this is the new nissan qashqai and if you're a die-hard car fan you're probably wondering
why should you care well while we're all dreaming about straight pipe lambos and 1000 horsepower
r34s this is the car that everyone else buys and when i say everyone i mean it because since
the first gen qashqai was launched way back in 2007 now they've sold over three million of the
things in europe alone and part of the reason for that is that it does the important things right
so it's well kitted out it's well priced it's safe it's relatively practical it looks interesting
all of that doesn't sound very complicated but clearly it is because despite this car having
more rivals than i do years on my birth certificate it is still
the go-to choice for a very large portion of suv crossover buyers
in a bid to stave off competition from the likes of the kia sportage skoda korok
and vw tiguan the new qashqai has a brand new platform it's larger than before has
even more technology and an overhauled range of engines this includes no less than
three petrol variants all with some kind of electric assistance but for the first time
ever in the qashqai there's no diesels you can tell the new car apart from the old model by
its enlarged nissan v-motion grille flanked by slimmer full led headlamps larger 20-inch wheels
more prominent shoulder lines and of course the fact that it's longer wider and taller
now all of that is great if you're looking at the car from the outside but what about if you're
sitting in it well it's actually been quite a few changes and i think that's good because one of
the most disappointing things about the previous generation qashqai at least in my point of view
was that it felt a bit like a toy car inside like it was a bit fisher price and that the materials
the layout the design it just didn't feel as grown up or as i know we use the word a lot but
as premium as other rivals this however this is a lot different it suddenly feels several thousand
pounds more expensive i mean of course this is the top spec model as the press cars often are
but look at these materials nice soft touch up here there's a nice design on the just above the
glove box there got a more premium gear lever it somehow feels less cluttered as well even though
there's still a good amount of buttons around it's definitely a big improvement cabin storage space
isn't much to write home about i don't think because although there are some good points such
as this wireless charging pad here which can take the largest iphone that you can currently buy the
central armrest isn't a bad size and it's actually a dual level because you can put your coins in the
top there and you can put bulkier items down below but the glove box that could be a bit bigger and i
think that's the fuse box just impinging on the space a little bit there because obviously it's
on the left hand side whereas usually would be on the right hand side and also the door pockets
again they could be larger there's not as much room in there as you'd expect for a family car
technology and as is often the case nissan has packed this car with lots of useful bits of kit
not least being that this central infotainment screen is a touch screen
and it's now nine inches across rather than seven inches like it was in the previous generation car
so it's grown and it's also a little bit clearer because of that it's fully compatible with android
auto and apple carplay the latter also having wireless capabilities so you don't have to have
it plugged in to the phone you can have it on the charging pad the phone that is you can have it on
the charging pad or you can have it in your pocket and you still get all the regular apple carplay
features which is very handy um you've also got things like driver profiles so say if yourself and
your partner often swap in and out of the car then you can have different presets according
to what you want and you don't have to keep changing things that would very much annoy you
if they kept getting moved by your partner or significant other the qashqai is also compatible
with nissan's smartphone app that allows you to do things like locate the vehicle and lock and
unlock the doors as well as give you notifications when it's driven over a certain speed or out of
a particular area handy if you're going to lend it out to anyone you of course get maps on apple
carplay and android auto but you also get a built in sat nav with this car which has got 3d mapping
it's got live traffic it's also got google street view as well and it's also got a functionality
where if you've got say like a google assistant or a similar product in your house you can tell it to
send a destination to the car so say you're getting ready in the morning and you know
where you want to go you can tell your google assistant or similar that you want to go to say
central london and then it'll send that to the car so when you get in you'll be ready to set off the
infotainment screen itself has some good bits and it's got some bad bits as well although the bad
bits are probably a little bit more subjective because i think that the graphics look pretty
basic they don't look as slick or as crisp as you get say on a volkswagen rival or anything
similar to that but it's really really easy to use the icons are huge they're really well labeled
and the screen itself is quick enough and it's responsive so that you shouldn't get lost going
through the menu system and it shouldn't be too much of a distraction if you're trying to do it
when you're driving so although the graphics could be crisper i still think it's a nice infotainment
system other displays in this car include the 12.3 inch digital dashboard display which even by the
standards of today that's a pretty big screen and it's nice and clear in front of you again like
the infotainment system and actually the graphics aren't too bad you're not going to look at it and
think that looks a little bit basic because it's got pretty much all the functionality you'd need
