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As a tool, the Exalta’s interior is very effective with a good driving position. What’s more the four-spoke wheel is easy to hold and feels very comfortable. Kudos to the designers of the Exalta's interior. Aside from high-quality leather, the Exalta’s interior plastics are high-quality soft feel plastics, which are leagues ahead than that of the Honda Civic or even the upscale Accord. However, the power window switches and the overhead map lights feel as though they came from the Kia Sephia. At first, we thought the worst with the wood paneling of the Exalta, but it came out pretty darn good. If you didn’t know they were fake, you’d be fooled to think that it came from a Jaguar S-Type. The heads-up display is a nice touch, especially as the chrome surrounded speedometer and tachometer are relatively hard to read with its small print. Ironically, the practically of having the heads-up display is somewhat offset by the presence of a 6-inch LCD display, showing not GPS information but your favorite clips from Gone In Sixty Seconds. Nissan should have put the VCD elsewhere, such as upgrading the Exalta’s wheels to 15-inchers. Complimenting the engine’s acceleration and gusto for speed are the equally excellent brakes. The four-wheel disc brakes are very effecting in stopping the car to a dead halt—much more than the supposedly sportier Honda Civic. No doubt, the combination of the disc brakes with the brake distribution and brake assist system does the work effectively. A side note on the brake assist system: this system first appeared with the likes of Mercedes-Benzes. What is does is that when the car detects a panic braking attempt, the computer will apply a full brake force even when the pedal isn’t fully depressed—smart especially for those junior level drivers. Besides the steering feel and the generous amount of understeer, the Exalta also suffers from the lack of interior space compared to its rivals. In fact, because the wheelbase of the car didn't grow from its previous iteration, the rear seating is a squeeze for four, and a sardine can for five. Worth mentioning is that the trunk is big. In fact, too big to the point that it makes me wonder if Nissan designers were copying the style of the people from Ingostat (Audi A4), where the trunk seemed to have won over the rear-seat space. More than just the space, the overall appearance of the Exalta looks as if the car is already two years old. Overall proportions don’t show any sort of radical concepts like the much improved Toyota Corolla Altis with its flowing nose and Lexus IS200 side profile. What's more, the car's front and rear ends look too much like the Mazda 323 (sans the grille), which make look too much like the Nissan Cefiro (a design that's at least five years old). The rear combination lamps look as if it were lifted straight off the Daewoo Chairman. Plus the headlamp unit isn't a flushed one-piece unit, rather it still has a two-piece design, with the one containing the turn-signal indicator prone to fogging. Positively, the side profile shows cuts and angles that echo the new Cefiro that debuted in Japan two years ago. |
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