No doubt that the Magnite is well-priced for what it offers. This AMT variant is a lot of car for the money. That being said, you do feel the cost-cutting in many areas and the Magnite does feel cheap.
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Drove the Nissan Magnite AMT (XV Premium variant) over the weekend and here are my observations:
- The Magnite does look good and its styling is definitely a draw for the monthly ~2,500 customers who buy the car.
- The Nissan crossover has something that left us pleasantly surprised – a 4-star GNCAP rating! (Related Thread).
- Must say, the Magnite 1.0L NA has an extremely powerful air-con. I started the car at around 1.30 in the afternoon of peak Mumbai summer and the AC cooled the car very quickly.
- For a budget car, the speakers are of pretty decent quality. Something for Maruti, Mahindra and Honda to learn from Nissan. This is a stock ICE system, but the speakers aren’t bad keeping the car’s price in mind.
- Here’s a small usability failure – The Magnite gets cheap 1980s-style stalks on the door for locking / unlocking. In an ideal world, you would never have to use them, but this car doesn’t have auto-locking when you start driving or auto-unlocking when you switch off the car. So, when you pull on the door handle, after parking, ideally the door should be unlocked, but it’s not. You first have to pull the ugly stalk up and then, pull on the door handle to open the door.
- Fire the engine up, and especially when cold, it’s not a refined experience. You can feel the typical 3-cylinder vibrations in the cabin.
- What’s more irritating is that on full steering lock, when I was moving out of the parking spot, there was a very strange vibration coming from the front end of the car. At least this was the case with our test car. Only when the steering was fully turned, I noticed this vibration a couple of times. Once on the move, at regular steering angles, there was no such issue.
- Like with most AMTs, this Magnite is best driven with light to medium throttle inputs. Enjoy the fact that there’s no clutch and you aren’t rowing through the gears. You should not try driving aggressively or with a heavy foot because you will just end up getting frustrated. The engine gets noisy, you notice the lag of the AMT gearbox and the delays in shifts. This is no torque converter or a DSG. You bought the AMT purely for price + convenience, so enjoy it as a commuter in the city.
- Even in Automatics, I like knowing what gear I am in. So I appreciate this aspect of AMTs where the display on the console shows you the current gear.
- Suspension is compliant, but there is a firm edge to it. It’s not a soft / floaty suspension at all. Regardless, it is compliant within the city and I don’t see owners complaining about this aspect.
- I dropped the tyre pressure to 31 PSI. It still had a firm edge to it, but on most roads, it was more liveable. But yes, you feel the bad roads.
- Steering is just the right size, thick enough and super light to use in the city.
- No doubt that the Magnite is well-priced for what it offers. This AMT variant is a lot of car for the money.
- That being said, you do feel the cost-cutting in many areas and the Magnite does feel cheap. This isn’t a car you’ll be bragging about, or one that’s high on the feel good factor (like say, a Sonet or Nexon Facelift).
- The variant to buy on the Magnite though is the 1.0L turbo petrol with the CVT. This 1.0L NA + AMT isn’t appealing at all, and the only buyers who’ll go for this are the ones who can’t stretch their budget. But if you can, that turbo petrol and CVT option is far superior and the one of choice. It’s worth the premium. Moreover, it is a USP for the Magnite / Kiger CVT in a segment that has many jerky AMTs.
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