Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £9,990 to £14,290
Loads of rear legroom and luggage space, affordable and unpretentious.
Small range to choose from, engines can be noisy.
Like the Renault Modus, only roomier - a very useful family car.
Nissan's Note is the latest car off the Nissan-Renault B platform, which forms the basis of models including the Micra, Clio and Modus - and it's the roomiest yet.
Stretched so it has a longer wheelbase than many C-sector cars, it replaces the Almera Tino compact MPV and although it's not quite as big overall, it's just as practical, feels more spacious inside and is even more user-friendly and easy to drive. This is a family-sized car that really can seat tall teenagers or adults comfortably in the back yet, with its sliding rear seat, can adapt to carry a decent amount of luggage.
Nissan did a lot of research among owners of rival models, who said that actually, they never used all of their car's functions, especially if they were complicated to work out or awkward to operate. There's no gimmicks in the Note, therefore: the rear seats do the usual split-folding thing, and slide backwards and forwards on their base by up to 160mm, but that's about as complex as it gets - unless you're opting for the top-spec models with keyless entry, automatic headlights and rain-sensing wipers.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Nissan NOTE
wrote on 13 09 2008
wrote on 10 10 2007