By Ghaith Madadha

AMMAN - With many car manufacturers seemingly obsessed with the trend of making their saloons look ever more like coupes, interior space has come to suffer as a cost of fashionable looks. Admittedly, a low roof line may look appealing at first glance, but is a best reserved for coupes where rear space isn’t a priority for most. Imitating the so-called four-door-coupe fad invariably ends up compromising rear space, particularly headroom, and thus compromises a saloon’s practicality.

A saloon car may not be the most practical design, but is the accepted standard meant to compromise practicality and style, with emphasis depending on the particular clients sought, and whereas a dedicated niche saloon-coupe crossover may be worthwhile for some automakers, large luxury saloons and bread and butter family saloons need good headroom if they are expected to be used by adults, and that is where the Nissan Tiida comes in.

Especially spacious

Contrary to this growing fad, the Nissan Tiida is a brilliant C-segment family saloon that makes no pretensions about coupe-like rooflines or silhouettes, but seems to have been designed from the ground up with space efficiency and comfort in mind. Perhaps not the sexiest car around, the Tiida does however look agreeably pleasant and elegant in how it mixes conservative and futuristic design cues.

Aerodynamically slippery but with a tall roof for class-leading headroom and with a deceptively short boot that is in fact voluminous, the Tiida also benefits from a high hip point for easy ingress and egress. With a tall roof and big windows, the Tiida high-driving visibility, and while not intended for hard driving, the Tiida is capable in that department but the heavily slanted A-pillar and small secondary pillar can slightly hinder side-front views when cornering quick and tight, as so with most modern cars.

Despite its high seating position that makes getting in and out so easy in front and rear, the Tiida still enjoys the most spacious rear seats in its class - in fact, the Tiida rivals some and betters some medium executive saloons in that regard.

Comfortable accommodating two large adults in a row, or even a rear-facing child seat behind a large adult, the Tiida’s rear legroom is most generous owing to its long wheelbase-to-length ratio, while the high roof ensures far above average headroom even for tall adults, while with front seat positioned for shorter people, the Tiida’s rear space becomes almost on par with a full luxury car.

Shoulder room is also good, while fit, finish, upholstery and interior materials are good for this segment, but while the seats are very comfortably cushioned, I felt adjustable lumbar support would be a good option to invest in for long journeys. Instrumentation is clear, functional and very user-friendly, and the A/C was particularly efficient.

Sharp and smooth

Built on a longer version of the same platform underpinning the sweet handling mark-3 Renault Clio hatchback, much of its agility, nippiness and poise finds its way to the Tiida, which surprisingly handles very similarly to a well-sorted hatchback in terms of a sharp turn-in, easy manoeuvrability and light-on-its-feet reactions.

However, the Tiida differs in that its longer wheelbase affords it a higher level of grip and stability, and even driven in wet conditions, was very confident and safe through tight corners and winding country lanes.

On the test drive route, the Tiida was poised and offered excellent lateral grip through both the fast sweeping handling route as well as offering an engaging, sharp, focused, re-assuring and agile drive during the tighter and rougher paved route, partially owing to its sophisticated MacPherson strut front suspension and its short overhangs, while braking was also sharp and effective.

While there was slight body-roll, it wasn’t more than its shorter competitors, and one expected more due to its high roof, but the light sheet metal between the Tiida’s high strength roof-frame seems to optimise its centre of gravity, while steering was direct, precise and light for easy use, and while one might like a meatier feel, the onus in the Tiida is on comfort, practicality and user-friendly operation.

Its handling is surprisingly good, but the Tiida does, however, lean slightly more toward a comfortable ride, with motorway and dual carriageway work dispatched with a quiet and calm ambiance and with a stable and sure-footed demeanour. Happy cruising at modest speed or pushed hard, the Tiida offers smoothness and terrific directional stability due to its long wheelbase, while its chassis - no doubt aided by high sidewall tyres and 15-inch wheels - is pliant, supple and good at ironing out most road imperfections.

Gutsy and frugal

With 1214kg to haul and only 4-automatic gears and a 1.6-litre engine with which to get the job done, the Nissan Tiida’s headline figures are perfectly respectable but not particularly eye-catching, with the 0-100km/h sprint coming in a decent 12.6 seconds and top speed at 170km/h.

However, headline figures tell but half the story, for with clever gearing, responsive gear changes and an under-square engine with a rich and rather flat mid-rev range torque output, the Tiida is very versatile, responsive and swift for its class. Setting off from standstill, the Tiida will launch decisively and with wet weather will even spin the front wheels vigorously if full throttle is applied - a feat that not many compact automatic cars can do.

On-the-move acceleration is also impressive, as the Tiida is responsive to throttle inputs in terms of kicking down gears, while in the mid-range the engine starts growling as torque builds up towards its maximum 113lb/ft at 4400rpm and acceleration becomes very lively in cruising speeds of around 60-120km/h.

With seemingly low gearing in first and second, as well as a 4.07:1 final drive ration, the Tiida’s torque is optimised for aggressive and responsive performance, especially in the high rev range as power accumulates to 109hp at 6000rpm.

However, the low gearing doesn’t affect the Tiida’s fuel economy much, for on the regular test drive route, it was frugal despite a heavy right foot, owing to its modern efficient engine and its good low mid-range torque, the Tiida’s aerodynamics, and the use of a noticeably high 0.70:1 fourth overdrive gear.

The overdrive gear is carried confidently by the Tiida’s small gutsy engine, and also allows for low highway engine speed and consequently low fuel consumption (5.9l/100km extra-urban) and low interior noise.

As one of the most comprehensive and brilliantly designed vehicles around, it’s no wonder the Tiida is Nissan’s best-selling car, and offers a mixture of features that concentrates on offering a level of space efficiency and actual cabin size that is comparable with cars up to two categories higher, the Tiida in the regard is an object lesson for its segment.