In the world of takeaway food, if you forget fish and chips, the UK market is dominated by the Chinese, Indian, and Thai cuisines, with the Turkish kebab thrown in for good measure.
In the world of cars, the order is rather different. The Chinese are just about here (think SsangYong and MG) but the Thais are here in a big way, literally, although you may not know it. They produce the pick-up trucks wearing Ford, Mitsubishi, and Mazda badges that are growing in popularity.
The Indians have been around for a long time, masquerading mainly as Suzukis but also once as Tatas and Rovers. Now they are also here as Nissans – the new small Nissan Pixo is a rebadged Suzuki Alto from a factory in Delhi.
It has been on sale since the summer but the first I saw was the one that came to me last month for road test. It seems that it has been overtaken by a Nissan from North East England, the home of Harry Ramsden’s.
While Nissan has been trying to curry favour with its new city car, instead we have been taking to the familiar Micra in droves. Production of that car in Sunderland is up 40 per cent on the back of scrappage scheme successes.
But the real dominant force in this market sector has been the Koreans, nowhere in the takeaway food business but wiping the floor with rivals thanks to the Hyundai i10, a great car that has been a hit with small car buyers with a less than healthy banger to throw away.
In that company, the Pixo has a job to cut the mustard – in fact you might almost say the i10 does a Paxo job on it in that it well and truly stuffs it where sales figures are concerned and it’s unlikely the little Nissan will ever repay the compliment.
The reason for the Pixo is that it takes Nissan back into city car territory as cheaply as possible. It’s a long time, 1992 really, since Nissan was last there with the original boxy Micra and taking a car from Suzuki and selling it virtually the same apart from the Nissan nose job makes for a very cheap car.
As a result, Nissan can knock out the basic Pixo Visia for £6,995, which is £500 less than the cheapest Suzuki Alto. In fact all the way up the range the Nissan is the cheaper car so presumably selling it must be causing some financial pain because I don’t expect Suzuki is taking a loss on the car.
If you can remember the CityRover, and some potential Pixo buyers will, you’ll be pleased to know that this Nissan is far superior to Rover’s rebadged Tata Indica, which somebody in the trade once gleefully told me Rover was paying £1,800 each for and then getting them all rectified here in the UK to make them fit for sale. They didn’t do a very good job of it and the tales of what they did would make buyers’ hair curl although, to be fair, most buyers never had much hair to start with.
The Pixo is far better, even if it still has cheap plastics littering its interior and is a simple place in which to spend your motoring life. It’s all about being cheap to run and manual versions have brilliant fuel consumptions plus a low 103 g / km CO2 figure. Unlike the Suzuki, the Nissan version can be had with a four speed auto gearbox for £910, which then makes the car very expensive at £9,555 for the Tekna test car – and very slow. The 0 – 62 mph time of 17.0 seconds is more a stroll than a sprint and the CO2 output climbs to 122 g / km so the road tax shoots up from £35 a year to £120.
Nissan sticks a Pure Drive badge on the back of the Pixo to denote its frugal habits and the test car’s 50 plus mpg was not bad, bearing in mind the often fatal combination of a 1.0 three cylinder engine and an auto box.
Nissan fans keen to support the brand and drive a city car may want to look at the Pixo but there are other, and better, choices. Big car buyers would consider the Pixo a tad too simple with its hinged rear windows and sparse interior but poverty models appeal to me and I’m sure many others feel the same.
Maurice Hardy
People who spend all their time in urban areas seem to be fed a diet of small cars quite willingly but there are some that are just too small for me.
However, the Nissan Pixo brings a five door city car for a relatively low budget if you keep the spec down – I’m not convinced the more expensive trim levels are really worth the money.
Those riding up front in the Pixo have a relatively good time but adult friends won’t thank you for the back seat ride experience, that’s for sure. There’s hardly any legroom but if you want the back seat for carrying children then that’s no problem - and Nissan does fit Isofix mountings for child seats, too.
The base Pixo doesn’t get folding rear seats but the better models have a 50 / 50 split that allows boot space to be enhanced, a useful feature as the boot is not blessed with a large capacity.
The ride is hard on this car, which can make it an unpleasant place to be on long journeys and some of our potholed urban roads are also a nightmare. It’s a tall and narrow car so there’s some degree of body roll on cornering although the ESP stability program helps keep things on a more even keel. It’s a feature every small city car needs.
Annette Hardy
Car: Nissan Pixo 1.0 Tekna automatic
Does it fit your ego?...
0-62 mph: 17.0 secs
Top speed: 93 mph
Bhp: 67 @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 66 lb ft @ 3400 rpm
...and your wallet?...
Price: £9,555
Urban: 42.2 mpg
Extra urban: 62.8 mpg
Combined: 54.3 mpg
CO2 emissions: 122 g/km
Insurance Group: 2
Best bits: small, cheap to run; simple.
