Payne: Nissan Kicks reboots with delightful, subcompact ‘bot

Posted by Talbot Payne on October 11, 2024

The 2025 Nissan Kicks remakes its looks with chunky, sci-fi styling.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Farmington Hills — Hollywood’s delightful “Wild Robot” movie has hit theaters starring the ROZZUM unit 7134 and its endless standard features: Safe Mode, extendable arms, video scanner, remote hand.

Nissan has its own clever robot — call it the 2025 Kicks SUV — hitting showrooms this fall, and it’s loaded with standard stuff, too.

Standard adaptive cruise control, blind-spot assist, auto high beams, rear cross-traffic alert, automatic emergency braking. All-wheel drive is available for another 1,650 bucks. The ‘25 Kicks is a major upgrade over the last-gen robot — er, SUV — and stands out on a shelf full of clever B-segment, entry-level subcompacts. Think the stylish Chevy Trax, sporty Mazda CX-30, quirky Kia Soul and sci-fi Hyundai Kona — all compelling personalities that introduce buyers to their respective brands.

The 2025 Nissan Kicks brings an all-new front end that largely does away with the V-Motion grille.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News

The Kicks conjures its own inner robot with a bold, fun design that would fit right in on the Hasbro toy car shelf (Nissan says the design was inspired by a football helmet). My SVR tester features a floating, two-toned roof atop brawny fenders stuffed with oversized 19-inch wheels with shard-like spokes. The Kicks robot’s face is less round “ROZZUM” and more “Robot-from Lost in Space” with its ribbed grille and LED running lights.

Danger, Will Robinson!

My Kicks automatically slowed on a tight Oakland County road — sensing the vehicle train in front of us. I was momentarily distracted by my Google Maps directions, but adaptive cruise control (backed up by emergency braking) did its job and saw the slowdown before I did. Ah, the modern car — you gotta’ have electronics to save you from the electronics.

The Chevy Trax was one of my three finalists for 2024 Detroit News Vehicle of the Year for its fetching looks and loaded features list. At a time when GM was rolling out entry-level electric vehicles at $40K, it was nice to see the Chevy brand sticking to its value roots with a $21K subcompact.

Nissan, too, is a value brand, and the Kicks cutie is proof the Japanese brand hasn’t been distracted from its core task even as it rolled out its own pricey EV, the $45K Ariya. My $25K Kicks droid featured all-wheel drive (it’s the cheapest AWD vehicle in the market, by the way) for Michigan winters like Ariya. Yet Kicks will get 434 miles of range compared to the EV’s, ahem, 214.

The 2025 Nissan Kicks offers wireless phone apps so that you can run Spotify, Sirius AM, Google Maps, and other apps on the center display.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Kicks’ sci-fi ambitions extend to the interior.

Like Ariya, Kicks gets a high-tech hoodless screen stretching across the dash. Hoodless screen? This wondrous creation first appeared on a production car at the fall 2019 reveal of the $190,000 Porsche Taycan Turbo S Niagara Falls. The clouds parted. Angels sang. Jaws dropped.

Five years later and (yawn) here’s a hoodless digital screen draped across the dash of a $20K Nissan. Tech is moving fast. The Kicks’ 2.0-liter, inline-4 cylinder? Not so much.

While an improvement over the outgoing model’s 1.6-liter egg-beater, the new engine is a tool to get you from Point A to B. There’s been no hanky-panky between the Kicks and Nissan’s Z sportscar, I’m afraid. No athletic DNA here.

The 2025 Nissan Kicks steps up with a more powerful, 141-horsepower, 2.0-liter engine.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Which, frankly, didn’t matter during my Metro Detroit commute. With all that robot safety tech at my fingertips, I kept the Nissan in Adaptive Cruise Control most of the time to behave through small towns like Farmington Hills, Walled Lake and Wixom. If you choose my SR-trim tester, you’ll get Pro Pilot, which is Nissan’s advanced ACC system featuring lane centering.

When I hit I-696, I set Pro Pilot to 80 mph and cruised through midday traffic while tuning into (more electronics distractions!) Sirius XM on my phone. Yes, my phone.

Increasingly, automakers are surrendering to phones, given their superior Google Maps, generational tech upgrades and apps. Apps like Sirius XM, for which I pay $10 a month and can take into any car I drive that has Android Auto. Kicks’ steering wheel is easy to navigate without taking your eyes off the road. A left scroll wheel allowed me to navigate radio stations on the screen, and a raised toggle switch on the right spoke was useful for managing cruise speed.

Nissan could learn a trick from Detroiters Chevy and Jeep by adding volume and radio station controls on the back of the steering wheel.

The 12.3-inch screen on the SV and SR models options a wireless charging pad that kept my phone juiced while navigating, playing music and cooking my lunch (kidding about that last one). But even without the charger, you can just plug your phone in, thanks to the large center console.

The 2025 Nissan Kicks is tight in the back seat for 6-footers compared to, say, the Chevy Trax.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Indeed, the Kicks has grown in every direction — it’s 1 inch higher, 1.5 inches wider, 2.3 inches longer — to allow for greater cabin room. It can’t hold a candle to Chevy’s twins in the backseat. Both the FWD Trax and AWD Trailblazer boast an impressive 39 inches of rear legroom, which is a gaping four inches more than a Kicks. Heck, Chevy rear leg room is as generous for six-footers like me as a midsize Nissan Murano SUV. But Kicks makes its mark behind the seats with best-in-class 30 cubic feet of cargo space.

So cutthroat is Subcompact Island that Kicks options a panoramic roof — a decidedly premium feature. Actually, it’s an option that the Jeep Renegade once had. Ahhh, the Renegade Wild Robot. I miss that cute ute with its round eyes and eager off-road stance.

The good news is that the Nissan comes standard with 8.4-inch ground clearance — nearly a match for the 8.7-inch Renegade Trailhawk off-roader, for goodness sake. That fits the Kicks’ venture vibe. I grunted around in the dirt ‘n’ grass playground of Proud Lake State Recreation Park. Let the Mazda CX-30 race around with its 227 horsepower — the Kicks’ natural habitat seems more nature park/ORV trail.

Kind of like the Wild Robotm which finds a home on its remote island at the end of the movie. Well-equipped with an affordable price, the Mexican-built Kicks will be finding a lot of new homes in 2025 too.

Next week: 2025 Subaru WRX tS

2025 Nissan Kicks

Vehicle type: Front-engine, front- and all-wheel-drive, five-passenger SUV

Price: $23,220, including $1,390 destination fee ($31,020 SR AWD with Premium Package (panoramic sunroof) as tested)

Powerplant: 2.0-liter 4-cylinder

Power: 141 horsepower, 140 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: Automatic, continuously variable

Performance: 0-60 mph (9.5 sec., Car and Driver est.); top speed, 110 mph

Weight: 3,252 pounds (as tested)

Fuel economy: EPA, 28 mpg city/35 highway/31 combined (FWD); 27 mpg city/34 highway/30 combined (AWD)

Report card

Highs: Sci-fi style; modern interior with lots of standard features

Lows: No-thrills powertrain; tight back seat compared to competitors

Overall: 3  stars

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.

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