I currently share this car with my mum, I couldn't quite understand why she got this over a normal supermini like the 207 and the new Clio. But i'm beginning to see why and I thought I'd share my views on here!
The biggest plus for us is the size of the boot, for a car of this size, its very good indeed, extends into the floor and obviously increases with the seats slid forward. We have two medium sized dogs and they fit in perfectly with the seats as far forward as possible. And then when we don't use the boot, the rear seats go really far back making plenty of room for passengers in the back.
We aren't really keen drivers but the engine is reasonable and tolerable for this type of car, it is very quiet and manages to pull its load very well. We also find it a very easy car to drive. I've been told that the 'drive' isn't quite as good as smaller rivals but that it is still capable of going fast if you want to, admittedly, we bought it for space rather than performance.
I struggled to see the point of this over other slightly smaller superminis but as usual, mum was right! It is a genuinley good car, very easy to live with and hasn't caused us any hassle so far.
Obviously it isn't a sports car so I have marked the performance as medium, and the 'handling' I took a while to get used to because it was much bigger than my previous car (a Micra), although it has little beepers that tell you when you're getting close to things when you're parking so that really made a big difference, made it a much easier car to drive. It's very easy to turn around as well, does so in quite small spaces. I'm very impressed with how far it goes on a full tank. I think I can barely tell the difference between this and my old Micra in that sense.
The thing I like most about it is that it feels so safe with my children in the back. The Note is obviously a lot taller than my old Micra so I get to feel like I won't be crushed by passing trucks! And it also feels very sturdy and stable. It's got airbags and good seatbelts and all that sort of thing.
Apart from being high up from the road, It's also really very tall inside. My husband is 6.4 and this is one of the reasons we got the car. We needed something economical, and it is certainly economical, but he was also getting really tired of having to be reclined so far in the Micra all the time, and our kids are getting a bit too big for him to be reclined into their laps! The Note really fixed that problem completely. I also liked the fact that the centre seat in the back has a proper seat belt, not one of those silly ones that only goes across the hips. I was always worried about that with my kids back there.
There's plenty of little luxuries inside too which I really wasn't used to when we got it. It's got a built in GPS with a nice colour display. I have to say though, it can be a bit difficult to be looking down to the panel for directions, I think really I might prefer a normal one that was on the windscreen. My eldest son is also very impressed that he can plug his ipod into the stereo! The dashboard is a useful space for putting things, they don't fall off it easily as it's got a sort of lip to stop things falling off.
I said the car is big inside. Well they also made loads of great little storage spaces around the place too. The glove box is really huge! I mean you can fit the whole family's lunches in there. Also my husband often travels around with merchandise and he's started to use our car when his little van isn't available. When the back seats are popped down he can really fill it up.
I should mention I've had some quite small repairs need doing. The door lock messed after a few years and needed doing.