I moved out in the country a few years ago, and we had a van before. I loved my van, but I hated the gas cost that we were having. We ended up totaling our car and had to go out and get a new one. We were looking for something affordable and good on gas and came across the car we have now. I travel at least 80 miles everyday so being good on gas was important. It makes trips very easy. Drives smoothly. We got the car from Drive Time. I was not happy with their financing but fairly pleased with the car. Soon after I got the car, I hit a deer, and it damaged the front right side pretty bad. However, the car had great control with stopping so that I was not hurt, and the damage was minimal than when I hit a deer in my van. Living in the country you really need a car that is good on road trips since it is a minimum of 15 miles to town. We hope to have this car for awhile, and I would buy a Nissan again. I like the car. It is compact but more room than many other compact that I have driven in. My legs are not crunched up, and I have head room. The controls are easy to learn and manage for setting cruise control and the radio. Wipers work well. I personally like having to roll the windows up and down manually because in my other car the motor went out and we were not able to roll the windows down at all so this works for me. I wish I had got the hatchback and not the trunk.

When shopping for a car for my girlfriend, we decided it would need to be a no-frills affair. Working A/C, four doors, enough room to haul things around, and an automatic transmission. After reviewing our options, we settled on the Nissan Versa hatchback. We bought it certified pre-owned, and for the most part, the condition was good (minus the A/C adjustment knobs, which had a weird pattern on them from someone placing stickers on). After nearly four years of ownership, material quality has degraded massively. The interior paneling and seats are marred at the slightest wrong look, and the clunk of the door panels closing gets more and more tinny as time passes. Exterior quality is the same. There is no body protection whatsoever, so any minor incident will result in your car baring that damage unless fixed or replaced. The A/C compressor has leaked twice causing us thousands of dollars in repair, with the common observation being that the leaks were unrelated. Google searches confirm this is a common problem in Nissan vehicles. Overall, I would not purchase a Nissan again unless it was a more premium trim level and newer model. Never a Versa, ever again.