Simple but brilliant. Nissan has finally found a way to get more people and luggage into a smaller car — it has just made it bigger. The Note is sold as a small car. It is based on the underpinnings of their weeny Micra, albeit a Micra that has been stretched, pulled and lengthened like a piece of warm Plasticine.

The Note certainly does look small-ish, at least from across a crowded car park, yet rear-seat passengers more than six feet tall have bags of leg and headroom even if they are sitting behind a driver and front-seat passenger of the same height. With four tall passengers, there is still room in the back for golf bags, a pram or shopping.

But stand next to the daftly named car and you realise that it is taller, bigger and longer than at first it seems. At the rear, the big hatch opens to reveal a boot that, with up to 437 litres of capacity, dwarfs the space offered by the rival Modus from Nissan’s sister company, Renault.

The size is there because Nissan has put the Micra platform on the rack to give it a wheelbase that is 2.6 metres long, the biggest in its class, and succeeded in getting the wheels right out to the corners so that they intrude as little as possible into the interior space.

Two removable shelves in the boot mean that bags can be stored out of sight, and the shelves can be washed down if fouled by muddy wellies. In practice, of course, they’ll get taken out and left in the garage to be buried under old Christmas decorations, rotten rabbit hutches and plastic flower pots.

The Note fills the gap neatly between mini-city runabout and full-on school run people-carrier, estate or large saloon. Neither nowt nor summat? Jack of all trades and master of none? Well, families with older, bigger children, could do a lot worse.

Bizarrely, though, Nissan is aiming the Note at one-car families on a tight budget, with pre-teen children. It could be missing a trick, for there is plenty of room in the back for the praying mantis limbs of teenage children.

The car is available with a 1.5-litre diesel as well as a 1.4litre and 1.6-litre petrol engine, and it is the 1.6-litre petrol car that offers the smoothest drive. Responsive, faster and quieter than the diesel, it has more on tap than the 1.4.

This not-so-little car is surprisingly agile on twisting mountain roads and more than capable at motoring speeds thanks to a competent chassis, decent handling and a firm ride.

The steering wheel adjusts up and down, but not in and out, and the rear seats are not over-padded. There is keyless entry and start. With the clever fob in your pocket, approach the car and it will unlock, and as long as the fob is in the car, all you need do is turn the start switch on the right-hand side of the steering column to get going.

For thirsty occupants there are six cup-holders — enough for somebody in the car to have two drinks on the go at once — and the Note also gets the by now not-so-secret under-seat storage tray.

Not that the Note is without fault. The gearshift on the five-speed manual is vague and changing into fifth by mistake when hoping for third is easily done. Nissan has made much of the car’s styling, putting particular emphasis on the boomerang-shaped rear-light clusters that adorn the top corners of the car’s back end, but the mouldings seem thin and brittle and look expensive to replace. The interior, too, is far from plush. The black plastics are not quite tacky, but they do reflect the car’s budgetconscious aims — it will, after all, sell from under £10,000.

The firm ride and thinly padded rear seats are the car’s biggest weaknesses. Rear-seat passengers, especially if the car is being driven over poorquality town backstreets, will have to endure a harsh, sometimes jolting, journey.

The front end has been designed to look different, though Nissan’s research into the car’s looks found that 70 per cent of women decided it looked overaggressive. That is why Nissan expects most buyers to be men, as opposed to the Micra, 70 per cent of which are driven by women, who enjoy its sweet looks.

The new Note could well be Nissan’s secret weapon. Anonymous in performance, the Note wins because it is so good in so many ways, but without drama or fussiness, and could sneak in under the radar against archrivals such as the Vauxhall Meriva.

THE STATS

Engine: 1.6-litre petrol producing 108bhp and 113lb ft of torque, driving front wheels, five-speed manual

Performance: Top speed 114mph and 0-62mph in 11 seconds

CO2 emissions: 159g/km

Economy: Price £10,695 (range from £9,995 to £12,995)