The tale of the terrible Nissan Versa

I just traded out this car. This is my experience with it.

Versa was a car I had for a little over 2 years. I bought it originally for three reasons. It was cheap. It was a hardtop (meaning there was no sunroof that would ever leak), and it wasn't a big stupid truck.

Said honestly, I could have - and I say this loosely - probably gotten another 50K miles out of this car. Mine was one of the better Versas out there because it had an automatic transmission and not the dreaded CVT. Any Versa that has the manual gearbox or AT is typically a good runner - if you can deal with the car's quirks, which I couldn't.

A short list of the quirks:

Geared too short - The transmission was a 4-speed automatic. For traveling at 60mph or less, no problems. But for highway speeds over that, the revs go over 3000 RPM and stay there. This car desperately needed a 5-speed auto transmission but there were only 4 gears. Lots of high-rev droning noise at highway speeds because of that.
Subframe bushings - I never got these replaced because of the crap involved to get the job done. These subframe bushings are not expensive at all. The problem is getting the old bushings out. It's not an impossible job and could be done over a weekend, but I just couldn't be bothered with it.
Really cheap interior vinyl - I, like many other people, like to clean my car's interior to keep it smelling good and looking nice. Well, I noticed something whenever I tried to use a safe-for-vinyl-interior cleaner. The coloring actually started to come off the vinyl, right on to the towel. Fortunately, I didn't wreck the interior because I figured out what was going on quickly. But after discovering this, I only lightly wiped the vinyl surfaces dry with a polish cloth after that. The factory vinyl from Nissan was just of a very poor quality.
Poor gas mileage for what it was - The 1.8 motor averaged about 27 MPG. If the transmission gears weren't so short I could have easily achieved a 32 average. I did try hypermiling the car for one fill-up and did eke out a 40 average, but that involved a lot of coasting in neutral and no A/C use. So yes, the 1.8 can get 40 but you really have to work to get it.
Bad highway manners - I felt myself fighting with the car whenever on the interstate with it. There was nothing wrong going on, but the driving character of the car on highways just wasn't good.
Speedometer 3mph too slow - From what I understand this is a standard thing Nissan does.
Seat recliner levers on the inside of the seat - Not a problem, just weird. Both recliner levers face the middle of the car instead of the doors.

Stupid things due to the dopey previous owner

None of what I'll mention below was Nissan's fault but rather the guy who last owned it that did stupid stuff to the car.

Crappy window tint - The last guy who owned the car decided to install tint on every window, including the windshield had a stupid kid racer style thick stripe on the top. All the tint looked blurry and distorted. I routinely had to roll the windows down just to see outside the car clearly even during day driving. The rear glass was the worst, with tint so crappy it made white cars look pink.
Possible "cold air intake" mod buffoonery - I suspect the previous owner had a dopey intake mod installed, but before trading in the car he put the stock intake back on. Fortunately, there were no engine issues and it seemed to breathe normally. But from what I saw in the engine bay, I'm still pretty sure that dopey mod had previously been there.
Crappy aftermarket radio - The radio worked, I'll give it that. But it wasn't installed well. The adapter kit used to make it fit the double DIN sized hole didn't fit quite correct, so it was slightly loose. And once I took out the radio to take a look at the wiring (I was considering buying a factory Nissan stock radio to put back in there), I found a massive tangle of wires. No way was I going to be able to get a stock wiring harness working ever again, so I just put the dopey radio back.

Good things I can say about the car

Side mirrors were nice. They're big and easy to see stuff with.
The 1.8 engine is fast. Easy to get up to speed and always had the power there when needed.
Steering wheel is thick and felt great.
Very comfy seats.
Excellent A/C system.
Always started on a dime. Never an engine problem with sputtering or stalling.
The low tire pressure monitoring system actually worked right if there was a low tire.
Very tight turning radius.
Cavernous interior space. You can fit a ton of stuff in this car.
Taller than it looks. It towers over Camaros and Mustangs. And yes this means the car has great headroom.
Gigantic glove box. It goes waaaay back into the dash.
Windshield washer reservoir could take an entire gallon by design. No leaks. Filling the reservoir was also very easy.

Things I learned

Never buy a car that's been modded by the previous owner

The car I drive now is used but as far as I can tell is all stock and never been modified. Factory radio, factory glass with no dopey aftermarket tinting, factory everything. And it's lovely.

Modded cars are junk. Undoing all the "improvements" the previous owner did just isn't worth it.

Window tint ruins cars

Prior to the Versa I never owned a car with aftermarket window tint on it, and I never will again.

If I ever feel the need to darken the glass, I'm just buying a cheap shade set. Just slap it on when needed it and take it off when done. No glass mods needed, and it works.

All aftermarket stereos are terrible

They all look stupid and don't match the look of the car, and none of them fit correctly. If anything, it's better to convert that space into a pocket for usable storage.

It's definitely better to just keep things stock. Modded cars as I've come to learn are just awful.

Published 2019 Jul 5