N PUNCHES ABOVE ITS WEIGHT
The Juke SUV gets the Nismo treatment. Partially
issan’s Juke compact SUV was no stranger to quirkiness — now the brand’s go-fast tuning arm Nismo has dialled up the fun factor.
The sporting make-over follows the tyre tracks of similar work on the fire-breathing GT-R supercar and the two-seater 370Z.
The Juke Nismo RS is the first Nissan SUV to get extra power and suspension tweaks to improve performance.
Prices increase — the premium is nearly $8000 over the Ti-S grade (currently $29,990 drive-away) on which the limited edition is based. The automatic, expected to account for the lion’s share of sales, is $41,490 plus on-roads.
It’s part of a mildly refreshed three-model 2018 Juke range that starts from $23,490 for the manual. The additional spend on the Nismo RS brings internal athletic flair, body kit, sports exhaust, stiffer suspension, bigger brakes and greater body rigidity for improved cornering.
There’s extra grunt for the 1.6-litre turbo but it’s not across the board
The Nismo RS gets an extra 20kW in frontwheel drive six-speed manual form and 17kW in all-wheel drive with continuously variable transmission. Torque is boosted by, respectively, 40Nm and 10Nm. Nissan attributes the reduced outputs to the translation to all-wheel drive.
Missing are such advanced safety features as autonomous emergency braking and radar cruise control, as well as smartphone mirroring, but it gets full audio and phone streaming.
To justify the Nismo nameplate, says Nissan spokesman Chris Schultz, the Juke needed to be more than just a “sticker pack”.
“Juke has a wide range of buyers,” he says. “You can get two people who are similar and one will love it and the other will loathe it.”
The alcantara-clad steering wheel with red straight-ahead marker has fine heft in the hands but a smaller, chunkier wheel might better suit the Nismo ethos.
Sporty front seats with suede trim and red stitching provide impressive support and bolstering, yet the curvy black hard plastics adorning the dash remain.
The console and gear shifter get further standout treatment. The console maintains its inspiration from superbike fuel tank designs with faux carbon-fibre finishes and, reminding the driver this is no run-of-the-mill SUV, there’s a Nismo badge in front of the shifter.
Don’t expect hot hatch prowess. It packs extra sporting attitude but it’s short of raucous.
ON THE ROAD
Power delivery is punchy rather than sledgehammer. The front-drive manual, even with its limited-slip differential, can be a handful — accelerate with vigour while steering off the straight-ahead and there is ample tugging at the wheel. It doesn’t like multitasking.
The diminutive engine performs best above 2500rpm and pulling up to the red-line just shy of 6500rpm. It drinks about a litre more for every 100km than other Juke versions and it also needs premium unleaded.
Ride height has been lowered by 5mm in the auto models but manuals sit 9mm higher. Given it is built in the UK, the indicator stalk is on the left of the steering column. It comes in just three colours: ivory, black and platinum.