Nissan Juke: Funky, fun high riding hatch

Zoom around in Nissan's compact city car, the Juke, complete with sporting persona and good looks. Photo / Jacqui Madelin

Like a high-riding SUV-style stance, need a compact city car and want sporty performance? Sounds like an impossible combination but Nissan's built it - the Juke. We've driven one over 1000km of English roads.

What's new
A skin that apparently leaped straight from concept-car sketch to showroom floor sits atop a platform that's shared with Renault's Clio, with MacPherson strut suspension up front and torsion beam at the rear. The 1.6-litre Nissan engine we'll get uses variable valve timing and two injectors a cylinder.

I liked the funky info screen. Select D-Mode to see a power pie chart and eco mode, which cuts throttle opening, shows an eco meter and feels like you've thrown out the anchors.

Select climate and the same buttons relight with climate labels.

The company line

Nissan NZ managing director John Manley won't take the 4WD Juke. "We see Juke in NZ primarily as a funky hatchback and contemplate using the marketing campaign, 'Qashqai's little brother'. NZ will take Juke ex Sunderland, UK with production scheduled for October and launch in late January 2012. We'll start with one variant, with unique specification, using a 1.6-litre petrol engine with CVT auto."

What we say

Think of Juke as a funky-looking hot hatch and you've just about got it pinned.

The design does narrow the rear seats and boot a tad. But there's plenty of headroom, the seats fold flat to take the 251-litre boot to 550 litres, and there's a spacious underfloor storage area back there.

On the road
Our UK press car was a 140kW/240Nm, 1.6 turbo and thirsty.

It returned 9.1-litres/100km, thanks to energetic performance allied to 1.3-tonnes of weight and a high-riding stance. We'll get a less-thirsty, normally aspirated 86kW/158Nm, 1.6 with CVT auto. However, we'll still benefit from assured handling with very little body roll. The downside is over-firm suspension that delivered a too-jiggly ride, and over-numb steering.

Why you'll buy one: You like the up-high view around town allied to parking-friendly dimensions, not to mention Juke's sharp good looks. It's fun to fling about, too.

Why you won't: You hate that jiggly ride and regularly carry adults out back.