but crucially it still gives you a really clear readout for the speed and your revs and all other
crucial information which some other digital dash displays don't do quite as well this car has also
got as an optional extra because it's standard on the techno trim it's not quite the top spec trim
the one below that a 10.8 inch head up display which is one of the largest that you will get of
any car like this and it is super clear and it gives you your speed it gives you crucial road
information and also if you're using the in-built sat-nav it gives you arrows and
directions on that and it shows you how far away you are from your next turning that's a very good
feature it's a great safety feature it means you don't have to look around at the sat down screen
and at the speedo if you want to know how fast you're going or where you're going
uh what else to mention well it feels larger in here than it did in the previous car which of
course is because it is larger than the previous car but thankfully they've managed to translate
that into the interior the end result being that you feel like you've got more elbow room
also this panoramic roof means it's nice and light and airy in here
i mentioned the wireless charging pad and how large that is so it doesn't matter how
big your phone is you should be able to fit it on there which isn't the same for all cars
and also finally really important is the physical climate control dials and a lot of rivals are now
using the climate control system on the touch screen so you have to find it when you're
driving and that's just not as easy as literally reaching down and just clicking the dial down a
couple of notches and there you go it's cooler so that's a really good point but they've still
kept that in even though it's probably a bit more expensive for nissan and it clutters up the design
maybe a little bit but who cares because it's just so much easier to use so climb into the back
of the cash car and the big stories here are more space over the previous car but also the doors
which now open at a 90 degree angle as you can see on this cutaway and all that doesn't sound
particularly exciting it is if you need to load bulky items in or children because honestly it
makes such a big difference having a door that opens nice and wide it also makes a big difference
if you're filming it and the videographer can stand in there and get a good shot of me so it's
a winner whichever way you look at it as for space well that was probably one of the weaker points
of the older cash car and that it wasn't quite as spacious as you perhaps think it would be
in the back but now they've improved that so i've got a nice amount of room underneath the front
seat to put my feet there they're not getting pinched i've got enough knee room i've got just
about enough headroom actually could be a little bit more but bear in mind the panoramic roof
is fitted so that does rob headroom and overall it feels nice and airy and spacious back here
there's also new power points as well so you've got a usbc and an old-school usb socket back here
so if you've got the kids say with their gadgets that's a really big plus point as for the boot
there's an electric tailgate and overall capacity is up by 50 liters to 504 which is good but not
quite as spacious as the vw tiguan or hyundai tucson just like the old qashqai you've got an
adjustable height boot floor so you can either have it flat or you can have it with both the
slats taken away so you've got more room to put your items or you can have it like this which is
where you've got it divided so that smaller items don't fly around as much if we put it back to the
flat position which is quite easy to do then you see that the pockets on either side of the boot
have been redesigned with the larger dimensions so you've got a little bit more space in them
you've also got some nice hooks there and a 12 volt power supply which is new for this qashqai
before i go on here is my top three alternatives to the nissan qashqai
first up it's the kia sportage first introduced way back in 1993
it boasts standout looks and a seven year warranty for ultimate reliability next up is
the vw tiguan and although it's notably pricier than its rivals it does have a premium edge and
delivers one of the best all-round drives out there finally the saiyan attacker is a slightly
cheaper and sportier alternative to the tiguan despite using a similar array of vw group parts
so the first thing to talk about with the driving experience in this car is the engines because the
big news is is the diesel has gone you can't get this car with a diesel engine anymore it's
all petrol and all of those have some kind of electrification in them so you've got a choice
between a 1.3 litre mild hybrid or coming next year in 2022 a 1.5 liter e-power unit
so starting with the 1.3 you can have it in 138 horsepower form or 156
horsepower form today i'm driving the 156 horsepower version with two wheel
drive so front wheel drive and an automatic gearbox you can also get it with a manual
and all-wheel drive as well the whole point around it being mild hybrid is that it can save fuel
by harvesting energy for when it's decelerating so for example when i'm slowing down now
it's taking the energy from that and charging up a battery which can then be used to turn the
engine off and sustain the motion of the car when you're say for example coasting or just coming
up to a set of traffic lights to a halt it works very well actually it's pretty seamless as it is
on most cars with this technology fitted now you do find that you've got slightly better responses
as well although in this i've noticed it can be a little bit keen sometimes on the throttle response
more so than you'd expect from a family suv like this but overall it works very nicely
despite the fact the engine is very small only a 1.3 liter it's not too thrashy you do notice
it more than if it was a larger capacity engine say for like with master with their right sizing
technology which uses larger engines this is a smaller turbo charged unit but it's still got
