Nissan upgraded the Note last year to give a car that has a more modern and rounded styling. It looks wider than the older model and has some more safety features.

The Note is seen as a competitor for the likes of the popular Ford Fiesta, Toyota Yaris and Volkswagen Polo. These are the cars that I looked at when comparing the Note. This Nissan offering is designed to be a small and compact car where diesel power is probably not an issue. There is one diesel Note option available, powered by a 1.5-litre Renault diesel, but for many drivers in the segment of the market, petrol power is more than adequate and more economical than in the past.

Many of the current generation of smaller cars with 1.2- to 1.3- litre petrol engines are up to 15% more economical than they were five years ago. The engine sizes are dropping and more are offering a three cylinder engine in place of previous four in their drive to achieve greater economy. And the Note is just one of those new smaller engine cars.

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While the new Note is modern looking, the engine is a new 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol unit that lets it down a little. The acceleration is slower than an average of 20 cars that I’ve compared it with. It was the way that the engine behaved in terms of noise and a feeling of a lack of strength that I was less impressed about.

The engine torque at 110Nm is not much better or worse than some of the competition; it just made it feel too light to drive and to accelerate for comfort. That aside, if you are doing short runs, this is an easy car to drive, especially if you don’t intend to push it to the limits.

The five-speed gearbox is easy and light. The steering is even lighter and clunks to a stop at full lock very easily. On paper, the new three-cylinder petrol engine is one of the most economical cars in its category. I did some winter driving across Cavan and Longford and found the rated figure of 21.3km/litre (4.7l/100km or 60 mpg) difficult to achieve. My return was over 20% poorer as I was driving in poor weather conditions and across of mix of roads. That’s still too much of an economy difference, as my rural driving route meant that I had little opportunity to use the car’s smooth stop-start system. The fuel tank is modest at 41 litres, meaning that I should get less than 600km from a full tank. And that was close to my experience.

On the safety side, this new Nissan Note has six airbags and a host of new features. Nissan is making lots of noise about the new Safety Shield system which links three systems (Blind Spot Warning, Lane Departure Warning and Moving Object Detection) to create a protection and driver assistance package. This package is not offered on the basic model. That’s probably the reason why this new Note achieved only four stars in its recent Euro NCAP crash test. Most other cars in this group have a five-star rating, and that’s what you expect.

The Note is offered as a small family car with space and flexibility. And it does so to some extent. The rear seats can slide to give more legroom in place of a larger boot. The boot comes with a flexible shelf that allows you to vary the storage areas. There’s a deep well in the bottom for storage, but I would prefer to see a spare wheel in there rather than a bottle of water.

The entry price for the Note is €15,995 (£11,900 in NI). That’s more competitive than the Fiesta and Yaris but not the equivalent Polo. The entry XE comes with six airbags, cruise control, central locking, 15in steel wheels, electric front windows and door mirrors, tyre pressure monitoring system, ecometer and stop-start system.

You have to go up a grade to the SV version, and that’s another €1,000, to get Bluetooth phone connection, among other things, which should be standard for safety reasons. That’s why apart from the disappointing economy, I think that the Note needs lift its offer octave to a better deal. CL

Nissan Note

Engine 1.2L petrol

Engine power 80bhp

0-100km/hr 13.7 seconds

Economy 21.3km/litre

Fuel tank 41 litres

CO2 emissions 109g/km

Road tax band A3 (€190)

Service interval 20,000km

Euro NCAP rating Four stars

Warranty Three years

Entry price €15,995

NI price £11,900