Video: 2014 Nissan Versa Note

This is essentially the second generation of the Versa hatchback, and it goes by the same name here as it does in international markets. We'll cover what you might find noteworthy. Now, the Versa sedan, pretty bland looking car, even when Nissan redesigned it. The Note injects some much needed styling flare here, more sculpted headlights that kinda flow into the grill. A lot of overall styling similarities upfront to the Honda fit, which some people think looks a little bit insect like. Still, not bad here for the Note. Some cool features, there are actually active grill shutters here on automatic transmission models. They help improve aerodynamics by having less air come into the engine bay when you're on the highway, same thing with the rake of the windshield, all of that is to help gas mileage, which for automatic transmission models, Nissan expects to be at 31 miles per gallon city in EPA ratings, 40 miles per gallon highway, pretty good there. Unfortunately, the Note does have the same 1.6 liter 4-cylinder as the Versa sedan, an engine that's about as powerful as an average lawnmower. Nissan says the Versa Note has more than 115 cubic feet of interior volume, that's really big, that's even bigger than very roomy hatchbacks like the Honda Fit. The Versa sedan has plenty of seating room, and the Note carries over in that way. I have plenty of room here up front, I'm about six feet tall. Still, we'd like to see things like a telescoping steering wheel, this thing only tilts, and maybe some nicer finishes along the dash and upper doors. Even for an entry-level car, the Versa Note feels a little bit plain. Now, there's a lot of storage room here. There's an upper glove box here, there's a lower glove box, that if you ever needed to fit a bag this big, you wouldn't have a problem. The Versa sedan was somewhat basic with its options list, the Note does have a few more upscale things, things like keyless access with push button start here, you've got heated cloth seats, Nissan's Around View Monitor. Very rare that you'd have something that high end in this segment. It shows all four sides of the car, kinda cool to even have it as optional here. Tons of room in the back seat just like in the Versa sedan. I've got, really, a lot more room than anyone should have in a subcompact, which is nice. Tons of headroom too, things like a full down center arm rest here, and the seat actually sits high enough, it's not too low to the ground, which is what a lot of cars do in the name of improving rear headroom. One thing that we would like to have here, which is our adjustable rear seats, a lot of other hatchbacks have seats that can recline a little bit, these kinda come in one fixed position. One kinda cool feature in the cargo area, if you fold the seats down, they make for a flat load floor here, but you can also take this up in what Nissan calls it's Divide-N-Hide rear load floor, which gives you a little more space down here, where you can throw things here and kind of put the load floor over it. Now, the Versa Note starts around $14,000, that's about two grand more than the Versa sedan, which is still the least expensive car in America. It's competitively priced though, falling within the lights of the Kia Rio hatchback, the Ford Fiesta hatchback, the Toyota Yaris hatchback, and actually a little bit less money than some of the other hatchbacks out there, and there's a lot of them vying for your attention. If you're looking for a subcompact hatch, there's more than a dozen different models you could be thinking about, so we'll have to see if the Versa Note can cut through the thick of all that. The good news is, Versa sedan sales are pretty good, which means a lot of people are going into Nissan dealerships to check it out, maybe the Note will catch their attention too. (car engine revving)