Was just googling around looking at reviews for the Nissan Cube and came across one in the Houston Examiner that drops some interesting Cube stats:

- The Cube has been on the world market for over 10 years, but only this year came to North America (kind of like fashion and cell phones!)

- The Cube introduced to the North American market is actually the 3rd generation of the vehicle.

- The Cube is a 5 passenger vehicle with a cargo area behind the 2nd row of seats. (interesting…. I should look to see if mine comes with these features)

- The Cube is loosely based on the Nissan Versa platform(um, okay. If you say so)

- The Cube has a full suite of safety equipment including  standard front, side and side curtain airbags, ABS brakes, EBD electronic brake force distribution, BA brake assist and stability control (yah right, I am totally going to test these out).

That concludes our lesson for today class. Please leave your apple on my desk as you leave.

I advise my clients that if you don’t have anything to blog about, don’t blog. However, when it comes to blogging about my newly attained, super-rad Nissan Cube I feel somewhat obligated to blather on even when I don’t have much new to say about it. After all its the least I can do considering Nissan gave me the Cube for free.

So I’ll just relay a quick observation: the Nissan Cube has a very, very large stereo system. I mean one of those systems that goes boom boom pow (ala Black Eyed Peas). So if it isn’t enough that I am probably driving one of the most unique and eye-catching cars on the road today, on top of that you can hear me coming from a mile away.

Not such a bad thing for a closet narcissist like yours truly.

For anyone who knows me this won’t come as a surprise: I’m a politcal junkie.

The first sign of an addiction to politics is an unhealthy obsession with talk radio. With my Nissan Cube I show up wherever I’m going fully briefed on the latest happenings in US politics, thanks to the XM satellite that came with it.

For all you political junkies, and by this I mean the ones that don’t think Glenn Beck is a moderate, I would like to turn your attention to one station in particular that goes by the name of POTUS - Politics of the United States (a play on the real use of the term President of the United States). Thanks to my Nissan Cube and the POTUS radio heard therein, I am more of political junkie than ever and for the first time, one that actually knows what the heck he’s talking about

So it’s been a week now driving the Nissan Cube and I gotta say: People really love this car or really hate it - there’s no in between. This of course means that the Nissan Cube fits in the perfect category of “anything-but-boring.” Its definitely a car that invokes emotion.

And for this reason alone the Nissan Cube is a lot of fun to drive around town in. The expressions of passers-by are priceless.

A family pulled up beside us at a light last night on our way back from a day at the beach and the two little girls in the back were pointing and giggling their heads off. Who knows if they were laughing from the giddiness of seeing something other than a white/red/black sedan/SUV/truck/van on the road or if they thought the Cube was the silliest thing they’d seen in their lives.

Either way, they’ll remember it and it brightened up their day to see something a little outside the norm.

Oh, and the Cube’s sweet sound system was doing Leonard Cohen Live in London some sweet justice on that ride back from the beach.

No doubt I’m a little bias when it comes to the Nissan Cube, but now I have irrefutable scientific proof that dustbins any doubt about whether the Cube’s unique look is appealing to the eye.

In his Wheels.ca article reviewer John LeBlanc lists the Nissan Cube as one of the 10 most beautiful new cars you can buy today.

LeBlanc writes: “Like an Apple iPod, the Cube’s a well-thought-out piece of industrial design made affordable for the masses.

Yet some details – wrap-around window at the rear on the passenger side, and refrigerator-style opening – make the Cube look like nothing else on the road today.”

After a pretty anxious wait that had me by the end disappointed with any phone call that wasn’t the Nissan dealership, I finally picked up my brand spanking new Nissan Cube. And I gotta say it’s a very impressive machine. Now, of course you might think I’m bias given the fact that I didn’t have to pay a dime for it, but trust me, if it sucked I would tell you straight-up. After all, I am a writer, blogger and online specialist and a lot of what I do relies on my reputation.

The coolest thing about this car is that it’s a tech gadget dream car. The electronic key that detects when you’re in close proximity to the car and unlocks the doors automatically would have the pointdexter set pretty jacked up. Not to mention that the electronic key also lets you start the Cube at the push of a button. The Cube also interfaces with your Bluetooth cell phone so you can dial numbers using voice recognition - seriously, I feel like Captain Kirk dialing up Zulu.

And what would any rad tech-ed out car be without a pounding stereo system. I’m talking about six speaker surround with a massive Rockford-Fosgate subwoofer in the trunk. My wife heard me two blocks away slamming Snoop Dogg “Drop it like it’s hot.” I scared my youngest daughter when I cranked Missy Elliot - I swear I could actually see her hair blowing from the bass.

Oh yah, and it rides pretty good too.

I still have to take some photos of it, as I was just too busy driving around playing with all the gadgets. I will get those up in the next week or so.

I’m willing to go out on a limb here and say that I just had the greatest June 23rd I have ever had in my life to this point.

It’s not everyday - or July 23rd for that matter - that you win a brand spankin’ new car! And a very cool fully teched out one at that! (apologies ahead of time but there will be an overuse of exclamation marks in this post). So for those of you who I didn’t phone or tweet or email or Facebook yet, I was chosen as one of the 50 Canadians to win a brand new Nissan Cube car in their online HyperCube contest.

First off, the much deserved thank yous. To my wife Bree and my daughters Taryn and Zoe, you were awesome and your enthusiasm is what made me push through long nights of video editing. To my parents who pushed all of their friends to vote - spending hours convincing them that their email address was not going to used for nefarious spamming when they submit it to register their vote. To my colleagues at Hoggan and Associates who were the victims of inoffice spam tactics cajoling them to vote. And to all my friends, colleagues and Twitter pals for pushing hard on the social networks for getting the word out - there is way too many to count, but I can tell you right now, there will be much online karma coming your way over the next while.

