Company Car Review of the Nissan Pulsar 1.5 dCi 110 Tekna
What is it?
THE Nissan Pulsar represents Nissan’s return to the traditional five-door small-family hatchback sector, the brutally competitive part of the market ruled by the Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra and Volkswagen Golf.
At first glance it’s an entirely inoffensive proposition, with sharp lines that are unmistakably Nissan, from the v-grille at the front, through bold creases along the sides and on to the boomerang style lights at the rear, but there’s nothing there to really catch your eye.
Inside there’s high quality materials that are bolted together perfectly, with a centre console appearing to float in front of the main dashboard. That console houses the touch screen that allows access to an almost overwhelming array of technologies, including Nissan’s so-called Safety Shield.
Safety Shield combines lane departure and blind spot warnings with moving object detection, which warns a driver about pedestrians or animals that may not be visible. There’s also the 360-degree Around View monitor and NissanConnect that integrates with smartphones and offers full satellite navigation.
What’s not visible from the outside, is the space available inside. Despite being just 4.39m long, sitting somewhere between a Focus and an Astra, the Pulsar boasts incredible amounts of room for its occupants. With the longest wheelbase in its class, there’s 692mm of leg room in the back seats, beating all of its sector rivals and shaming many from the larger cars a class above.
Front passengers also benefit from increased shoulder and elbow room, while the concave dashboard creating the illusion of even more space, making it a particularly pleasant environment to spend time in,
Boot space is good too, with 385 litres available. Fold down the rear seats and that increases to 1,395 litres.
The Pulsar is available at launch with a 1.2-litre petrol and 1.5-litre diesel engine, both turbocharged, producing 115PS and 110PS respectively. While the petrol model accelerates to 60mph in 10.7 seconds, it pumps out 117g/km of CO2. The more business-friendly diesel emits just 94g/km of CO2, bringing the BIK company car tax burden down as low as 14%.
