Used Japanese Nissan Teana Review

Nissan Teana 2.5 review

From the outside, the Nissan Teana may look like a regular boring car to some, but as soon as we entered the car, we could feel the luxury and comfort that Nissan built the car for.

The seats are incredibly comfortable, upholstered in black leather, reflecting exclusivity and luxury, with the black interior whispering of power.

They're also suitable for pregnant women, as the seats provide good support for their backs, and are soft and comfortable enough for them to sit for long periods at a time.

The eight-way adjustable driver's seat enables the driver to adjust the seat to the most comfortable position for driving, be it a short ride or a long distance drive, giving optimum comfort when combined with the luxurious material.

Add this to the seat memory function, and Nissan has incorporated the almost perfect driver's seat in the Teana.

With the seat memory function, the owner can set his or her preferred seat setting - two settings can be stored at a time - so no matter who drives it and changes the seat position, the owner can reset it to his own comfortable position with the touch of a button.

The foot operated parking brake, however, took some getting used to, as we kept forgetting that the handbrake wasn't where it should be, instead positioned where a clutch would normally be in a manual car.

Even after releasing it we would find ourselves reaching for the handbrake that wasn't there.

One good thing about having the parking brake at your feet instead is that the arrangement frees up more space in the middle for cup holders, as well as another small compartment for little things like your Touch n' Go, Smart Tag, phones, or for the smokers, your cigarettes and lighters.

Before driving off, we paired the car's Bluetooth to our phone and tested it out.

The sound quality was quite good, and after connecting the phone to the car you don't even have to take it out of your pocket or bag as you can dial using the display, and also access your phone contacts if you have synced the information with the car.

It will also connect to your phone automatically once paired, so as long as your phone is in the car with the Bluetooth on there is no need to even touch the phone.
When driving the car, all we could think of was how wonderful the car was to drive.

The engine was almost silent, the handling was beautiful, the seats were comfortable and the speed was, in a word, "wow".

With this car, it was too easy to go above the highway speed limit without even realising it until we looked at the speedometer and saw how fast we were actually going and slowed down the car.

It was actually harder to keep the speed down than it was to get it up to speed, as it was such a dream to handle.

Driving at 60km/h, we felt like we were moving very slowly, and when driving at the highway speed limit, the feeling was the same as if we were going at only 70-80km/h in our personal car.

However, we found that if we drove slowly, the engine would sound quite rough, but after we reached a higher speed it would smoothen out.

The blind spot warning (BSW) radar system was extremely useful, as every time the driver signals to change lanes or make a turn, the radar would detect any vehicles in the driver's blind spot, and it would beep to notify the driver while the BSW indicator on the side with the passing vehicle would flash.

The indicator would also flash without beeping when detecting a vehicle if the driver is driving straight, but it will only beep if the driver signals to turn.

The luxurious feel of the leather-wrapped steering wheel enhanced the driving experience, enabling the driver to comfortably grip the steering wheel while making turns.

When cornering we found it to have slight body roll, but it wasn't noticeable enough to bother us.

We tried out the TCAT Multimedia Navigator, and we found it to be a very good, user-friendly system.

The instructions were clear, and the map on the display really illustrated the route clearly so directions would be easy to follow.

On a road with several lanes, the display would show arrows for each lane's direction, and the road that must be followed would be shown in orange so the driver would know exactly which lane to follow, and it would also beep when nearing the junction we should take.

An interesting feature of the navigation system is that it would automatically detect the speed limit of the particular road we were driving on and would warn us if we went over the limit.

This would be very useful for the truly law-abiding citizens, but if you go even one km/h above the limit it would be information overload, as the driver would have to deal with the beeping of the warning, the blind-spot assist, as well as the voice and warnings from the navigation system so we turned it off for our own peace of mind.

The Xenon headlights minimised the risk of crashing in low visibility conditions, providing long range illumination even when it was raining heavily.

The driver can also choose to switch it on and off manually, or turn it to auto, where it will turn itself on when it's dark and off when it's bright.

It takes a few minutes for the headlights to switch off after turning off the engines though, and at first we wondered if it worked.

However, we weren't sure if it was a fault in the mechanism or if the headlights were extra sensitive; when driving along at night, the headlights would flash on and off as it passed through a stretch lit sparsely with streetlamps.

The one thing that was a turn-off for us was that the car consumes quite a lot of fuel.

The claimed fuel consumption is 9.5L/100km, but the best we could do was around 10.5L/100km.

Our conclusion on this car is that it is good as a family car if you have a small family, but due to the comparatively high fuel consumption it might not be an ideal choice for singles.

That being said, it is a wonderful car to drive, so if you don't really mind spending a little extra on fuel, the Nissan Teana would be a good choice.

Specification of Nissan Teana 2.5L V6 Premium
Engine: 2496cc, V6 DOHC 24-valve with CVTC
Max power: 179.7hp (134kW) @ 6000rpm
Max torque: 228Nm @ 4400rpm
Transmission: XTRONIC CVT
Acceleration (0 - 100km/h): 10.7seconds
Top speed: 200km/h
Fuel consumption (combined): 9.5L/100km
Safety features: blind spot warning radar system, four airbags, vehicle dynamic control (VDC) with traction control, anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic brake-force distribution (EBD), brake assist (BA), active head restraints, immobiliser, child seat retainer, rear seatbelts 3 points x 3, pre-tensioner and load limiter seatbelts
Price: RM173,100 OTR with insurance