Nissan Releases Japan-Only Cube Special Edition with World’s Ugliest Interior
Probably one of the most unique-looking cars on the road today has got to be Nissan's Cube. The Cube doesn't fit any traditional styling conventions. It's square, yet round. It isn't symmetrical; its rear hatch features a frame on one side and wrap around glass on the other. The Cube is supposed to be theitcar for young, chic city-dwellers and in Japan it has done a pretty good job at catering to that image. As somewhat of a reward to its domestic audience, Nissan recently announced a special edition of the Cube, the Cube 15x Green Komorebi Selection. The thing about this special edition Cube though, is that its got a somewhat "unique" interior.
The Nissan Cube 15x Green Komorebi Selection's exterior is the normal affair—or as normal as a Cubes can possibly be, with its asymmetrical rear door and wrap-around glass. The only thing of note about the 15x Green Komorebi Selection's exterior is its unique maroon hue with white-pearl painted door mirrors and handles.
The interior is where the Cube 15x Green Komorebi Selection gets, err, interesting. For starters, the Cube special edition features something not seen in new American cars for at least two decades: velour seats. Not only does this Cube have cushy velour seats, but it hasgreencushy velour seats. Yes, green. And what would green velour seats be without a four-leaf clover pattern printed on the sides of the seats? You have to respect Nissan's dedication—if you're going to do something as out there as velour seats, you might as well complete the look with matching four-leaf clovers. If sea-sick green velour seats aren't bad enough, check out the carpet. It's brown shag carpeting with questionable green highlights, straight out of a 1970s Big-Three conversion van. The only thing the Cube 15x Green Komorebi Selection is missing is a set of raised white-letter tires, and mythical Nordic Wizard painted on the side.
Now in defense of the Cube 15x Green Komorebi Selection,komorebi, is a Japanese term roughly meaning, "Combination of sunlight and trees" and if you squintjust so, you can kind of see what Nissan was going for there. While an interior like this special edition Cube is sporting might make most westerners laugh at its questionable taste; the thing is, the Cube 15x Green Komorebi Selection will probably do pretty well in its home market (the only market it's available) where Japanese consumers are used to this sort of thing. And for those Japanese who are into that sort of thing, the Cube 15x Green Komorebi Selection is available in front-wheel drive form for 1,611,750 yen, or around $20,085 and in all-wheel drive form for 1,839,600 yen, or the U.S. equivalent of $22,945.
Source: Nissan
I generally like writing—especially when it’s about cars—but I hate writing about myself. So instead of blathering on about where I was born (New York City, in case you were wondering) or what type of cars I like (all of ’em, as long as it has a certain sense of soul or purpose), I’ll answer the one question I probably get most, right after what’s your favorite car (see above): How’d you get that job? Luck. Well, mostly. Hard work, too. Lots of it. I sort of fell into my major of journalism/mass communication at St. Bonaventure University and generally liked it a lot. In order to complete my degree senior year, we had to spend our last two semesters on some sort of project. Seeing as I loved cars and already spent a good portion of my time reading about cars on sites such as Motor Trend, I opted to create a car blog. I started a Tumblr, came up with a car-related name (The Stig’s American Cousin), signed up for media access on a bunch of manufacturer’s websites, and started writing. I did everything from cover new trim levels to reviewing my friends’ cars. I even wrote a really bad April Fool’s Day post about the next Subaru Impreza WRX being Toyota-Corolla-based. It was fun, and because it was fun, it never felt like work. Sometime after my blog had gotten off the ground, I noticed that Motor Trend was hiring for what’s now our Daily News Team. I sent in my résumé and a link to my blog. I got the job, and two weeks after graduation I made the move from New York to California. I’ve been happily plugging away at a keyboard—and driving some seriously awesome hardware—ever since.
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