I went to the Nissan showroom to have a look at its new Slyphy. Not too impressed, and I'm convinced that either Toyota Altis or Honda Civic will be a much better choice. However, when I was about to leave, the salesman asked me to test the all new Latio, which boasts the technology derived from the expertise of Nissan and a French company, Renault. I decided to test the Latio hatchback that reminds me of Renault Megane at first glance. The car looks tall, but that is due to the fact that it has not been lowered and was probably designed for comfort in mind. I found out later that this preliminary assumption is inaccurate, as in actual fact, the Latio had both comfort and outstanding handling. Naturally, I assume that tall vehicles, with a higher centre of gravity, would result in more body roll and lack of stability in changes of direction, again, this assumption was proved wrong by the Latio.
The design of this car is impressive, and it has the same drag coefficient as the Nissan 350Z! The former a passenger car, the latter a sports car, but both have the same drag coefficient!! Great work by Nissan.
As for the interior, one word would sum it up nicely: luxurious.
The black interior are simply elegant. Plenty of headroom, and the rear legroom is good as well with the rear seats being able to slide back and forth, which means one can choose to have more legroom at the expense of boot space.
The next impressive thing about this car is the Nissan Intelligent Key (ikey). With the key in your pocket, you can open the door by just pressing a button on the door handle. After entering the car, simply turn on the knob where the key usually goes and the engine will start! All these can be done without taking out the ikey from your pocket! The ikey has a sensor and it must be in the car to start the engine. So that means the normal key is essentially useless for this car! This technology is only used in higher ends cars such as Porsche and Lexus. Isn't it great? Rather embarrassed at first as I kept urging the salesman to give me the key!
So i started the engine and the noise reduction was excellent. The engine was powerful, I guess it's because of the Renault technology, the transmission again is brilliant, quick to respond when I floor the pedal, the surge of power continues to flow uninterrupted. Acceleration is much better than Vios, it's just SMOOTH! Within seconds I was already driving at 130km/h.... The riding was still as comfortable and steady. Then I tested the brakes (comes with ABS, EBD, Brake Assist) and cornering. I slammed the brakes hard and the speed dropped from 120km/h to 70km/h instantly. For cornering, I made a U-turn while accelerating, and the car was neatly planted on the ground, no body roll at all. I wondered why was it possible for a car with such height.. And the salesman told me that it has the same suspension system as SKYLINE GTR. No wonder!
And finally, the car is rated 6 star for its safety features. With its pricing, it's definitely value for money. I have to admit that Nissan has done a brilliant job to produce this car and I'm sure it will bring fierce competition to its rivals. Nissan have endured some hard time in recent years but with Latio, they will bounce back for sure.
