The Magnite is the sole breadwinner for Nissan in India, and the carmaker sells over 2,000 units of the sub-compact SUV every month. I’ve been driving the Magnite over a span of a few weeks, and here are five of my observations about and around the car.
The suspension setup on the Magnite absorbs most undulations inside the city, and while it does transfer some of the movement to the cabin, it does not feel as harsh and ride quality remains pleasant. Higher speeds make the car feel like it is losing its ground a bit, but it is still manageable.
The Magnite isn’t the most enthusiastic of the lot, owing to its smaller engines and a slow AMT. The turbo-petrol with the CVT would be my pick of the bunch though, as it is the smoothest of all the available options and is also better in performance than the NA-petrol AMT. It is more of a practical car than an enthusiast’s car.
While I drove the pre-facelift model for the most part, which did not have a very likeable interior feel, the facelifted model gets softer materials inside the cabin that give it a more premium feel. The quality levels of the knobs and other physical controls do have a significant scope of improvement.
Given the price bracket that the Magnite sits in, it offers a good bunch of features such as wireless connectivity for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a 360-degree camera setup (one of the better ones in the market), cruise control, six airbags, ISOFIX mounts, Arkamys-tuned sound system (it’s good!), LED headlamps, and more.
While the ride quality does its part in making the in-cabin experience pleasant, the subpar NVH and refinement levels sour the experience, and things do not seem to have improved a lot even with the facelift. All-in-all, the Magnite is a good car for the price that it demands, but it does have some key areas that could be worked upon to make it an even more appealing package.