Nissan Pulsar Tekna Review - Great Move From Nissan

Driven: Nissan Pulsar Tekna 2015 Review

Here are Motor Verso’s thoughts on the Nissan Pulsar Tekna after a brief test.

What Is The Nissan Pulsar Tekna All About?

The Nissan Pulsar is the company’s strike back at the family hatchback market looking to compete with cars like the Peugeot 308, Ford Focus and even the VW Golf.

The car we are testing is the top of the range Tekna model using the ultra-efficient 1.5-litre diesel engine. The Tekna trim provides lots of premium features such as a leather interior, reversing camera, 5.8-inch infotainment touchscreen with sat-nav, DAB radio and Bluetooth integration. On the outside the real give away signs are the 17-inch alloy wheels and ultra-bright LED headlights, all in all creating a highly equipped car.

The Pulsar is powered by a 1.5-litre turbo-diesel engine, which creates 110bhp and 260Nm of torque. This power goes through a 6-speed manual gearbox getting the car from 0-60mph in 11.5 seconds and doing a top speed of 115mph. The most outstanding statistic about this car is that Nissan say it will do a combined economy figure of 78.5mpg, whilst only creating 94g/km of CO2. Not bad at all!

How Does It Drive?

The first driving impression that you get from the Pulsar is one of simple comforts; the car is light and easy to manoeuvre and you can feel the tyres and suspension soaking up all the rockiness of the roads. A great start for any car looking to compete in the family market.

After a while you notice that the 1.5-litre diesel engine with 110bhp is quite a good fit for the car. Of course, it isn’t enough to make the drive a thrill, but your rewards come with that huge mpg figure of 78mpg combined and very low CO2 emissions meaning that you get to skip the road tax cost which always feels good. The Pulsar is no slug though; the car has 260Nm of torque that is available from only 1,750rpm meaning that making a quick exit from the lights is still possible.

The power goes through a 6-speed manual gearbox which works well with the engine torque. The major benefit comes in on the motorway though, having that 6^th gear keeping the revs low, decreasing the engine noise and vibration, making the cabin a nice place to be.

You don’t get much feedback to the driver through the steering wheel due to the light steering, however the benefits to this is that lock-to-lock driving for things such as parking the car is relatively easy.

What Is It Like Inside?

If I had to predict what the main reason would be for people to buy the Pulsar, the interior is likely to be it. The cabin area feels very spacious and is a pleasant space to be in. It does have its downfalls with a couple of selections of cheap plastics, but certainly not enough to dampen the entire experience.

The overall interior design is easy to understand and easy to use which will please a lot of people. There are also quite a lot of different storage areas in the car which is a big benefit when looking at family cars. Finally, the boot space is better than most of its competitors, at 360-litres with the seats up and 1,395-litres with them down.

The infotainment system in the Pulsar is relatively easy to use and has all the functionality that you would ask for from this type of car. But the technology doesn’t stop there, as the car also has tyre pressure monitoring, forward emergency braking, blind spot monitoring and lane departure warning systems. All that makes the driving experience a lot safer.

The Experience

The experience of using the Pulsar in Tekna trim feels very comfortable and capable, the car has everything you would need in a family car and the cabin space inside leaves you feeling relaxed and would be great for long journeys.

Verdict

The return of the Pulsar is a great move from Nissan, it is good to see a return in this area of the market and the car is very capable. With the looks and performance aside the car is highly efficient and very well equipped. If you can justify the original purchase then the running cost of the Nissan after that is likely to be very low.