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Nissan’s pokey Cube—yeah, it still exists—is entering its fourth year on the U.S. market, but instead of a mid-cycle refresh, Nissan is taking a page out of the Scion handbook and offering a special edition instead. The new 2012 Cube 1.8 S “Indigo” Limited Edition is basically a mid-grade Cube S with plain-looking, 15-inch six split-spoke wheels; indigo-and-black cloth seats; and upgrade items like keyless ignition, navigation, satellite radio, and a rearview camera. It also includes an upgraded sound system with a Rockford Fosgate subwoofer and USB port. Interestingly, indigo blue is not one of the Indigo edition’s two exterior color options, which are either Pearl White or new-for-2012 Bali Blue. The Indigo package adds $1900 to the price of the Cube S with the CVT, bringing it to $20,100. If anything, the price at least seems fair for the extra equipment.

Only one special-edition Cube has been offered previously, in the form of the Krōm in 2009, but with no real midcycle update looming , it seems the company may pump out more such variants to jump-start the boxy car’s slow sales. (Changes for the rest of the 2012 Cube lineup: The SL gets keyless ignition, and a much-needed front passenger armrest now is standard on S and SL models. That’s about it.)  But short of drilling individual sunroofs over each of the Cube’s seats or adding funky asymmetrical headlamps to go with the asymmetrical rear glass, we don’t see it becoming any more hip to be square, so to speak, than it has been in previous years. Indeed, based on the relative popularity of the Juke, it’s far more hip to be an amorphous frog-blob—especially when that frog-blob is fitted with GT-R running gear, as seen in the Juke-R. Now what about a Cube-R? There’s a thought.