most peculiar given this model's place as Nissan's pitch at the iPod set. Especially in the Ti, with its upgraded audio. With AUX- and USB-equipped aftermarket systems going for $99, it leaves you wondering why. It also leaves you wondering how many prospective Dualis buyers would go looking elsewhere in a hotly competitive market segment. Hyundai's i30, for example, doesn't just give you the AUX jack but also a USB port and even the stick to go with it.

One area in which the Dualis does scrub up well is in safety -- primary and secondary. Even the base model gets the lot – enough to earn it a five-star ANCAP rating. The primary package consists of stability and traction control, ABS, brake assist and electronic brakeforce distribution, and if they're not enough to keep you out of trouble you get six airbags: forward and side-impact ones up front, with curtain bags front and rear.

Nissan does a better job of build quality than most, even if this one is no exception in a market segment where a proliferation of hard plastics is the norm. In the Dualis, this extends to the door pockets, which are generous enough to allow their contents to slide back and forth in motion, making for irritating noises.

The Dualis, in short, is one for people who don't like to think about motoring beyond the prosaic and the practical. Its value proposition resides in its height advantage over competing small hatches, its simplicity of operation, its lack of challenge and its value for money.

Could we live with it? Sure. No reason why not.