Nissan Juke - boy’s toys galore

With a footprint slightly larger than a Renault Clio, the Juke is a high-riding coupe-cross-SUV styled like an amphibian with a severe case of symmetric boils.

It’s like a six-eyed horny toad, balanced on four Pilates balls with a tent on its back in a stiff headwind. Add the racy rear lamps from a 370Z and the C-pillar from a Ford Anglia and you have the epitome of eccentric yet brave design. Stepping aboard the Juke is like paging through a Boy’s Toys Christmas catalogue. For starters, you get a steering wheel pilfered straight from the iconic 370Z sportscar, the gear lever, cup holder and handbrake housing – painted metal cherry red – resembles a superbike’s fuel tank, the door’s armrest is shaped like a scuba diver’s flipper and the motorcycle-style instrument binnacle has a ‘floating’ instrument cowl. Even the cleverly switchable I-CON driver control interface has scuba gear overtones. It’s clever because it uses the same set of buttons and rotary dials to operate either the climate control or the drive mode. Just press D-Mode and you can choose from Eco, Normal or Sport configurations.

Loads of fun

The range-topping Juke’s real draw card though is a long list of standard kit including heated leather seats, multi-function steering wheel, electric windows and mirrors, cruise control, automatic aircon, 17-inch alloys, a rain sensor and auto on headlights. The MP3/CD/Aux/USB audio system offers full iPod and Bluetooth functionality. You also get smart access that allows you to leave the remote in your pocket while you press a button on the handle to unlock the door and a dash-mounted stop/start button to fire up your Jukebox. Naturally there’s a full safety complement of airbags, stability control and braking assistance systems.

On the down side, the sloping roofline restricts rear headroom, the steering wheel only adjusts for rake and the door’s coarse armrest material isn’t friendly to bare elbows. Juke’s 2530mm-long wheelbase offers up a reasonable amount of rear cabin space and 60:40 split rear seats fold down to enlarge a 251-litre boot that’ll just about handle the weekly shop.

Base models styling

Base model Jukes make do with an 86kW 1.6-litre, but the engine in our top-line Tekna+ test car is Nissan’s new 1.6 DIG-T (Direct Injection Gasoline Turbo). The numbers are pure hot hatch – 140kW at 5 600rpm and 240Nm driving the front wheels via a six-speed manual transmission.

The odd thing is it’s far peakier in torque terms than most of today’s down-sized turbo motors with maximum twist only arriving at a heady 5 000rpm. So it’s loads of fun for high-rev point-to-point blasts, but relatively short fifth and sixth gear ratios mean it’s more busy bee than happy cruiser. And it feels as quick as you’d expect, comfortably beating the claimed 8.0sec sprint time by more than half a second.

I love the sporty placement of the stubby gear lever, which sits high and close to the driver linked to a solid – not too notchy, not that slick – six-cogger that likes a firm hand but won’t be rushed. As usual, suspension is provided by a simple MacPherson strut front and torsion beam rear setup. In town, it feels firmly sprung, though nicely-judged damping aids ride comfort on most roads.

However, over really uneven country road sections, the Juke will definitely get jiggy with you.

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