1.5 Diesel, 5 door, March 2017

Good road clearance, high mpg, but no 4WD & too many negatives

A move from London required a car with better road clearance when the going is rough down farm tracks and county lanes, the higher clearance also makes for easy access in/out of the doors. Having always sought high mpg and low emissions the diesel Juke’s second benefit is that it returns a real mpg of over 50, achieving 60-65mpg station-to-station at a constant 60mph on the motorway. Unfortunately there is no longer a 4x4 available that I always thought a non-necessity until living in the countryside and occasionally towing, although the diesel has good torque for this. A surprising little extra was the ease of a DIY oil change mid-service interval since there is no under-tray to remove and the filter can be unscrewed by hand. The manual gives basic instructions so perhaps a hint from Nissan that 18,000 miles is too long to go without an oil change! Make sure you get the exact oil which in this case is 5W30 DPF fully synthetic ACEA C4 grade that I purchased for a bargain £20 on Ebay, Granville brand.

For me that’s where the honeymoon ends; the rest is a pig-in-a-poke mismatch of bad design, poor internal space, ugly basic instrumentation, and cheap looking ‘game-consul’ heating dials. Worst of all, and not a criticism of just Nissan, the various bits of automation are confusing; requiring a lengthy, complex, and contradictory user manual. Under certain circumstances some of the automation is dangerous [nb. Boeing 737 Max 8]. The petulant push button start is a serious step backwards, the ignition has to be fully ‘on’ to use the windows, and the rear camera needs a daily wipe (especially in the rain) and is useless at night. Be aware that puddles of water will splash across the windscreen (due to front bumper & skirt profile) causing an instantaneous loss of vision; it's essential to be ready to activate the wiper immediately surface water is seen ahead. The emissions and fuel saving stop-start function rarely activates despite knowledge of how to encourage it to do so. My Kia Ceed was in a different design class (Peter Schreyer, ex Audi) with many well thought out extras nowhere to be seen on the Juke. Sadly, the Juke is a "poor person's 4x0" or just a fun car as one dealer explained. Nissan's Qashqai with similar 1.5cdi engine is better designed and a perhaps a better choice if affordable, returning even higher real mpg according to Honest John. [review based on 30,000 miles of use]

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