The Pulsar badge replaces the Tiida and returns to New Zealand after an absence of seven years. The sedan enters a segment of the market dominated by hatchbacks and their luggage-carrying versatility. But a whopping 510-litre boot in the Pulsar – bigger than that of the Holden Commodore, for example – could help it eat into hatchback sales. That’s the good news. The not-so-good is that the class-leading load space could have been cavernous had Nissan allowed the rear seat backs to fold forward. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to like about the Pulsar, especially on the inside. The cabin layout is simple and spacious; the dashboard and its instrument pack is well laid out; all the major switchgear falls quickly to hand. On the road the Pulsar is a mixed bag. Town and around, on streets and motorways, it’s comfortable and quiet, the steering nicely weighted, the twin-stage automatic continuously variable transmission (CVT) using its spread of ratios to pull away under a light throttle without the high-revving characteristics of some CVT units. But the car is not as composed under heavy throttle on a winding country road. The engine noise booms out as the CVT searches for a gear to match revs, and the steering loses its accuracy as the suspension struggles to reign in a soft front end that wants to run wide, or understeer.

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