(Since I’m out on the coast again for a few days, I’m going to do something a bit different and re-run a new car review I did back at TTAC. These were nothing like the in-depth reviews Jim Klein does here after having a new car for a week. I had to go to a dealer and ask if I could take one for a spin. The Cube is quickly slipping into the forgotten past, so I thought it would be interesting to re-read my take on it. Hopefully you do too)
When I was a small child, I would spend hours sitting in a cardboard box pretending it was a car. Now, I spend hours sitting in a car that pretends it’s a box. As a card carrying cubist, I’m always ready to jump in when a new carton appears. The last time I did that, it was about as traumatic as when my older brother tried to duct tape me inside my favorite cardboard “ride”. I couldn’t get out of the gen2 Scion xB, and my review left no doubts about it. My progeny liked the Kia Soul, but it’s not a real genuine box. But a new package has arrived at the local Nissan dealer named Cube no less. So how does it square up?
First a little history lesson in automotive cubism. This is the third generation of Nissan’s box, although the first one, from 1989, was not terribly distinctive given Japan’s long history of tall-boy wagons. Nevertheless, it beat Toyota’s bB (Scion xB) to the Japanese mobile loft market by a year. But the gen2 Cube, (above) which arrived in 2002, became a cult classic. Jonny Lieberman gave a glowing review of a JDM version here.
As much as I like my xBox, the gen2 Cube is way cuter and more playful. If you’re not too self-conscious to drive a box, it might as well be one with some real character. The gen2 Cube has it by the crate-full: asymmetrical rear hatch and windows, a truly inspired B pillar, and a perfectly charming and characterful front end, with none of that xB underbite.
The gen2 Cube has one big problem, though, that it shares with all brilliant designs: where to go from here with the successor generation. Downhill is pretty much the only option when you’re standing at the peak. Well, at least its design decline isn’t anywhere near as bad as the gen2 xB’s descent to hell.
What exactly did the new Cube’s designers do for inspiration? They sat in a Jacuzzi®. Seriously. And what did they do while soaking? Or, more accurately, what did they pass around? The all too obvious answer is to be found in such aqueous details as the ripples in the headliner emanating from the central dome light. Far out, man.
But their real challenge lay with the exterior. The result is best described as cubism meets Dali. The Cube droops and melts, especially at the ends. And its features are all . . . so exaggerated. I wonder why? But in their enhanced efforts to make the Cube more vivid, they spaced the best one: the blacked out A and C pillars made the prominent body-colored B pillar look like it was supporting the delicate roof by itself. It was the single most prominent and delightful Cube element, along with the asymmetrical rear; but it’s gone, up in smoke.
The result is a serious loss of levity (for the Cube, anyway) and not just in looks alone; the Cube has put on 400 lb. All those munchies are taking their toll. And the hot tubbing was obviously an intramural activity, because the Renault Kangoo be bop seems to have sprung from that same fertile session.
All my carping on stylistic details aside, the Cube design still has a lot going for it, and it will undoubtedly be the replacement vehicle of choice for those businesses that use the gen1 xB as rolling billboards. It’s highly distinctive and eye-catching, to say the least, and 99.9% of Americans will never know what they were missing with its delightful predecessor.
Unlike the current xB, the Cube has stayed true to the cubist ideal: the package is almost a dead-ringer for the gen1 xB in all its dimensions. Curiously, even though it’s a tad larger, the Cube still can’t meet some of the gen1 xB’s interior dimensions (42.6″ front headroom vs. 46.6″), or its luggage space (11.4 cf vs. 17.9 cf). Still, there’s plenty of room for hanging your favorite black light posters.
It’s the distant and near-vertical windshield, perfectly vertical doors, upright seating and gobs of headroom that create an effect that is unique in this day of pseudo-coupe sedans. Like a double-cab truck riding on a small car platform, except even better. There is a unique social aspect to riding in one of these boxes: you’re fairly close together, yet there’s a large amount of “social space”, from the shoulders up. Perfect for conversation or passing large bulky objects around.
Okay, I’ve spent 700 words talking about a box, what it’s like to sit in, and what a nice space it is to share with others. How about the other features of the Cube? Well, it sits on the Versa platform and shares its mechanicals. Translated: reasonably competent all-round: a fairly compliant ride (unlike the gen1 xB); light, yet somewhat better than average steering; safe, predictable handling, although not nearly as sporting as the xB, which lacks those extra 400 lb and has a stiffer suspension. Wind noise begins to intrude fairly early.
Performance is decent, with a (just) sub-ten second 0-60. The CVT is what it is, for better or for worse (worse for me). It works well enough, but stick shift for me, please, especially since it’s a six-speed. The EPA rates it at 28/30. That sure beats driving around in a huge double-cab truck with a perpetually empty bed. A little utility trailer will do the job for those twice-a-year runs to the dump.
The Cube’s interior appointments are as good or better than average. Lots of textured and waaavy plastic, but with padding in the right places it’s much nicer than the current xB.
The rear seat passed the 6′4″ Paul Niedermeyer leg room test with flying colors: with the front seat all the way back, my knees were still well-surrounded by free air (the current xB fails). The rear seat also slides, and or course folds to compensate for that little cargo area. At least it’s deep; shopping bags will like snuggling there.
Cube pricing starts at $13,990 decently equipped with all the basics. The S model, which I sampled, starts at $14,690 and includes “premium cloth upholstery and driver’s side arm rest”. So maybe the base model upholstery is a bit Spartan. It’s not like there was one on the lot to check out—C4C has Cubes in tight supply.
