The grand Nissan Qashqai is the family hatchback that believes itself as an SUV. That could have been a formula for disaster, but engineers of Nissan nicely managed to merge the traits of both vehicle types to create a well-rounded product.
The Qashqai serves up a really good driving experience along with low noise levels and ride comfort emerging as obvious strengths. The handling isn’t the finest in the class but most customers won’t be too put out by that. Economy is excellent with the 74mpg 1.5-Litre dCi rivalling the greenest family-sized cars around.
The diesel engines that are accessible on the Nissan Qashqai come straight from sister company Renault. Though the 108bhp 1.5-Litre diesel dCi has been around for a while, steady development means it revs effortlessly and is noise levels are passive at idle. Its real strong point comes in the brilliant economy it returns though.
Decent performance is delivered by the engine, too, and feels livelier on the road, all cheers to the amalgamation of prompt throttle response and the specific six-speed gearbox’s well selected ratios.
Somewhere else in the engine range, Nissan proposes a 128bhp 1.6-litre dCi diesel, a 1.2-litre DIG-T petrol and a 1.6-litre DIG-T petrol. The 1.6 dCi and 1.2 DIG-T units are obtainable with a variety of the standard 6-speed manual gearbox or the Xtronic auto – a CVT that modifies smoothly and keeps the noise of engine quite low. The 1.6-litre DIG-T suggests 161bhp and is the Qashqai’s fastest engine particularly with a 0-62mpg time of 9.1s.
The Qashqai 1.6-litre diesel engine is the most gratifying engine appears with a blend of strong mid-range torque and a 0-62mph time of 9.9s evaluated to 11.9s in the 1.5 dCi models. It’s also the single unit presented with the Qashqai’s All Mode 4×4 set-up. If you desire to take your Qashqai off-road, it’s the ultimate choice but it does come with a cost and fuel economy penalty and the bulk of owners will uncover the 1.5 dCi 2WD car perfectly suited most of the time.
The 1.2 DIG-T unit is comparatively refined, but it’s not very speedy. Flat-out performance in family crossovers isn’t really a selling point, but somewhat in the higher gears like between 50 and 70mph the Qashqai’s engine feels stressed. The DIG-T unit isn’t particularly keen to pull, so you have to work the gearbox relatively solid, which isn’t chiefly pleasurable because the shift stroke is light but spongy, so gear changes don’t feel accurate.
The Nissan Qashqai is cost-effective, specially the 1.5dCi diesel, which attains 74.3mpg on the combined cycle. An excellent CO2 number of 99g/km means it’ll be an economical company car. The 1.6-litre diesel is likewise frugal, declaring 65.7mpg and 115g/km of CO2. Opting for the admirable Xtronic CVT auto on this model only reprimands things to some extent with 62.8mpg and 119g/km.
If you have petrol Qashqai, a 1.2-litre turbo suggests the same performance as the previous 1.6 and 57.6mpg (129g/km), while a 1.6 turbo will land offering probably 50.4mpg (132g/km). Qashqai prices are on same level with its rivals but equipment levels incline to be a little higher, chiefly in terms of safety kit.
