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New Nissan Pulsar Officially Ready to Take on European Compacts

Nissan is one of the few automakers that hasn't seen its European sales sliced in half every year due to the economic crisis. However, while their crossovers have proven quite popular, the same can't be said about their other family cars. The new Pulsar hatchback hopes to change all that with a fresh yet strangely familiar take an the second most popular EU segment: the compact hatch.
2014 Nissan Pulsar 18 photos
Photo: Nissan
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Aimed squarely at the models like the Golf and Focus, the Pulsar adopts a familiar family face seen on Nissan Qashqais and X-Trails. We could never call this blue 5-door a pretty car, but it's comparable to any Opel Astra. The consensus around the autoevolution office is that a Kia cee'd is a little easier on the eye, but it's close.

While LED accents and big chrome surfaces do something to lift the exterior, the interior probably won't win major awards. Shiny plastic surfaces dominate and the blue dash is of questionable taste. But just like the Qashqai, everything is within reach and practical to use.

Dimensionally, the 2,700mm wheelbase jumps out from the pages of the press release. Its right up there with the Mazda3 and all the other big C-segment cars, which means the Pulsar should ride quite nicely. From bumper to bumper, the car is 4,385mm longer, a little larger than some of its rivals. We don't know the exact specs yet, but suspect the trunk space is going to target the class leaders.

Under the hood, base Pulsars will come with a 1.2 DIG-T turbo engine. This is a four-cylinder mill that's also available on the Qashqai and Juke, plus it's shared with Renault and Dacia models. Peak output is 15 hp and can be sent to the front wheels through a six-speed manual.

Starting in 2015, Nissan will also sell a much power powerful 1.6-liter DIG-T turbo with 190 hp and available with an Xtronic CVT. As for diesels, the only one available is the 1.5 dCi making 110 hp and 260 Nm of torque. It's the cleanest of the whole range and will emit only 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer.

Sales will start this fall, so Nissan is likely to brush in all the details during this year's Paris Motor Show.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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