The economy is tanking, your car is following suit, and taking the risk on a used car is a little too unsettling. You prefer the warm comfort of a factory-backed three-year, 36,000-mile warranty but don’t have a whole lot of coin to spend. Nissan has a solution: the Versa 1.6, the cheapest brand-spankin’-new sedan in America.
Not Even a Radio
The 1.6 is essentially a Versa with a smaller engine and almost no creature comforts. It comes in two very basic versions, the 1.6 Base and 1.6. Both are powered by a 1.6-liter inline four-cylinder with 107 hp at 6000 rpm and 111 lb-ft of torque at 4600 rpm, down 15 hp and 17 lb-ft from the 1.8 liter used in other Versas. Mated only to a five-speed manual gearbox, the 1.6 Base comes standard with six airbags, front-seat active head restraints, and a tire-pressure monitoring system for a base price of $10,685. The only options available on the Base are your choice of four exterior colors, anti-lock brakes for $250, and floor and trunk mats for $155. That’s it.
Spend an extra $1000 and upgrade from the Base car to the 1.6 trim, and you’ll get standard air conditioning and the choice of keeping the manual transmission or adding a four-speed automatic at no charge. We tested a fully loaded (!) Versa 1.6 manual with ABS and floor mats, which came to a grand total of $12,090. Music? Forget about it, since there’s no radio. The 1.6 only comes pre-wired with four speakers to accept a dealer-installed or aftermarket head unit, an addition we highly recommend—you can only talk to yourself for so long before you go nuts.
Keep Reading: 2009 Nissan Versa 1.6 Sedan - Short Take Road Test
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