Nissan ALMERA TINO
Vanessa Hinkley checks out the family-friendly
Nissan Almera Tino
The Nissan Almera hatchback is a good base for one of those clever little
mini-MPVs. Its well built, thoughtfully designed and good to drive all solid foundations, you would have thought, of sales success for the Almera Tino model featured here. Not that you would really know the Tinos ancestory from a
seat either inside or out. Nissans design people clearly started out with a clean sheet of paper on this one, keeping only the base models enthusiastic driving manners.
The problem with that is that people simply dont buy mini-MPVs to throw them around beautiful back roads. Versatility is the key and this Nissan had better be up to the task in hand. At first glance, I had cause to wonder. After all, there are only five seats in a market where other rivals offer six or even seven.
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Like
Renault with their Scenic,
Nissan believe that most buyers dont want or need that many chairs (but have covered their bets by secretly developing a seven-
seat version just in case). Instead, theyve concentrated on getting better use out of the space available, rather than filling it with pews: its an approach that actually makes a lot of sense.
At first glance inside, the approach seems familiar. As with other rivals, there are three individual rear seats, each with its own triple-point seatbelt (though only the outer two, I noticed, have Isofix child seat mounts). I found these seats to be infinitely flexible, with no fewer than 24 different positioning configurations. They can of course be removed and/or folded forward, which in the case of the middle seat means you instantly create a picnic/activity table, with two cupholders and a ribbed section to hold pencils and crayons.
Alternatively, I found that I could slide them backwards and forwards on runners that allow 90mm of travel with the centre seat in place and 200mm without. With kids in the back, I was able to push them right forwards to create a huge luggage area: with adults however, it was better to slide them right back for extra legroom and that
mini-Limo feel. I didnt try it but with only two rear passengers, that feeling could be further enhanced by taking the middle seat out completely and moving the two outer chairs inwards by six inches. Since most customers will be carrying kids in the back, Nissan has conducted exhaustive research to make the rear compartment as child-friendly as possible. As a result, the original design was altered to create deep rear side windows and back seats mounted 25mm higher than those in the front.
This means your offspring will get an excellent view as will you of them. Surveys have showed that most parents place their youngest child in the back on the opposite side from the driver in order to see them better. So in the Tino, the front seat backrests have been shaved and the front chairs themselves set far apart to give a big, wide space for a clear view into the rear. As in the Renault Scenic, there are two hidden compartments under the floor in the rear footwells but in the Nissan, I found them to be more useful, with lift-out baskets incorporated into the design.
Both front seats have airline-style flip-out trays on the back and theres a map pocket underneath each one. Other nice touches I appreciated include a powerpoint for rear passengers and secure hidden storage under the rear seats. Luggage space should be sufficient for most families and shopping bags can be either secured or separated by endless permutations of loading nets, based around no fewer than ten hooks, several of which can be used to make a kind of hammock that will keep dirty shoes off the carpet. Though the concertinaed rear parcel shelf cant be raised or lowered to different levels a la Scenic, it can be folded from either the front or the back, so that rear passengers can reach behind them to get things from the boot.
Finally, for valuables, theres a covered compartment under the boot floor big enough for a handbag. Is there room for improvement? Of course there is. The front seats dont fold for example, nor are they removable (which is irritating when youve something long to carry like a ladder or a surfboard). Those seats that are removable at the rear are so heavy that only fitness fanatics will want to take them out regularly.
And if you do remove everything, youll find that intrusion from the wheelarches and suspension turrets limits the width of what you can carry.
On the road, the car's very good to drive just like the Almera hatchback. You wont find another car in this class thats as good on a twisty road. Engines include the familiar 114bhp 1.8-litre petrol and 2.
2-litre turbo diesel units from the Almera hatch, plus a CVT automatic-only 136bhp 2.0-litre petrol unit for flagship models.
Prices start at £12,900 for the entry-level 1.8, rising to £16,800 for the flagship five-door 2.0 model I tried. All models get a strong warranty package, with a three-year/60,000-miles parts and labour guarantee.
The relatively small number of Tinos that Nissan is producing from its Spanish factory have limited the Almera Tinos impact here but that gives it a rather welcome rarity value. Why more people dont try this car before plunging in anf buying a Renault Scenic or
Citroen Xsara Picasso is beyond me: this car seems better than either.
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