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- The new Qashqai is probably the most important car to be launched this year – not only for the UK car market but for the country as a whole.
For this new second-generation model Nissan has gently developed the styling, but not too much to put off the customers who have bought 250,000 Qashqais in the UK, thrown in some new technology and spent an awful lot of time making the cabin feel more like a premium product.
- It's no surprise to learn the Qashqai comes with a range of small and frugal power units.
- The range tops out at Tekna – which starts from £23,145 – and buyers will be treated to bi-LED headlights, 19-inch alloys, glass sunroof, part-leather seats, heated front seats, front and rear parking sensors, a seven-inch touchscreen display and Nissan's Around View Monitor.
- Nissan hasn’t only worked on the outside, but also on improving the way the car drives.
Overall handling is planted and precise – it’s not scintillating but neither is it uncomfortably unstable. It does everything a normal customer would expect of it and that’s just fine by us.
- While it could be said this new second-generation model is far removed from its innovative predecessor, Nissan has pulled another masterstroke – they’ve updated and improved the original concept without ruining the key ingredients.
- The British are going to get smitten all over again.