I’ve got a Nissan. It’s an ’04 Almera and I love it. It’s never given me a lick of trouble and while it’s not the flashiest car on the road, it does its job.
Why am I sounding like an old man describing why he loves his Volvo? Because I do.
I’ll admit that when I went shopping for the car, a Nissan wasn’t very high on my list. Let’s face it, they never head the crowd when it comes to trendy design. Look at the Micra or the Cube if you need any further proof. Maybe that’s because they’ve been concentrating on reliability and safety, but who knows?
Why did I buy the Nissan? Because I was able to haggle the shit out of the dealer and get an extra €1000 off the listed price. Yes, there are better cars, and there are worse cars. All are a matter of opinion depending on what you own and what you desire.
And that’s what car design comes down to I think, what the customer desires. Do we really need 4×4′s in the cities? Do you need something with 7 seats when you’ve got one single sprog? Most likely not, but designers, marketers and sales staff are so good at their jobs that they have us convinced that we do.
Renault said for years that they’d never release a 4×4 and that they were just a fad. Then they saw the sales other companies were having with them and released the Koleos. Porsche have a 4×4 for fuck’s sake. This just all furthers my skeptisism about big companies. They’ll tell us what we need and then wait for others to test the water before following suit.
Look at the fairly recent Qashqai, in 5 or 7 seater models. A people carrier that looks kind of like a 4×4. When we got bored of people carriers, we went for 4×4′s. When we got bored of the both of them, they got crossed over, like the Qashqai.
Oooh, so shiny. And weird looking. I want it.
This brings me around to the new Nissan Juke.
Sales have proven that the Qashqai was a hit. I’d say it was design and the reliability of a Nissan that caused this, and Nissan might just be thinking the same.
The new Juke looks kind of like a 4×4 but is actually aimed at the demographic that goes for the smaller looking models, like the MINI for example, or the Audi A3. You know the kind that your estate agent was driving when she had you on that conveyor belt tour of over priced prefabs that she told you you just had to invest in. Maybe it’ll even be the end for the God awful Micra, design wise.
Of course, there’s a lot of buzz words flying around the Juke like “customisable”, “coupé-like” and “motorcycle design”.
The customisable bit comes from the interiors being set out in trim that matches the body colour, or not depending on what you want. The coupé-like bit is self explanitory and the motorcycle design bit is just a way of them trying to explain the customisable bit a little further. They say that having a console and interior the same colour as the body work will be similar to that of a motorcycle. Yeah.
Yeah it's gimmicky but I want it more
As for cross overs, that’s not where it ends. But it may just be where any shred of originality stops.
After all, all you have to do is design a new body and stick all the same old stuff inside it. For example – The Juke will use the same 1.6-litre petrol engine and 1.5-litre turbo diesel as seen in Nissan’s Note, while a new 187bhp 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine will top off the range.
It’ll come in either 2 wheel or 4 wheel drive. But why need a 4 wheel drive small coupé that looks kind of like a 4×4?
I don’t get it.
But then again I didn’t get why I was driving out of the dealership in an Almera a few years back. Having said all of that, if one was in front of me and I had a wad of cash, I’d probably haggle the shite out of the dealer and drive away in it.
The Nissan Juke goes on sale around September and prices are expected to start at around €14,000, so with a trade in and the scrappage dealy and the fact that car dealers will throw their mothers in as part of the deal just to make a sale, it shouldn’t work out too painful for a new car. Of course if you’re an estate agent that just means the commission on a new house or two. And if you’re not selling as many houses these days, just trade mothers with the car dealer. That might work.
It’ll be officially unveiled at the Geneva Motor show in March.
If nothing else it’ll give the poor estate agents of the world more choice.
Ehh, No.