Driven: 2021 Nissan Kicks SR

 

I'd wanted to drive a Nissan Kicks since they first debuted in 2018, but never got around to getting one for a press loan until just last week. So does the Kicks kick out the fun? Does it kick butt? Does it have pumped up kicks? I'll stop. You're welcome. 

2016 Honda HR-V EX-L NAVI: The Introverted Subcompact CUV

The HR-V is a bit of an introvert. It's got AWD capability, it's comfortable, and it's solidly built. But it just doesn't say much. You're at the school dance and there's that guy/gal sitting down who is smart, moderately attractive, but just doesn't seem to have much of a personality—that's the HR-V.

To put it in more automotive terms, if the Jeep Renegade Trailhawk is on one side of the subcompact CUV spectrum (the extrovert and rugged off-road type), and the Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring is on the other side of the spectrum (a smooth, edgy on-road handler), the Honda HR-V is pretty much in the middle. In other words, it's not something you'd necessarily want to flog off the pavement, and isn't the one you'd want at the autocross. The HR-V, which is based on the subcompact Fit chassis, is essentially an AWD Fit—complete with Honda's Magic Seats—but with a softer suspension and more power. It is, perhaps, the Goldilocks of the group, which resides in the middle of the subcompact CUV personality spectrum.

December 2015 Subcompact Car Sales and Reflections on the 2015 Small Car Market

By Andy Lilienthal

With falling gas prices throughout 2015, small car sales didn't post up the big numbers they have in the past. That being said, there were winners and losers.

Starting with December itself, the biggest increase in sales vs. Dec. 2014 was the Buick Encore which sold more than double the amount of cars it did last year at this time. Mazda's hot-selling Miata continues to post positive year over year gains, and BMW's electrified i3 sold a healthy 40.4% more cars than Dec. '14.

In the loser category for December, the generally unpopular Fiat 500L was down 79%, followed by the Toyota Yaris, and MINI Paceman. I can't speak for the 500L or the Paceman, but I know the Yaris was in very short supply in the latter months of '15.

2015 SUBCOMPACT CAR SALES AS A WHOLE
So which small model sold the most units total this year? That honor goes to the Kia Soul, which moved a whopping 147,113 units, outselling the Nissan Versa by just 2,585 units. A distant third goes to the Buick Encore, which moved 67,549 units.

The slowest sellers? Well the slothiest goes to the MINI Paceman which managed to move just 1,708 units all year. The Honda CR-Z and MINI Cooper /S Convertible round out the bottom three.

Another interesting foot note is that Mitsubishi proved it can also sell a small car, as the rebounding Japanese brand sold a healthy 21,515 units, making it the company's second best selling vehicle after the Outlander Sport. Taking a page out of the Chevy Spark playbook, the miniature Mirage offers four doors, great fuel economy, and popular tech bits. It is still rather Spartan. It's also very inexpensive. The Spark, by the way, was down 16.2% for the year.

However, where some of the cars slowed down in sales, the subcompact crossover segment more than made up for it.

2015: THE YEAR OF THE SUBCOMPACT CROSSOVER
Next time people say U.S. buyers don't like small cars, point them to this blog post. American's love small cars—as long as they're labeled as crossovers and have available AWD.

Case in point? The aforementioned Buick Encore's 67,549 units sold this year. And guess what? Its twin, the Chevy Trax, moved another 63,030 units. As predicted, Jeep's Renegade is killing it thus far and has sold 60,946 models in nine months. Honda's HR-V has sold nearly 42,000 units, too.

If you add in sales of all the subcompact crossovers sold this year (500X, Countryman, CX-3, Encore, HR-V, Juke, Renegade, and Trax), it amounts to more than 293,000 units sold. And if you include the fairly small Subaru Crosstrek, which sold 89,000 on its own, you get more than 382,000 small crossovers sold in 2015. Yes, the subcompact crossover market was smokin' hot in 2015, and I'll be this trend soldiers on into 2016, too.