enough performance and it's also refined enough too with regards to the e-power 1.5 litre kashkai
what that does is essentially uses the petrol engine as a generator to power the electric motor
which is the only thing that actually drives the wheels there's no connection between the
wheels and the petrol engine now you might think that seems a bit pointless because you've got the
petrol engine there anyway why would you not just get a regular hybrid a plug-in hybrid or go the
whole hog and get an electric car well the point with this is that you're never going to run out
of range as long as there's a petrol station in sight because you can continuously keep topping
it up and do it in a couple of minutes but also because the petrol engine isn't directly powering
the wheels it can always run at its most efficient engine speed so it doesn't have to rev very highly
it doesn't have to needlessly idle and all of that means that it is at its most efficient and you'd
be surprised at how efficient a petrol engine can be when it's at its optimum range another benefit
is that you've got the responses of an electric motor so you kind of get a win-win the only thing
you might not like is that you are still emitting co2 which you wouldn't be in a regular electric
car or even a plug-in hybrid if it's in electric only mode now nissan have also worked very hard
on how this car drives they've revised a number of things about the car from the power steering
to the suspension all around but there's one thing that's really worth noting is that if
you get a car with 19-inch wheels or smaller then you'll get a torsion beam rear suspension setup
if you get the 20-inch wheel version or all-wheel drive you get a more advanced multi-link setup and
when i've driven cars with that kind of variation before the multi-link has always been superior not
just in how it handles but also in how it rides today this car has a 20-inch wheels so it's
got the multi-link setup and i can say that the ride quality is very good indeed it doesn't feel
fidgety it doesn't crash over large bumps like you'd expect a car with 20 inch wheels to do and
without the kind of trick air suspension you're getting really expensive stuff and it's just
a very composed ride i mean i'm sure you can see here that there's barely any shake in the
camera or driving along a regular uk road which aren't the smoothest and it's very very composed
however it of course would be up for debate if that's the same on the 19-inch wheel versions
without the multi-link suspension which i haven't had a chance to drive yet now a quick note on
the handling and nissan is very proud of the fact that they've taken 60 kilograms out of the weight
of the chassis which actually isn't an insignificant amount and the benefit of that is
that the car will be obviously lighter and more agile and it'll also be more efficient as well
and the handling with the recalibrated power steering is it's fine it's good i can't get
too enthusiastic because at the end of the day it still is a nissan qashqai suv but it's not going
to bore you to tears driving down a twisty country road it does have something about it the steering
is direct enough the body roll at normal speeds is fine you know you could have a bit of fun with it
but let's not get carried away it's not going to rewrite any rule books on handling even in suvs
but still it's a good effort and they have improved it over the previous car so if you
like how the previous car drove you'll certainly like how this car drives now since we're sitting
in traffic and we're on our way back to return this car from the launch it's probably a good
time to talk about the safety features that the qashqai has been given in its latest generation so
you've got the pro pilot assist which we've seen before but you've also got adaptive cruise
control which is now fitted as standard across the range along with a number of other safety
features and this center actually very good at giving its lower spec or its lowest spec cars
a lot of standard safety features which to be honest wouldn't be standard in even more
premium cars such as audis or bmws and they would charge you extra for them so we've got as i said
the adaptive cruise control you've got lane assist you've got a rear cross traffic alert you've got
blind spot monitoring you've got a traffic jam assist so that it will drive itself almost not
entirely you still have to have your hands on the wheel and cover the pedals in a traffic jam and
because now you've got this digital dashboard display you can appreciate it working a lot
better than you could before because it shows you what it's doing at all times so you can see
if it thinks you're string across the lane or for example if the blind spot technology is turned on
if you're looking to buy a nissan qashqai but you're not quite sure which one to go for then
here is our top three choices for the cheapest one available it's the 138 horsepower 1.3 liter mild
hybrid vizier spec car if you're a company car driver then you'll want to wait until next year
because the 1.5 litre e-power variant will be coming along and that will have the lowest bik
finally if you're a performance car fan and you insist for some reason on getting one of these
then again it's the e-power variant which has got the most power at 180 horsepower
so how to summarize the new qashqai is it suddenly the standout class leader that you
should buy without a moment's hesitation well no i'm not quite going to go that far from just a
first impressions drive on this launch but what i would say is that if you like the old cash guy if
you bought the old qashqai there's absolutely no reason you won't like this one and you won't want
to buy this one because it does all the things that the old qashqai did but better it's got more
kit it's got a much better interior it's got more space it's got a more up-to-date range of engines
it's just a better car all round and i think that's probably all we could have asked for really
my you