FIVE SURPRISING SMASH HITS
BMW MINI 2001-NOW This was a dangerous challenge – replace the best-selling British car of all time, a car that was part of the national culture and a car whose makers had repeatedly failed to replace. German money, motivation and pragmatism produced what many considered an over-sized pastiche, but it was a high-quality pastiche that didn’t deserve this pejorative. The new Mini was exactly what the market wanted.
NISSAN JUKE 2011-NOW Is it an SUV? Is it a hatchback? Is it an oddball, fiscally mutated machine from Japan? The Juke was, and is, the first two things but, coming after the Qashqai, buyers had less trouble understanding what this little tyke of an SUV was all about. Its styling was divisive, but there were enough who liked it to frequently propel into the UK top 10 sellers. Curiously, Nissan has been slow to replace the Juke, although it still does decent numbers.
NISSAN QASHQAI 2006-NOW Is it an SUV? Is it a hatchback? Is it an oddball, fiscally mutated machine from Japan? The Qashqai was, and is, the first two things, and in 2006 there were plenty who didn’t know what to make of this high-riding hatch with a four-wheel-drive option. They do now, this crossover selling fast enough to rescue Nissan’s fast-shrinking European presence and establish a whole new genre of competitors.
RANGE ROVER EVOQUE 2011-NOW The 2008 LRX concept was a hit, but not one as big as the production car itself. Land Rover famously deviated only by millimetres when it turned the three-door LRX into the three-door Evoque, although it was the more practical five-door that ignited the firm’s spectacular expansion. After 772,096 sales, the original has just been replaced – by an Evoque almost dimensionally identical.
TOYOTA PRIUS 1997-NOW The first Prius, a slightly ungainly four-door saloon with an odd little air vent beneath the nearside rear pillar, was initially offered only in Japan. Global sales began in 2000, and by 2002 US celebrities were driving them as a political statement. Sales accelerated, still harder with the secondgeneration’s arrival in 2003. Millions have been sold, and hybrids have become ordinary. That’s real confirmation of success.