You don't get an almost 30% improvement in economy from taller gearing alone. Probably a lot of factors, but the result must be welcome!

I've found that there's a powerful subconscious factor at work: when I'm on for a 'good tank', I tend to try a bit harder to hit some magic round number-in my case 500 miles per tank. When I realise that a tankful is going to yield disappointing numbers , I tend to think 'sod it' and try to get it out of the way as quickly as possible! Irrational, I know.

Similarly, when I get a new pad of paper my handwriting drastically improves-for the first page-then it's back to the usual spidery crawl.

Personally I'd agree that it's ugly - although it's reasonably practical so hardly 'useless'. But a lot of people either disagree or don't care what their car looks like, as the Juke is I think no. 9 in the top 10 of sales to private buyers.

With the Juke and the Qashqai, Nissan seem to have found what people want which never happened with the Almera and Primera. Those were perfectly good cars but perhaps not 'different' enough.

Ugly yes, but I can see why someone might buy one. Especially at 60mpg.