It's been 10 years since Nissan revealed a concept car, curiously called the Qashqai, at the Geneva Motor Show.
Try spelling that off the top of your head. Anyway, the production car later went on to become a huge succes, which no-one could have predicted.
Seven years later, it's time for part two. Funny thing: I checked the images released in 2004 and noticed the concept car designers weren't drawing the Qashqai I, but the II!
Just look at this front-end, which is a lot closer to it. Which is a compliment to this car, really.
Obviously, we like to know how spacious this car is in the back. And like its predecessor, it's all fine. There's a bit more legroom as well as some more headroom compared to the previous Qashqai.
The boot space has increased by 30 litres and has some sort of double floor. You can also put this bit up so it keeps your stuff in place.
I'm not just driving a new model here, but this is a whole new platform as well. It's the first Nissan/Renault car to feature the new CMF platform.
A modular system which can be compared to Volkswagen's MQB architecture. This makes it a very special first time.
I can tell you I'm very impressed with this platform. It makes for a very solid, robust experience. There's a lot of comfort as well als communication.
And best of all: the steering, which is almost heavy, especially for a Japanese car, which is a good thing! There's a lot of feeling and feedback which makes driving this new Qashqai a joy.
This has a new engine too, a little turbocharged 1.2 DIG-T engine which replaces the normally-aspirated 1.6 petrol unit from the outgoing Qashqai, which makes this the entry-level unit.
Hard to live with? Not exactly, it's fairly alert, though you will have to keep up the revs as there's little going on below 2000 rpm. Above that, it's quite fine actually.
You also notice how quiet the engine is, as some downsized units have the tendency to be noisy. It might be thanks to the isolation, but either way the effect is nice.
The Lane Departure Warning system however, which is one of the many electronic safety features on this car, gets triggered by the slightest sight of a stripe on the road.
So you get a lot of beeping noises while driving this car. You could switch it off, but that would defeat the purpose, just make it ******** work.
The interior isn't all that exciting, but the finish is above average. The chairs are surprisingly sturdy - Nissan claims to have developed them with know-how from NASA.
So that's what it's like to sit in a Space Shuttle.
The new Nissan Qashqai will be available with four engines: two petrol units and two diesels. This one has 105 ps, there's one with 150 ps and the diesels offer 110 ps and 130 ps.
For the Netherlands the 150 ps petrol unit will arrive a little later, the other three will be available from shortly after the release.
There's also a 4WD version for a 3000 euro premium, as well as a CVT automatic gearbox for an additional 1500 euro's.