LOS ANGELES — The first box opened at the Los Angeles Auto Show Wednesday contained another box — Nissan's funky little Cube city car.

The Cube looks looks like a big marshmallow and brings Japan's love of small cars to America, where the 30-plus-mpg wonder rolls into showrooms next fall. As the name implies, the Cube is nothing more than a box on wheels that Nissan design chief Shiro Nakamura called "clever, witty and fun, with a unique blend of fashion and function."

He forgot to say "adorable," in a "What the hell is that?" kind of way.

The car that made its worldwide debut today is the third generation of a car that's been wildly successful in Japan. By bringing it to America, Nissan is betting the Cube will be a hit with the same urban hipsters who bought the first-gen Scion XB, another car that looked like the box it came in. Nissan says the Cube isn't a car, it's an experience — how else to explain Nakamura's saying the Cube doesn't have an interior, it has "a social space," or, if you prefer, "a casual lounge."

Whatever you call it, it's pretty freakin' roomy. There's room for five people inside that little box, which is just 13 feet long and not quite 5.5 feet wide. Interior appointments include a CD stereo with XM radio that blares through six speakers powered by a big honkin' Rockford-Fosgate amp and, of course, a jack for your iPod. That asymmetrical rear and side window not only looks cool, it increases visibility.

Power comes from a 1.80-liter four-banger that puts out 122 horsepower through the front wheels. There's a six-speed transmission or, if you're too lazy to shift, a continuously variable automatic transmission that Nissan says allows the Cube to get more than 30 mpg on the highway. (Exact figures haven't been released yet.)

Photos by Jim Merithew/Wired.com