Dealer: Beadles Nissan, Maidstone.
We happened to be paring the the Nissan garage on the way home Sunday and thought why not pop in and see if we can get to test drive the Juke a week early.
Our luck was in and off we went on a solo test drive! Our thoughts below, going to start with the negatives to end on the positives
Bad Points:
1) Notchy gear change
2) Cabin felt smaller than our Mazda 2
3) Suspension 'crashes' over bumps, which was a little surprising. on our test drive route was a train crossing and for the type of car it feels a little stiff, I expected it to glide over bumps etc. I would put the suspension on par with my new MINI (Cooper-S) suspension in terms of harshness. This might be a combination of the big wheels as well tho.
4) Little thing but, button for dashboard computer (live mpg/miles to empty, odometer etc) is awkward to press when moving as it's next to the reset odometer right in the middle of the instrument cluster
5) Didn't get on with the cloth seats, the centre bit looks like it'll wear quickly and the shoulders felt really coarse, glad to be getting the leather!
Good points:
1) Finally got to drive one! Love the look even more in the flesh
2) The car as a whole felt very solid, doors closed with a 'thunk', everything felt well put together
3) The engine was nice and smooth and provided enough power to lug the Juke around. It felt quite a bit quicker than our current 1.3. We are used to driving small engines though!
4) The Nissan Connect system was flawless, sat nav was intuitive to use and got us back to the dealership The reverse camera is very neat, you'll need to get used to the angle as it's got a wide angle 180 degree lens, will take a few tries to get accustomed to it. We used it like another mirror, I'd advise NOT using it solely!
5) Instrument computer has outside temp! didn't think it had this
6) I-CON computer, this is so awesome! I love gadgets and loved the g- meter thing, we got it up to +2 bars when braking. It cleans up the centre console so its not a MASS of buttons and then you have that lovely sleek centre console, the one we test drove had the gunmetal interior which was nice and plain, we're looking forward to the red tho!
7) You can see the headlights from the interior (or at least I can @ 6ft 2") means you know how long the bonnet is.
8) Loved it in the black colour, it felt understated and yet different at the same time. I thought the dark colour would hide all the shapes of the Juke but the light reflects off the shoulders nicely highlighting them.
So we're keeping our pre-order and we're excited as ever for the 2nd of october! If I'm honest, I can see why some people have cancelled their pre-order after test driving one, but then I remind my self that this isn't an expensive executive car so we will learn to live with its faults!
So on to some pics
Just across the road these are waiting... If you want to test drive the JUKE & MINI back to back, can't think of a better place.
We happened to be paring the the Nissan garage on the way home Sunday and thought why not pop in and see if we can get to test drive the Juke a week early.
Our luck was in and off we went on a solo test drive! Our thoughts below, going to start with the negatives to end on the positives
Bad Points:
1) Notchy gear change
2) Cabin felt smaller than our Mazda 2
3) Suspension 'crashes' over bumps, which was a little surprising. on our test drive route was a train crossing and for the type of car it feels a little stiff, I expected it to glide over bumps etc. I would put the suspension on par with my new MINI (Cooper-S) suspension in terms of harshness. This might be a combination of the big wheels as well tho.
4) Little thing but, button for dashboard computer (live mpg/miles to empty, odometer etc) is awkward to press when moving as it's next to the reset odometer right in the middle of the instrument cluster
5) Didn't get on with the cloth seats, the centre bit looks like it'll wear quickly and the shoulders felt really coarse, glad to be getting the leather!
Good points:
1) Finally got to drive one!
Love the look even more in the flesh2) The car as a whole felt very solid, doors closed with a 'thunk', everything felt well put together
3) The engine was nice and smooth and provided enough power to lug the Juke around. It felt quite a bit quicker than our current 1.3. We are used to driving small engines though!
4) The Nissan Connect system was flawless, sat nav was intuitive to use and got us back to the dealership
The reverse camera is very neat, you'll need to get used to the angle as it's got a wide angle 180 degree lens, will take a few tries to get accustomed to it. We used it like another mirror, I'd advise NOT using it solely! 5) Instrument computer has outside temp! didn't think it had this
6) I-CON computer, this is so awesome! I love gadgets and loved the g- meter thing, we got it up to +2 bars when braking
. It cleans up the centre console so its not a MASS of buttons and then you have that lovely sleek centre console, the one we test drove had the gunmetal interior which was nice and plain, we're looking forward to the red tho! 7) You can see the headlights from the interior (or at least I can @ 6ft 2") means you know how long the bonnet is.
8) Loved it in the black colour, it felt understated and yet different at the same time. I thought the dark colour would hide all the shapes of the Juke but the light reflects off the shoulders nicely highlighting them.
So we're keeping our pre-order and we're excited as ever for the 2nd of october! If I'm honest, I can see why some people have cancelled their pre-order after test driving one, but then I remind my self that this isn't an expensive executive car so we will learn to live with its faults!
So on to some pics
Just across the road these are waiting... If you want to test drive the JUKE & MINI back to back, can't think of a better place.
