Long-Term Review Of The Nissan Juke

 Enjoy this long-term review of the Nissan Juke, compiled by the TopGear team.

Here’s a question: what do you consider to be the halo car of the Nissan range? Take your time, don’t rush into a decision.

Who am I trying to kid? You know why I’m asking... the answer is the Nissan Juke for sale. When you’ve stopped laughing, I shall continue.

To be honest, it’s not something I would have entertained myself until Ollie Kew mentioned to me that the Juke is the prime recipient of all Nissan’s swanky new technologies. Let’s have a look at the list... the Tekna+ as standard gets Intelligent Around View Monitor (with moving-object detection, rear cross-traffic alert and forward-collision warning), Pro-PILOT (with traffic-jam pilot, lane-keep assist, intelligent cruise control, rear cross-traffic alert) as well as intelligent emergency braking with pedestrian and cycling recognition, intelligent lane intervention and intelligent driver alertness warning. Even the most cynical among you would have to say that’s an impressive list.

And that’s in addition to all the standard blind-spot intervention, traffic-sign recognition, voice recognition and activation tech... that’s a lot of kit in a small, seemingly unimportant vehicle. So, surely, that must mean that the Juke is Nissan’s halo product.

And you thought it would be the GT-R. Maybe some of you even though the X-Trail. Hell, I even heard someone say they thought it might be the LEAF. Well, I guess it makes sense – after all, the LEAF is Nissan’s foray into future tech. However, the fact remains that carmakers put their best tech, their most innovative thinking into their halo cars... therefore, irrefutably, the Juke is Nissan’s halo car. The end.

Buying a Juke rather than one of its rivals means your car’s carbon footprint before it reaches your front door is lower than one that’s been built and shipped from halfway across the world. An interesting thought to ponder?

One constant throughout my time with the Juke has been how outspoken people are about its styling.

As you’d imagine, the baby Nissan crossover polarises opinion – I would imagine you yourself probably have very certain thoughts on its looks. Makes you wonder where the inspiration for it came from…

This isn’t a quirk of fate or happenstance, Nissan deliberately created the original Juke to be stylised. The beach buggy looks were specifically designed to be, according to Nissan, “slightly rebellious”. The new Juke is an evolution of this thinking. Slightly toned down and smoothed off, I actually think the design is an improvement on the first generation, which can only be a good thing.

A large part of its appeal is how the Juke can be personalised, especially as you go higher up the specification ladder – an intense bit of website clickery and I’ve decided that two-tone paint is my favourite option. It’s actually standard on our Tekna+ and looks really smart – don’t tell anyone, but it’s a paint job I actually would have chosen myself. In total, there are 21 interior and exterior combinations.

Responsible for dressing the Juke from head to toe in colour, material and finish designer Carine Giachetti.

She’s based in Paddington and in a recent interview described the strongest influences on her work: “Nissan Design Europe is right in the heart of London, so we have access to architecture – a juxtaposition of new and old – coupled with modern art and the latest in fashion. All of this sparked the inspiration behind redefining the new Juke’s appearance. This helped us hone colour options and determine what will remain in vogue for years to come.” Um.

Well, at least one thing is now clear – the inspiration for the new Juke was architecture. And art. And fashion. Glad that’s cleared up.

That's all folks. Time for the Juke to leave us for pastures new. It’s been with us for six months, covered many thousands of miles and been driven by half the team. 

It’s frugal and easy to manoeuvre. It’s been reliable, economical, spacious enough... OK, some don’t like its style, but at least it stands out from the crowd.

This little crossover managed a long and arduous highway commute just as well as it nipped through country lanes. So, though it may not have reclaimed its crown, to me it’s still royally good.

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Info from https://nissanenthusiast.wordpress.com/2022/04/30/long-term-review-of-the-nissan-juke/