Price is right for the good-looking Livina X-Gear

The Nissan Livina X-Gear is not a fancy car and for that reason it makes a lot of sense.

It gives you what you need for comfortable every-day driving, a few extras to make your life a little more pleasant and caps it all with excellent pricing - especially if you are buying second-hand.

With wheel arches clad in tough black plastic, it looks more butch than other Livinas. It has two air bags and 15-inch alloys, against the single air bag and 14-inch steel wheels of the entry-level model.

The X-Gear is a good-looking vehicle with roof-rack rails, big windows and large front and rear lights. On the white version I drove, the black exterior trim made it stand out.

The shape is that of a small bus. It has five seats, decent ground clearance, a correspondingly good ride height and a high-opening rear hatch. The interior and boot are spacious and leg- and headroom are good.

It will make an excellent mom's taxi for the school run, with all the bags and sports equipment tossed in the back. With its good looks it won't be out of place in the gym parking lot.

The X-Gear will also be a good-value set of family wheels for weekend excursions and is the sort of vehicle aimed at people who have what the marketing types like to call an active lifestyle.

All Livinas, even the seven-seat Grand model, are powered by 1.6-litre petrol engines, driving the front wheels through manual five-speed gearboxes.

On the X-Gear, the 80kW of power and 153Nm of torque were enough to push it along briskly in traffic, revving easily and willingly to the 6000rpm mark and above.

On the highway the motor is turning over at a rather high 3400rpm when you are doing 120km/h in fifth gear. It's not going to break any speed records - Nissan claim a top end of 180km/h so you should be able to maintain the national limit for long distances.

Theoretically, and in practice, you could see 170km/h on the speedo at 5000rpm.

When the X-Gear was launched a few years ago in South Africa, I drove it from Johannesburg to Parys via North West province and back, and it proved comfortable and quiet on the long country roads.

The fuel tank holds 53 litres so even at a conservative 8.5litres/100km a range of about 600km is possible.

Compared to Toyota's well-established Avanza and the newcomer FAW Sirius, the X-Gear makes an impression as a well-built, relatively frills-free vehicle with a solid engine.

It also comes with family resemblances to a whole line of Nissans, from the X-Trail and Hardbody to the Murano (that fancy grille) and even the quirky but popular Juke.

You get a few standard features such as anti-lock braking, aircon, a radio/CD and electric mirrors and windows. There are two cup holders ahead of the gear lever and one behind the ashtray.

But the interior is plain .

There are no remote audio or other controls on the steering wheel. There's a slide-open, un-lit vanity mirror only on the passenger-side and there's no beeping alarm if the driver fails to fasten the seat belt.

You get five seat belts, but the centre one for the rear occupants is a lap belt , not the safer three-point variety, and there are only four headrests.

Covered storage bins are notable for their scarcity and the door bins, especially in the rear, are narrow.

You do without cruise control, satellite navigation and self-levelling magnetic suspension. There are no auto-on headlights or windscreen wipers or clever radar cameras that automatically slow you down when necessary.

The good news is that you don't actually need these things and with the Livina X-Gear you score on the pricing.

The car featured here is a 2012 model with about 19000km on the clock. It is on sale at Renault East Rand for just under R140000.

That's a big chunk off the new price of almost R209000 and underscores recent research that shows it increasingly makes sense to buy used vehicles instead of new ones.

The R140000 price tag is also not much more than five-seater Livinas cost when new five years ago.

The X-Gear comes with the balance of Nissan's three-year/60000km service plan and three-year/100000km warranty.

The services are every 15000km.

The Livina was provided by East Rand Renault (011 841 4500)