An impressive level of standard equipment and ADAS/comfort features? High-quality interior materials, comfortable heated seats and steering wheel – and a killer 10-speaker Bose audio system? Excuse us, but that doesn’t sound like a sporty compact CUV priced less than $32,000 including a $1,400 destination charge.
In fact, it sounds impossible with new-car prices averaging almost $50,000, but this describes the Nissan Kicks SR AWD CVT, winner of a 2025 Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX award. Wards judges all agree the Kicks is an incredible value. (View slideshow: 2025 Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX Winner: Nissan Kicks)
Judge Christie Schweinsberg appreciates the Kicks’ contemporary interior styling using high-quality materials and bold surfaces, contrasting red stitching, a monochromatic houndstooth pattern on the instrument panel, and distinctive white piping illumination that is a class above.
The Kicks also boasts comfortable seats and a heated steering wheel, features you just don’t see in entry-level vehicles. The small CUV is surprisingly roomy, too, with a big cargo area.
The vehicle’s full complement of Nissan’s Safety Shield 360 ADAS features – automatic emergency braking with pedestrian protection; rear automatic braking; rear cross-traffic alert; intelligent lane intervention; blindspot warning and intervention, high beam assist and a 360-degree camera – also are unexpected at the price point.
Judge Jim Irwin appreciates physical knobs and buttons on the center console, including a big audio system volume knob that you can adjust without having to take your eyes off the road.
Meanwhile, another judge favored the Kicks’ clear display screens and the overall simple functionality and solid UX of its infotainment system.
“It seems that for this new model, Nissan designers asked themselves what an urban driver would want in a compact vehicle and found the answers to be a good amount of passenger space and cargo room, cupholders that can accommodate Big Gulps and the Zero Gravity seats that the more expensive vehicles in the brand’s lineup have already,” says judge Gary Vasilash. “This may be Nissan’s entry-level vehicle, but its interior execution is anything but.”
Wards judges were also amazed by the Bose audio system that includes speakers in the front seat headrests. Those speakers deliver a personalized sound experience better than most of the high-end luxury vehicles we evaluated. “It sounded like Neil Young was strumming his guitar in the back seat,” marvels one juror.
Despite its affordable price, Nissan somehow has managed to create a miracle in today’s complicated automotive world: a roomy compact CUV with high-quality interior materials, really comfortable seats, a heated steering wheel, a boatload of ADAS features and a premium user experience that makes the Kicks feel special, without adding a lot of cost. All we can say is: “Bravo, there is light at the end of the affordability tunnel.”
