Do you find something comical about my friend Dan’s appearance when he is driving his automobile? Everyone needs to drive a vehicle, even the extremely tall. This was the largest auto that he could afford. Should he therefore be made the subject of fun?
Well … yes, actually. This is a 6-foot-8 man in a Nissan Micra. In the immortal words of The Simpsons’ Nelson Muntz, “Ha-ha!”
Daniel Cudmore is an actor, stuntman and all-around good sport. The younger (and taller) brother of Rugby Canada team captain Jamie Cudmore, he’s perhaps best-known for his role as Colossus, the metal-skinned giant from the X-Men movies. He’s also a consummate car guy, with a past roster that includes a 5.0-litre Fox-body Mustang, STI hatchback and an Audi RS4. And the Micra’s not actually his – he drives an SQ5, which is a surprisingly good fit.
Lured by the promise of low horsepower and teeny-tiny wheelbases, Cudmore has agreed to help with an evaluation of two of Canada’s smallest and cheapest cars. Next to his lofty stature, the Nissan Micra and Mitsubishi Mirage look like they came out of a gumball machine. Will he fit? Lunch-lady Doris – have ye got any grease?
In many ways, engineering an inexpensive econo-box is more challenging than cranking out a supercar. The latter can afford to fit only a small cross-section of the population, as volumes will be low and profits high. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to sit in something like a Countach, you’ll note that driver comfort can occasionally take a back seat to styling and performance.
However, selling a low-margin compact car is a numbers game. These machines need to fit everyone, not just those of average height. The Micra and the Mirage must suit both Rocky and Bullwinkle, and they must do so with a tiny research and development budget. It’s not an easy brief for the designers and the engineers, but a few rise to the challenge.
First up, the Micra. The 99-cent hamburger of the automotive scene, the Micra represents entry-level mobility for Canadians from an advertised $9,998. Like most deals, that price is a little too good to be true: add in freight and a few common options like an automatic transmission and air-conditioning, and the cost is more like $15,000. This particular tester, an SR fitted with everything from USB jack to backup camera, pegs the register at $18,723.
However, both Nissan and Mitsubishi offer aggressive lending rates. At time of writing, both companies will let you finance or lease your new runabout at rates less than 2 per cent for up to 60 and 84 months. The resultant monthly payments are lower than many cellphone bills.
Cudmore crams himself into the driver’s seat of the Micra, and is surprised to find he actually has half-decent head room. His legs are bent enough that he can almost adjust the volume knob with his knee, but it’s not too bad.
“The smell reminds me of rental cars we used to get on holiday in the U.K.,” he says.
Next, I set the seat for my 5-foot-11 height and Cudmore tries to cram himself in the rear seats. “Oof,” he says. “Well, I sort of fit.”
It’s time for a drive.
“The SUV feeling is hilarious,” he says from behind the wheel, “Look how tall this thing is. And I guess it drives pretty okay. There’s just the slightest, tiniest bit of sportiness here.”
He walks on the throttle and the Micra unleashes its 109-horsepower, 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine against the four-speed automatic transmission. “What a hot rod!” Cudmore laughs, “But for a city runabout, it’d do just fine. On the highway, it’d be a little too small, but I could deal with this as a rental car.”
We chat about space in bigger cars. “The Range Rover Sport was surprisingly cramped,” Cudmore says, “I had a Defender 90 before, and wanted to get into a Land Rover product again – didn’t fit. The Tacoma doesn’t work either: The roofline is so low I can’t see the traffic lights. Sunroofs can be a problem as well. It depends whether you’re long-legged or long in the torso.”
Next up, Mitsubishi’s Mirage. This version is the new G4 sedan, which boasts a bigger trunk than the Micra, albeit at the expense of a lack of folding seats. From the outside, there’s a lot of chrome going on here, up to and including superfluous fender vents.
Cudmore isn’t initially impressed. “It sort of looks like it could drive off in either direction,” he says. “The front is basically the same as the back.”
The fit up front is also a problem. “Well that’s worse,” he says. We reset the driver’s seat and he tries the rear. “A little bit more legroom,” he reports. “I guess I could make it work.”
On the road, the Mirage’s meagre 78-horsepower, 1.2-litre three-cylinder and continuously variable transmission do little to titillate Cudmore. “Oh man,” he says, as the thrashy little three groans under acceleration, “That’s not good.”
“With the Micra,” he adds, “There was just that little bit more connection to the road going on. This is just numb.”
Both these cars are at the entry-level end of the scale, but where the Micra only feels inexpensive, the Mirage is downright cheap. It’s the little things: the exposed microphone wire on the steering wheel for the Bluetooth hands-free, the 1990s-style cylinder lock on the door. The Mirage comes with chrome trimmings, alloy wheels, and an easy-to-use touchscreen infotainment to distract you from the cost-cutting elsewhere, but its penalty box roots are showing. As-equipped, it’s $19,748.
“The Micra wins it,” Cudmore says. “It’s small, but it would work just fine as a city car. I’d rather drive the Nissan – I guess I would be okay with riding in the back of the Mitsubishi for a short trip.”
I agree. Next to the slightly roly-poly Mirage, the Micra is a hoot. There’s a fair amount of go-kart infused into this little Caspian Blue billiard ball, low-tech automatic transmission or not. No wonder the Micra outsells the similarly-priced Mirage three-to-one.
However, by the end of the week, I’m prepared to offer an olive branch to Mitsubishi. The Mirage has been roundly drubbed by critics for its meagre power and sluggish driving dynamics. But when topping both up at the pump after pure stop-and-go driving, the Mirage is clearly the fuel economy champion.
Over a few days of pure city driving, the Micra hit 9.2 litres/100 km, slightly above its official rating of 8.8. The Mirage managed 7.1 litres/100 km, not far off its official stated 6.9. Get both cars out at highway speeds and the Micra’s useful hatchback becomes an aerodynamic liability, widening the gap even further.
Still, even factoring in the Mirage’s economy advantage and strong warranty, the Nissan remains atop the podium. The Micra’s cute, its interior design is well thought-out, and you can easily fold down the rear seats for a shopping run to Ikea. It is a perfectly acceptable conveyance, should you happen to be a friendly giant – no laughing, please.
We've redesigned the Drive section - take a look