You can’t buy the Nissan Dayz in the US. You probably don’t have the keys for a Japanese kei car license, either. But if you are scratching around for the absolute lowest entry point into a new Nissan passenger vehicle in Japan, the refreshed Dayz is your answer. It is small. It is cheap. And it just got a tiny bit safer.
The $9,200 Nissan Dayz (specifically the base X trim at ¥1,500,500) is the brand’s floor. Not the Clipper truck. Not the commercial van. The passenger car. Nissan has applied a light touch here. No new body panels. No dramatic redesigns. Just a third-year update for a second-generation model that launched back in 2019.
Why the Refresh Matters for Safety and Usability
The core update isn’t about aesthetics, though there are new colors. It’s about compliance and convenience. The Dayz now ticks the boxes for Japan’s latest safety regulations. How? By widening the horizontal field of view on the front-facing camera. This isn’t a hardware swap so much as a calibration shift to improve detection ranges. The emergency braking system sees wider angles now. Reliability improves because the blind spots shrink.
“Nissan widened the horizontal viewing angle… extending the detection range and reliability of the critical emergency braking system.”
Beyond the brakes, Nissan added a standard rear seat reminder. You’ve seen these. They chime if you close the door on an object or a pet that was left behind. It’s a small fix for a frequent human error. Front passengers finally get a USB Type-C port as standard. No more digging through a tangled mess of proprietary adapters to charge your phone.
Aesthetic Tweaks and Trim Variations
If safety isn’t your hook, look at the paint. Nissan is rolling out new two-tone combinations. White Pearl with Cinnamon Latte. Frozen Vanilla Pearl with Celadon Green. Notice something about the hardware? On every two-tone config, the door handles now blend in with the roof finish. It’s a subtle design cue that makes the car look wider and more integrated.
For those who think “safe” is too boring, Nissan Motorsport & Customize (NMC Division) offers the Bolero and Highway Star Urban Chrome variants.
The Bolero sits on the entry-level Dayz X. It’s rally-inspired, featuring 15-inch alloys painted to match the body, white mirror caps, and an interior that swings beige and pink. It’s quirky. It’s specific.
The Highway Star Urban Chrome goes harder on the accents. Dark chrome pieces. Silver caps. Multi-spoke alloys. Soft-touch, waterproof upholstery on the seats. And special floor mats. It’s the trim for people who want their kei car to look like it cost more than it actually did.
Powertrain: Under the Hood of Japan’s Cheapest Nissan
Don’t expect torque. You won’t find it here. The Dayz runs Nissan’s stalwart 660cc three-cylinder engines, mated to an XTronic CVT. You get your choice of front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.
- Naturally Aspirated: 52 horsepower (38 kW / 52 ps). Slow by global standards, perfectly adequate for city limits where 50 km/h caps are common.
- Turbocharged: 64 horsepower (47 kW / 64 ps). But wait, there’s more. A mild-hybrid system squeezes out an extra 2.7 horsepower (2.0 kW). Is it significant? No. Is it there? Yes.
This setup remains unchanged from previous years. It’s reliable. It’s fuel-efficient. It lacks excitement. Just like the competition in Mitsubishi’s eK lineup, with which the Dayz shares a platform. They are twins. You can’t easily tell them apart from a distance.
Pricing: Where Does It Land?
The entry price is the headline.
- Base X Trim: ¥1,500,300 (~$9,200 USD)
- Top Trim: The Highway Star Urban Chrome turbo 4WD hits ¥2,217,500 (~$13,600 USD)
Yes, the price jumps significantly when you spec it out. But compared to global compacts, it’s still in a different weight class. Keep in mind, the world’s cheapest Nissan is the Magnite in India at roughly $5,900. But that’s an SUV. In Japan’s passenger car segment, the Dayz is the anchor.
It sits above the Clipper Van and Truck, which start around $8,900 and $8,200 respectively. But those are vans. If you want a cabin for people, not cargo, the Dayz is the floor.
The Bigger Picture
This refresh lands alongside updates for the Sakura EV and the Roox wagon. Nissan is tightening up the kei lineup as BYD and other Chinese EV makers loom over the Japanese domestic market. The Dayz isn’t fighting BYD with range. It’s fighting by being cheap, compliant, and small enough to park in spaces the world’s SUVs would fail to touch.
Will you ever see this car outside of Tokyo or Sapporo? Unlikely. But for the millions of Japanese commuters navigating tight streets and steep hills, this $9,000 update ensures they have a car that’s slightly safer, slightly cleaner, and just slightly newer than the one they drove yesterday.
The engine still makes 52 or 64 horsepower. The colors are new. The camera sees wider. Nothing changes, and everything changes a little bit.
