Nissan Juke

and finally a ‘Premiere Edition’ at £24,460.

The Visia has LED lights, a DAB radio, cruise control and traffic sign recognition. Acenta adds Apple Car Play and Android Auto accessed via Nissan’s excellent 8” touch screen, 17” alloy wheels and a rear-view camera. Our test model, the N-Connecta, added keyless go and climate control, with Tekna and Tekna+ featuring a Bose stereo, a Heat Pack, 19” alloys and a heated windscreen. Our test car also included Nissan’s Pro Pilot, a £1,300 extra, which offers extra safety features, including Lane Keep Assist, Autonomous Driving and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert.

The cabin is well constructed, with a mixture of soft touch plastics and harder, but good quality plastic and chrome fascia. The driver position is quite high, with the 7” Colour TFT Combimeter screen in front, which offers up the speedo and rev counter, clock, temperature, miles driven and general car info.

The 8” Touch Screen Display works well, is intuitive and clean to the eye. We connected our iPhone via USB, to Apple CarPlay, to access our Music, Spotify, Podcasts and Google Maps and all worked smoothly.

Our auto box model offered three driving modes: Eco, Standard and Sport, all selected using a toggle in front of the gear stick.

Room is much better than the old model. Front passengers have good head and legroom, and legroom is much improved in the rear, too. Taller rear passengers will suffer from

the sloping roof, however, and that, combined with the dark roof lining and narrow side windows, contribute to a slightly gloomy feel in the back.

The boot is a definite improvement over the outgoing model, with 422 litres available, increasing to 1,305 litres with the rear seats folded. It also featured a removeable shelf to create a flatter load bed.

We made use of the increased luggage and passenger space on a weekend trip to the North East, as the Juke took on 400 miles, four adults, a Cockerpoo plus luggage, and won. Yes, it’s still a little tight in the back for five, but for four adults and associated belongings it was impressive. The passenger comfort was miles ahead of the original Juke.

On the motorway the 17” wheels coped admirably and the cabin wasn’t invaded by too much road or wind noise. I love an auto, but the seven-speed automatic gearbox had a tendency to jerk at low speeds when pulling away and reversing. In Eco mode it’s a bit slow at regaining momentum when you slow down but in its favour, the Adaptive Cruise Control in the Pro Pilot package is simple to use and takes the hassle out of a long distance drive.

The handling is predictable, with any winding roads causing the Juke no issues. We drove the motorway leg in Eco mode to improve fuel economy, while flitting between Normal and Sport when suitable. It’s a pretty bland experience in Eco mode and much more fun in Sport – though acceleration is distinctly average, at 60mph in 10.7 seconds. Claimed combined fuel economy is 46.3 mpg. We actually achieved a 43.2mpg return and having driven 300 miles at motorway speeds with a fully laden car, I was pretty impressed with that.

The 1.0-litre, three-cylinder engine comes with 115bhp, with up to 200Nm of torque, but on the motorway in Eco mode, the gearbox has to change down a gear or two on longer inclines, or when traffic is slow, just to get back up to speed. In Standard mode it’s a little better. Otherwise, I found the auto box and the power offered surprisingly good.

The auto comes with a CO 2 figure of 110g/ km, equating to a Year 1 BIK of 29%.

V d Competition is fierce in this sector but the new model is now much closer to its rivals. Has same quirky charm as the original but more practical and comfortable.

CC&V RATING: N N N N