If you spot the 2012 Nissan Lafesta and the Mazda Premacy side by side, you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference. Save for the grille and the logo, everything else is same top to bottom. This is simply because Mazda supplied the Premacy to Nissan under an OEM agreement and Nissan then rebadged it to the Lafesta Highway Star. It competes with the Toyota Wish, Subaru Exiga, Honda Freed and the Mazda Premacy.

Many of us will recall a time when the Nissan Bluebird and the Nissan Sunny ruled the roads, that was back in the 80s, 90s and 2000s. They have now been relegated to history but they were the precursors to the modern day economy cars and much of what they stood for has become the industry standard. They were the forebears to the Nissan Sylphy which inherited the emblems and the standard. The Nissan Sylphy competes with the Toyota Axio, Toyota Allion and Mitsubishi Lancer.

The dearth of reliability for the Nissan brand has been its main undoing. Many stories abound of Nissan Fuga's less than stellar body construction and how it doesn’t hold up too well against the test of time. Here at Topcar, we do not go by the grapevine and rather, we research for ourselves to either confirm or dispel these notions. We therefore scoped out the Nissan Fuga to find out whether it holds a candle to its competitors such as the Toyota Mark X and the lofty German brands such as the Audi A4, the BMW 3 Series, and the Mercedes C Class. Read on to find out.

The Nissan Dualis is a compact SUV with a gentle demeanor that belies its true capabilities. It's one of the few cars that strikes a perfect balance between economy and utility in one package. It's as economical as any hatchback can be and yet as dynamic as any SUV can be. It has all the qualities that are desirable for driving in Kenya where road conditions greatly vary even within the same city. It competes with the Mitsubishi RVR, Subaru XV, Nissan Juke, Honda HR-V and Peugeot 2008.

The Nissan March is not a new kid on the block. It has been around since 1982 which is a testament to its success and longevity in a crowded marketplace. It's also known as the Nissan Micra(pronounced Mycra) in markets outside of Japan and Asia. In Kenya, it competes with the Toyota Passo, Mazda Verisa and Suzuki Swift

The Nissan Xtrail is a popular medium sized SUV in Kenya that comes in both 2WD and 4WD. It competes with the Subaru Forester(3rd Generation), Toyota RAV4, Mitsubishi Outlander, Honda CR-V, and the VW Tiguan.

My initial view of the Nissan Note - and this was from a casual observer's point of view - was that, it's a mundane car with nothing really going for it. This is not a surprising view as many other people would tend to concur. But not until I stepped into this second generation Nissan Note that I was totally transposed. Beneath the passive veneer lies a serious contender to the hatchback throne.

There's a new kid on the block by the name of Nissan Juke and it's taking the Kenyan car market by storm. The Nissan Juke looks and drives like an SUV but it's really an economical hatchback at heart. We drove the Juke and can say without fear of contradiction that it's one of the best economy cars we've driven in a while. Of course it's not without its faults but when all factors are considered, it's one of the best.