If it wasn’t for you all, I would still be rolling in the 1984 VW Rabbit (have I mentioned that it has over 318,000 km’s on it?).

And of course, thank you Nissan for the willingness to use the power of word of mouth and social media instead of feeding into the top-down mindshare approach of traditional advertising. I think you’ll agree that the power of the social networks is way more powerful and genuine than an ad running during Gossip Girl. And congrats to Capital C for your creativity.

So I guess the next step is to pick up this bad boy, which apparently has already been nicknamed Den Master Chris by JennMae.

Going ahead, there’s a few things I want to do. Obviously, I’m going to maintain this site and post on all things Nissan Cube for the next year. I’m also planning on doing a case study on the contest, documenting my own experiences as an actual participant and what it all means for the art of Word of Mouth marketing - after all, I do run the New Media division of one of the coolest PR firms on the West Coast!

I’m also going to write a post later today to share with the rather hilarious story of how I learned that I won the car last night.

And that’s how I feel about the Nissan Hyper Cube Contest at this point, especially after my HyperCube entry - along with my new Twitter BFF Cube Man - scored a prime feature spot in a recent Public Relations Report article. A whole bunch of people tweeted me last night about the article and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got home! What are the chances that out of 500 entrants I would be one of the two people they chose to highlight in their article (um, actually the chances are 1 in 250 - but I digress).

Here’s the screenshot they used in the article of my “Daddy Loses It” video:

(click image to enlarge)

So this is my coup de gras, which is a phrase I do not take lightly considering I just found out that it means “death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature.” Seriously, I’ve been using coup de gras as a descriptor equivalent to the phrase “cherry on the cake” for years now. No wonder people look at me so strangely.

In the context of this blog post though we’ll take coup de grace to mean “cherry on the cake” and by that (and this) I mean the appearance of me and my cardboard car in Public Relations Report as the final push I needed in winning one of those sweet and lovely Nissan Cubes. I mean pardon my terrible French, mais qu’est-ce que vous voulez? Blood?

So that’s it, I’ve made all the videos I can make, I’ve bugged Ashton Kutcher to the point that I kind of feel like a bit of a stalker and I’ve spent way too much time optimizing this blog in search engines for strange things like “Nissan Cube Saves Baby Whale.”

So bring it on Nissan! I anxiously await the announcement of the winners!

Thanks to Tyson Faa and Francisco Chacin who let me know about the Public Relations Report article on Twitter.

Here’s the other videos I produced for the HyperCube contest - my favorite (and the easiest to produce) is still the German Cube Dance:

Nissan Hyper Cube Dance Off

Nissan Cube TV: Daddy Loses it! (this one took an entire day, but it was a lot of fun, especially for the kids)

I would never kill a baby seal!

Ashton - kindly tweet this please (he never did, grrrrr…)

The Nissan Hyper Cube Uber Social Media Marketing Plan

And if you think you can top it, send me photos or video to prove it.

If you can convince me and a panel of esteemed judges (the readers of this website) that your car is crappier than mine, I’ll pick up the tab on $100 dinner anywhere in Canada - I’ll get you a gift certificate or just send you the money or whatever. I’ll post all the entries on this blog, which will make for some pretty interesting posts!

Why am I doing this? Two reasons: 1) I think it would be kind of cool to have the crappiest car in all of Canada and, (2) I’m one of the final contestants to win a brand new Nissan Cube car and I figure this would be a great way to pick up the sympathy vote (if you already feel sorry for me, you can go here and vote for me).

So here goes.

This is my 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit with 318,789 kilometres on the odometer. I actually really like it, it’s very cheap on gas, passes air quality inspections with ease and works great, except of course for the non-existent parking brake, torn seats and lack of door handles. My wife and children (and some of the neighbors) mockingly gave it the name “speed.”

Here’s some of its many features that I believe give it the deserving title of the Crappiest Car in Canada.

No door handle. When the handle first fell off, I didn’t know how to open my car and then one of the neighborhood kids figured out that you can reach into the hole and open it by pulling up some lever in there.

Shot gun rust. I call it “shot gun” rust because it looks like someone shot it about 20 years ago and now the holes are all rusty.

No stereo and trashed dash. The radio got ripped out of the dashboard when I left it at the King George Skytrain station overnight (SHOCKER!). Now the little heat/cold fan keeps falling in behind the dash and I have to fish it out with a coat hangar.

Ironic bumper stickers. Some previous owner slapped an “Easy Does it Sticker” on the right side of the back end. “Easy Does It” is often used as a slogan for recovering alcoholics (you’ll see the irony in this in the next photo).

Counter Attack anti-drinking and driving sticker on the left side of the back end. It’s either ironic or strangely consistent with the “Easy Does It” sticker.

Oh and by the way, that is MOSS growing around the Rabbit logo. As hard as I pressure wash it, it won’t come off. And don’t forget the lovely broken headlight.

Here’s another moss shot.

And finally the hanging interior. On a regular basis I have to staple the cloth on the ceiling of the car back in place or it droops down and hits your head.

So there you go. Beat that Canada!

Send along your proof that your car is crappier than mine. Or pass this on to a friend if you think their car is crappier (heh). The only thing that I ask is that it actually be insured and on the road to bar anyone from just sending along a photo of a car that’s sat on their front lawn for the last 20 years.

And please don’t forget to vote for (you can vote once a day) in the Nissan Hyper Cube contest.