Make/Model	% Dec. '15 vs. '14	Units Dec. '15	% YTD Dec. '15 vs. Dec. '14	Units YTD
Buick Encore	109.5	6498	38.2	67549
Mazda MX-5 Miata	86.8	706	81.1	8591
BMW i3	40.4	1422	81.0	11024
Chevrolet Sonic	33.7	7293	-30.7	64775
Huyndai Veloster	33.3	2246	-12.1	24245
Honda CR-Z	31.0	316	-13.7	3073
Kia Soul	22.7	12159	1.2	147113
Nisssan Versa	21.1	11058	3.4	144528
MINI Cooper /S Hardtop 4 DR	12.0	1247	1026.8	15189
Mitsubishi Mirage	11.2	1262	28.8	21515
MINI Cooper Countryman	10.7	2148	-26.3	16686
Ford Fiesta	-4.7	3550	2.0	64458
Toyota Prius c	-6.4	2861	-5.4	38484
Nissan Juke	-9.1	1958	-29.0	27121
Smart ForTwo	-31.2	669	-28.4	7484
MINI Cooper /S Convertible	-32.9	147	-12.4	3098
Honda Fit	-34.9	4197	-11.1	52724
Fiat 500	-35.0	1510	-26.0	25084
Kia Rio	-48.2	997	-33.9	23742
Chevrolet Spark	-55.4	1340	-16.2	32809
Hyundai Accent	-68.3	2718	-2.9	61486
MINI Cooper /S Hardtop 2 DR	-68.8	956	-8.0	19778
MINI Paceman	-70.5	38	-18.0	1708
Toyota Yaris	-76.5	377	26.4	16779
Fiat 500L	-79.0	308	-37.0	7863
Jeep Renegade	0	8975	0	60946
Chevrolet Trax	0	5323	0	63030
Honda HR-V	0	4737	0	41969
Fiat 500X	0	1996	0	9463
Scion iA	0	1808	0	7605
Mazda CX-3	0	1663	0	6406

Review: 2016 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring

By Scott Araujo

The CX-3 is Mazda's entry in the compact crossover/cute-ute market. It's based on the Mazda2 but with a bigger motor and available all wheel drive. We got a Grand Touring model with AWD in Soul Red Metallic with parchment interior. And at an MSRP of $29,540 delivered, it's loaded to the gills with options.

Here's my own 2014 Mazda3 next to the CX-3.

The Kodo "soul of motion" design ethos is readily apparent in the body lines, it really looks great in red. The flow is a bit more compressed than on my 2014 Mazda3 since the car is shorter but it still looks sleek and has a unique look. It's obvious at first sight that the car is raised a bit and the fender flares give it a nice burly edge. The gray rocker panels with bright accent strips are also a nice touch. The 18" aluminum wheels are a mix of graphite gray metallic paint and machined aluminum face. Overall the car's styling is striking, especially for the lowest end model Mazda has in the U.S.

Review: 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk

By Mercedes Lilienthal

We were really excited to test the 2015 Jeep Renegade Sport earlier this year, and got even more excited when we recently had the chance to review another one, this time, the top-of-the-line, off-road ready 2015 Renegade Trailhawk.

Wrapped in Anvil gray paint and boasting the MySky power retractable and removable roof (vs. the non-power version we had in the Sport), this optioned-up Trailhawk Jeep comes equipped with just about everything an off-road enthusiast would want (and need) for light to moderate off-pavement adventuring. This rig offers up skid plates galore, 0.8-inches more ground clearance than the Sport model (total of 8.7" if clearance), 17-inch aluminum wheels wrapped in 215/65R17 all-terrain tires, front and rear tow hooks, and a selectable Selec-Terrain AWD system with Rock Mode and 4WD Lock, which locks the center differential—a nice feature on AWD vehicles.

The Selec-Terrain system is pretty slick. It allows the driver to manually change the handling for different types of terrain and weather. Snow, sand, mud, and rock settings help the vehicle navigate tricky turf. Simply turn the knob to the desired setting and motor on. The mode you're in will display between the tachometer and speedometer on the dashboard, too. Add to that a host of safety features like a bunch of front and side-mounted airbags, four-wheel disc brakes with ABS, electronic stability and roll mitigation control, hill start and descent control, and all-speed traction control; you are pretty prepped for outdoor fun.

Small Cars, Big Prices: Why is the Subcompact Crossover Market So Hot and Why are They so Expensive?

By Michael Rentfro

Let me remind you all that I live smack dab in the middle of Heartland USA. There are no mountains within a day’s journey, unless you count the triple-decker on-ramp that crosses the Mississippi River into Illinois. There are no beaches you can drive on without being thrown in Army Corps of Engineers jail, and there are no curvy roads of any sort, unless you count the state highway they had to build around Cletus’s farm because he “simply would not sign that there piece of paper them big city muckey mucks threatened him with.” Our roads are straight and flat, and most of our first cars are funded by walking beans, bailing hay, detasseling corn (a practice so strange to city dwellers, MS Word swears it’s misspelled!), or simply passed down from generation to generation. It’s a very simple life, but we often find ourselves behind in the times when it comes to embracing change. This is why it’s so strange to me to see countless Jeep Renegades and Chevy Traxs (exactly what is the plural of Trax?) cruising our laser-straight highways here in the heartland. Even here, the subcompact crossover market seems to be exploding.