Nissan unleashes rebel in CUV class
JIM KENZIE/FOR THE TORONTO STAR
Nissan's Juke, on sale in September, offers a manual or CVT transmission, front- or all-wheel drive and a 188 hp 1.6 L turbo engine. Prices start at $19,998.
VANCOUVER–The market segment that seems to cover small SUVs, compact crossovers, tall wagons and hatchbacks is becoming a Car of the Week thing.
Depending on who is counting, it is the third-largest slice of the Canadian car market pie, and the fastest-growing too, up 62 per cent in the last five years.
Every volume manufacturer has at least one hand in this poker deal, and a new entry seems to ante up every few days.
The latest one is a real eye-popper, the Nissan Juke, and with so many advanced features, you wonder how it wandered into the entry level segment.
First, check out the styling.
You either love it, or you hate it so much that you strike it off your shopping list tout de suite.
I happen to like it, even if it is aimed at a young, mostly-male demographic.
And you will never see a beige Juke.
Some of my, ahem, younger male colleagues in fact did not like it, pointing out such concerns as the big, low-mounted headlights, which might get punched in parking lot jousts.
Gee, how “old man” can you get?
A typical Juke owner is going to be more concerned if (s)he can connect his/her iPod or Bluetooth phone. (S)he can.
Juke goes on sale in September, in two trim levels (SV and SL), with front-wheel or four-wheel drive. A six-speed manual is offered on the FWD models; Nissan’s Continuously-Variable Transmission (CVT) is optional with FWD and standard with four-wheel drive.
Prices start at $19,998 and peak at $29,248.
The crocodile-eye front turn signals/parking lights on top of the fenders, rear door handles hidden in the rear roof pillars, and the 370Z-inspired boomerang taillights are other intriguing exterior details.
Juke’s strong styling continues inside. The high-gloss painted centre console comes in red (for sure) or grey (why?) and is intended to mimic a high-performance motorcycle.
Just don’t sit on it, please. Instead, stay in the nicely contoured sports seats (happy to report that whiplash-reducing active head-restraints are standard).
Leather front seating surfaces are optional, but as usual I have no idea why anybody would want them, especially since heated seats are available with the cloth package.
That cloth is a terrific material known as “bullet fin.” I also have no idea what “bullet fin” means, but it consists of a thin mesh over the fabric, which looks great and feels excellent to the hand.
The rear seat backs split-fold for added cargo-carrying flexibility.
The instrument cluster is classic sports car, with twin large round pods nuzzling prominent speedo and tach. The so-called “floating visor” over this duo is more unusual, but I think it looks cool.
The sporty three-spoke steering wheel is leather-wrapped — a standard feature in Canada (the U.S. gets a stripper version; we don’t).
The up-level SL gets a new Interactive Human-Machine Interface in the form of a configurable series of push buttons that control either climate or various driving characteristics, depending on which main button you push.
The Drive menu allows selection of Normal, Sport and Eco modes, which affect throttle response, transmission shift speed, and electric power steering effort and feel.
Juke shares the Renault/Nissan B-body platform with Versa and Cube. It’s actually shorter overall and in wheelbase than its brothers, but taller height-wise, and wider.
The only available engine is a new 188 hp 1.6 litre four-cylinder direct injection, intercooled turbo, Nissan joining Mazda, Ford, GM and others in adapting these fuel-saving technologies.
As always, a turbo offers big-engine performance on demand, with small-engine economy otherwise. Transport Canada numbers have not been finalized, but Nissan says Juke’s economy will be much better than the 2.5 litre Rogue, which has similar performance.
To allow the Juke to, er, juke, it gets MacStrut front suspension, with a twist-beam rear on FWD models, and a multi-link design with 4WD.
Four-wheel disc brakes with ABS and Electronic Brake Force Distribution bring proceedings to a halt in short order as needed. Standard Electronic Stability Control and Traction Control do their best to keep you on the straight and narrow — and hard-paved.
The optional four-wheel drive system is quite remarkable for a vehicle in this price class. Called the Advanced Torque Vectoring AWD System, it makes Juke nominally a front-driver, but can direct up to half the available torque to the rears as needed.
