Nissan Juke

REPORT 3 £ 25,295 OTR/£25,295 as tested/£350pcm WHY IT ’S HERE

To see if the original baby crossover can reclaim its crown DRI V ER

HERE’S A QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE HALO

car of the Nissan range? Take your time, don’t rush into a decision.

Who am I trying to kid? You know why I’m asking... the answer is the Juke. When you’ve stopped laughing, I shall continue.

To be honest, it’s not something I would have entertained myself until Ollie Kew mentioned to me that the Juke is the prime recipient of all Nissan’s swanky new technologies. Let’s have a look at the list... the Tekna+ as standard gets: Intelligent Around View Monitor (with moving-object detection and forward-collision warning), Pro-PILOT (with traffic-jam pilot, lane-keep assist, intelligent cruise control, rear cross-traffic alert) as well as intelligent emergency braking with pedestrian and cycling recognition, intelligent lane intervention and intelligent driver alertness warning. Even the most cynical among you would have to say that’s an impressive list.

And that’s in addition to all the standard blind-spot intervention, traffic-sign recognition, voice recognition and activation tech... that’s a lot of kit in a small, seemingly unimportant vehicle. So, surely, that must mean that the Juke is Nissan’s halo product.

And you thought it would be the GT-R. Maybe some of you even thought the X-Trail. Hell, I even heard someone say they thought it might be the Leaf. Well, I guess it makes sense – after all, the Leaf is Nissan’s foray into future tech. However, the fact remains that carmakers put their best tech, their most innovative thinking into their halo cars... therefore, irrefutably, the Juke is Nissan’s halo car. The end.

In other news, I’m still struggling with the auto box. It is seriously jerky. Here’s hoping it improves over more miles.