I bemoan the fact that a gen2 Cube will forever remain an unattainable cubic ideal for me. But this new Cube will undoubtedly corner a large share of the market for wheeled boxes. It’s practical, efficient, reasonably fun to drive, and almost as much fun to sit in as a Jacuzzi®. Now if they could just get those ripples on the headliner to actually move without having to be under the influence.
Where’s a KIA Soul when you need one? 😉
You didn’t bring up the funky paint colors, but perhaps they weren’t a thing that early.
This gen Cube seems like something the aliens from The Simpsons would drive. Perhaps the pillar changes had to do with higher crash standards? They didn’t want to use more expensive steel to keep them thin.
It’s annoying that most Japanese don’t need all that wonderful headroom, yet we can’t produce it here in anything but big trucks. CUVs all want to show off their macho ground clearance, and electric ones will be even more squished.
Interesting review; I like the “altered states” theme. These certainly weren’t as common as the gen1 xB’s. I liked the gen1 xBox, but the Cubes we got in the US just didn’t do it for me. To me they just looked too blobby; probably the too thick A&B pillars and the rounded edges. I also never liked the plastic grill inserts with the pill-shaped cutouts that Nissan was into at the time. But styling aside looks like these were very practical and fun enough to drive.
You mentioned the Kia Soul. While not “a real box” as you say, I did quite like the one I rented a few years ago on one of my many work trips to eastern WA/OR. Came close to totaling it when I coyote ran right in front of me on I-84…but the coyote and the Soul were very lucky.
I actually really like the Cube despite (or maybe because of) it’s weirdness. A former co-worker received one as a loaner some years back, and a ride in it made me kind of want one for a minute. Very comfortable front seats and a commanding view, from the front at least. The Kia Soul I owned briefly felt a bit more confining to me, but experiences with the two were far enough apart that it may have been a skewed perception.
I get the Dali reference due to the droopiness, but the first person I think of is Dr. Suess. Every time I see one of these, I expect the Cat in the Hat to jump out.
Alan, you got that right-Salvador Dali and Dr. Suess-a sort of X-Box with the corners rounded off and almost oval windows along with asymetrical features. Every time I saw one I thought of the Dali painting of the melted watch hanging over a tree, although I can certainly picture The Cat in the Hat behind the wheel of one of these. It was simply too weird for me-I liked my Element much better.
These were nothing if not interesting, but I never saw that many of them (and see even fewer now).
It does not look like those seats folded into a flat load floor, something that removes a lot of the utility in my eyes, and something that still makes me appreciate my Gen1 Fit.
I’m supposed to like this car because it is for the guy who admires simple design – but what the xB was able to do visually isn’t what the Cube does. The Cube tries too hard and that’s where it loses me. There is no reason to take a simple design and add cartoonish details to it like the Cube does. The xB looked purposeful. The Festiva looked purposeful. The Fairmont looked purposeful. The Cube doesn’t, but it should.
And who the hell puts “ripples in the headliner emanating from the central dome light” – and makes damn central dome light A RECTANGLE? Seriously? There are many intriguing ideas presented in the Cube that displays playfulness and ingenuity – but in a forced way.
The xB got it right. The Cube didn’t. Nissan tried too hard to define its products in a very cool way, but ended up with a car that looked like an art student’s project. As an artistic design, kudos to Nissan, but as an engineering form over function statement, Nissan blew it, in my opinion.
That cubular dome light giving off circular ripples bugged me as soon as I saw it.
Nissan tried, in this case with mixed results, to do what so many French and Italian designed cars do so effortlessly. Nissan really needed to have a group of French or Italian engineers comb through their cars and edit them so that there would be more success in those kinds of designs.
I only drove a Cube once, as a rental car. It takes some getting used to. The body sides are so vertical that they create an optical illusion; when you are sitting in the car it feels like the sides bow OUT at the top.
If I remember correctly, the Cube was also the rental where I had to Google an owner’s manual to figure out how to gas it up. The release for the gas filler door is a tiny lever way, way down on the bottom of the dash, not visible when you are sitting in the driver’s seat.
I drove about half of the Cubes imported while working at Hertz. They definitely didn’t seem to sell well on the open market. a rental xB, even the less popular second gen, was unheard of. Since the Cube is a Versa underneath and has the self-destructo XTronic, they seem to be nearly extinct already. And the few left mostly have been hooptie status for awhile.
I remember the gas door release. And the fact that a bunch came with this stupid shag carpet object holder for the depression in the center of the dash above the radio, which looked useless and was extremely random to see in rentals, which were usually cars that didnt even get floormats since there was no dealer delivery/prep performed on them.
Oh, and the horrifically distracting secondary reflections in the side windows. Your peripheral vision saw a reversed-by-75-degree reflection of the road you were traveling, triggering a “t-bone imminent” response.
Overall a pretty excreble, throw away transport device.
I have always had a soft spot for those 4 spoke wheels. They remind me of the VR-4-spec alloys my 96 Galant ES had included in some option package. Not generally a fan of sub-5 spoke wheels, but both of those designs look right to me.
The first time I saw the Nissan Cube I instantly fell in love with it and followed it for about 10 miles. Then reality set in and I stopped following it for fear of freaking out the driver. While I much prefer the exterior and especially the asymmetrical window to its Xbox brother. When I found out about the CVT only transmission it killed it for me. Having owned many small displacement high revvers I know it would drive me up the wall. However it seems when paired with a turbo CVT’s get pretty good reviews. If I could just take the Cube body and plunk it onto a Xbox that would be great.
Your “the gen2 Cube” link redirects to a porn site. Not sure you wanted to share that.
Thanks for letting us know — the link has now been removed.
I need to know more about the nissan cube
Where can 8 find a pre-owned nissan. Use near me im in dunlap iowa. Also not a lot of miles if possible.
I have had my cube since 2010. It’s a 2009 and I LOVE it!