What’s different from most such systems is that the rear half of the torque can be distributed across the rear axle also, in any desired ratio, from 50/50 to 0/100.
On a corner, for example, more torque will be shoved to the outside rear wheel, to help propel the car around the corner.
The whole gubbins also adds less than 100 kg to Juke’s weight.
Our preview test route consisted of a short sprint through downtown Vancouver (where the politicians hate cars even more than Toronto’s do) to Horseshoe Bay, a half-hour ferry ride up to Gibsons (anybody remember The Beachcombers?), an 85-odd km promenade along the so-called Sunshine Coast to Egmont, then reverse above procedure back to Vancouver.
We snared an SL 4WD for the trip up, and downgraded to a front-drive manual for the return.
The four-wheel drive is the way to go.
Okay, it means taking the CVT. I appear to be among the minority of scribes who don’t mind this design. I found in the Versa I tested earlier this year that it works very well, with little of the “motorboating” that some complain about — meaning, the engine revs up and stays there until road speed catches up with it.
What’s the problem? It delivers good acceleration, and 10 to 15 per cent better fuel economy than a conventional automatic.
Another advantage of the four-wheel drive and the CVT is that they mask the uneven power delivery that is almost inevitable with a turbo engine.
The torque-vectoring four-wheel drive works pretty well. I only had a brief sprint on a lightly-travelled back road to stretch this system even a little; I then took a front-driver over the same route.
Understeer (plowing in a tight turn) is significantly reduced in the 4WD car, and it just felt considerably more nimble than the front-driver.
And of course you’ll get better traction when winter comes. it will come, you know.
The manual gearbox works nicely though.
Playing with the Climate/Drive controller, it would appear that the biggest difference in the changeable systems is in the CVT, because I didn’t notice a lot of variation in the manual car.
As for Eco mode, well, it feels like someone hooked a 3,000 kg trailer onto the car. Throttle response falls practically to zero, it even reduces the air conditioner’s effect.
Normal or Sport? Those are the only really viable options.
Ride quality wasn’t really tested by the well-maintained roads we were on, but it felt good enough.
The steering was a bit numb on-centre, a common characteristic of electric power-assisted systems.
Nissan touts the well-equipped nature of Juke, even at the lowest price level, including all the stuff mentioned herein, plus air, cruise, power windows and locks (sadly, with the dreaded auto-lock feature, which doesn’t seem to be switch-off-able), and air bags all over the place.
The only thing the SL offers that I’d even want is heated seats and maybe that Climate/Drive thingy. But I’d have to take the useless sunroof and keyless push-button start nonsense to get it, so I’d probably pass.
The worst aspect of Juke’s option list is that it appears the only way you can get satellite radio is by going to the satellite-navigation package, which also includes the dreaded leather seats.
Even if you don’t like the looks of the Juke, I think you have to admire Nissan for bringing out such an extroverted player. In this price range, conservatism is the order of the day because manufacturers feel they need big volumes to be profitable, and strong styling doesn’t always play to the masses.
I think there’ll be enough Jukesters to more than make it worth Nissan’s while.
Travel was provided freelance auto reviewer Jim Kenzie by the automaker.
Nissan Juke
PRICE: $19,998 to 426,648
ENGINE: 1.6 L inline four, direct injection, turbo
POWER/TORQUE: 188 hp/177 lb.-ft.
FUEL CONSUMPTION: n/a
COMPETITION: Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Kia Soul, Mazda3 Hatch, Nissan Cube, Nissan Rogue, Nissan Versa Hatch, Toyota Matrix, Volkswagen Golf GTI.
WHAT’S BEST: Eye-catching styling; beautifully designed and well-executed interior; class-leading drivetrain technology; real safety features such as active head-restraints and ESC standard.
WHAT’S WORST: Unfortunate option grouping forces you to make tough choices; styling may be too advanced for the timid.
WHAT’S INTERESTING: Finally, someone willing to take a chance on strong styling in a mass market segment.
Three questions help determine which pickup truck to buy
Not all automatic cars are boring and soulless
