New 2014 Nissan Sunny Facelift Review: Shimmering Anew

The Nissan Sunny, upon its launch in India, grabbed attention by virtue of its generous back seat legroom and a good choice of diesel and petrol engines. Nissan later introduced the efficient Xtronic CVT on the petrol powered variant to offer a practical alternative to those who preferred the convenience of an automatic transmission. For the initial part of its lifecycle, the globally acclaimed model sold pretty well too. Blame it, however, on the relative newness of Nissan as an automobile brand in India, the lack of a robust sales and service network, or inefficiency of an external marketing partner in Hover (which Nissan have duly distanced themselves from) the popularity and sales of the very promising Sunny didn’t quite live up to its initial promise.

Being a globally renowned, revered and respected brand, however, Nissan has pulled up its socks and has now presented the mid-term facelift of the Sunny with enhanced exterior, more features and hopefully more value (price announcement due) to the customer. In its 2014 variant, the Sunny has undergone many changes, both cosmetic and feature related. While the brand new grille, a liberal splattering of chrome, new headlamps and snazzy new wheels are evident changes, there are some finer details too which may go unnoticed. So let’s have a detailed look at the shiny new Sunny in this exhaustive review

Exterior

The most apparent change made to the Sunny’s fascia is the introduction of the new boomerang shaped headlamps, conforming to Nissan’s new global design philosophy. You’ll see a similar treatment meted out to the headlamps of all Nissan vehicles of this generation. As mentioned to us by Nissan global design head Shiro Nakamura in an exclusive interview during the 2014 Auto Expo, the shape of the new headlamps is an effort by the design guys at Nissan to lend all Nissan vehicles an identifiable family look. Without any doubt, the new headlamps look sportier and bestow the Sunny’s face with a sharper look as compared to its predecessor.

Indians have a thing for big radiator grilles and chrome, and keeping their taste in mind, Nissan have lent the new Sunny a big, wide grille lined generously with chrome. The bumper is new, too, with chrome lined lower lip on the central air dam. The housings for the fog lamp units, too, have been given some chrome treatment at the lower portion.

Moving on to the profile, the 12 spoke wheels are brand new; featuring what Nissan prefers calling ‘Y shaped design’. The ORVM now features integrated turn signals and two tone treatment with a combination of body color and black.

The new Sunny continues to showcase its new embellishments at the rear as well. Something that would miss most people’s eyes is the new design of the antenna which is now shorter. More apparent changes include a new chrome garnish over the license plant and a brand new rear bumper. The rear bumper, apart from featuring a new, more aggressive wing like shape, also has a contrasting and slightly flared black insert for a sportier look.

The Sunny, with its long wheelbase and enormous legroom at the back has always looked slightly elongated in profile. While the new changes cannot entirely correct the slightly imperfect proportions, they do work tremendously towards offering more zing and appeal to key exterior areas of the car. It looks more premium than the outgoing model, and should appeal more to the prospective buyers.

One little thing that you have to keep in mind, though, is that the chrome draped bumper, fog lamp housings and rear garnish is available only with the higher spec variants, with body color replacing the chrome treatment on lower spec variants.

Next page for cabin and features>>>