Nissan Kicks Review

The new Nissan Kicks is coming! We lay our hands on this new SUV for the Indian car market. Nissan will begin its second innings in India with this new SUV. With start with Micra was awesome but somewhere along the lines, they lost the track. However, things now seem to be back in place.

The Kicks looks to be a promising product. What does this new SUV have on offer? It will be going up against the massive Creta for the Indian car market. So far, no one has been able to even send shock waves. How will the Kicks perform? We share our detailed review. The company had invited us to lay our hands on the Kicks on a drive from Bhuj to Rann of Kutch and back.

Design is one area where the Kicks has got everything moving for it. This vehicle has been redesigned for the Indian market. It is longer than the global version and even the Creta too. Stylish front end with the signature front grille and the U-shaped chrome. There are LED projectors and daytime running LEDs also on it. The high beam is yellow light. The fog lamps are mounted low and look stylish.

The India car has better styling for certain. The side profile also looks appealing and it does offer appealing design. 17-inch diamond cut alloy wheels look good and the 210mm ground clearance makes it good enough. The orange roof is separated as it has floating roof. The roof rails stand out as it looks cool. As an overall vehicle, it does a good job in styling and we don’t have any complaints here.

The Kicks looks absolutely stylish. Much better than the global version and larger too.

The grey and orange combination does look stylish here. The design is similar to other Nissan SUVs like Juke -especially the rear. The spare wheel isn’t 17-inches, it is 16-inch one on offer. There is a stylish KICKS badging at the rear, below the tail gate.

The interior styling of Kicks is good. The design is simple and yet elegant. The quality of materials used is high quality and it does have leather on the dashboard that adds on to the styling. The black and brown feels rich and is premium.

The steering wheel design is new with thin spokes. There are controls on the wheel, but only for cruise and some are located on the dashboard too. The audio controls are on the steering column, like the Renault range of cars. The large 8-inch touchscreen system comes with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and 360deg camera. The climate control has been borrowed from the Terrano. Push start stop button has been moved under the climate control. The key is a card like other Renault vehicles.

Interiors are plush and spacious. Though it will remind you of the Renault on the inside, with some direct parts sharing.

The front seats have good support for thigh and side. There is more than sufficient support on the front seats. The leather quality is also good and it feels premium. The glovebox is cooled and narrow. But it is very deep. The instrument cluster looks stylish too. The second row of seats also offer good space. There are rear AC vents and even 12V charging socket too. The boot space is also large enough with about 400 litres. The second row seats fold but they do not fold 60:40 also.

The 1.5-litre diesel engine on offer gets 108bhp of power and 240Nm of maximum torque. This engine comes with a six-speed manual transmission. The power is good and there is more than sufficient torque on offer. In terms of performance, there is more than sufficient grunt in the engine and there is also enough performance too. There is a clear turbo lag in the engine and it does loose out on torque at low engine speeds under 1800rpm. The ride quality of this SUV is good and even its handling isn’t nervous at anytime. The steering wheel feels premium and even the clutch is light to drive.

The price of the Kicks will be able to decide if its worth a purchase or no. We share all the details with our readers on what can we expect from this new SUV. It is Captur and Creta competition. Captur is about Rs 1 lakh cheaper than Creta. We reckon, Nissan will undercut the Captur too. And this has a lot more features than the Captur. So, its a game of wait and watch.