Nissan Juke Review

Recently in my personal life I have been looking to sell my present vehicle and I have been looking for a new vehicle to purchase. The time seems right to buy a new car as prices are still low and a lot of dealers offer 0% financing.

My best friend over at GoodCarBadCar has been helping me with my quest for a new car, Tim has received many a texts saying " What do you think about the..." "Is the .....a good car?"

Today me and idlehide headed out to check out the Nissan Juke, we are looking for a vehicle that will carry the two of us around, look sporty and have room enough for a future dog. ( Not a futuristic dog, but we hope to get one next summer.

Now I'm a barefoot shoe reviewer and in no way a car expert, but I'll offer up my simple views on the Nissan Juke. But the Juke is a Minimal SUV so it fits in with the theme.

Interior/Exterior:

The Nissan Juke is best described as a Mini SUV (Crossover) with attitude. When I think of "Juke" I think of what I used to do to defenders when I played football back in highschool and when driving the Juke you feel the desire to dart in and out of traffic. The Juke has a very sport interior design modelling it after Italian motorcycles. When looking at the exterior it is like no other vehicle on the road and Idlehide described it as a  "mean bug" When Idlehide mentioned it was mean I stated "well it may be mean but its like a mean kitten yelling at a Pitbull" The Juke may be a SUV but it's not in the same class with other SUV's for what most people look for in SUV's (Sapce, cargo space, head room, leg room and offroad ability)

When sitting in the backseat of the Juke you better not be taller then 5'9" or you'll be cramped on a short ride, with the drivers seat pushed alittle back it offer little room for someone in the backseat. The trunk offers ample room to carrying your groceries and everyday basic needs, but if you were picking up "something big" at the hardware store you'd have issues. We are looking to get a dog as mentioned and with the back seats down there would be plenty of room for any dog to relax.

Performance:

The Nissan Juke handles like a little sports car rather then a SUV, it is very peppy and handles great. The 2012 Nissan Juke has 188 Horsepower and is turbocharged with a 1.6 liter four cylinder motor with direct injection. That's as technical as I get but what that means to you is that when you step on the gas your little Juke gets a smile on her face and takes off.  Now you can buy a Juke in a manual transmission or the Auto (CVT) transmission, we test drove the Auto and enjoyed it and will get the auto due to better resale, but I must say the manual would be fun.

The ride in the Nissan Juke did not impress me as much as other areas of the vehicle, I found the Juke to be a hard drive. I felt that the ride did not match other areas of the vehicle, maybe it's the 17" rims on the small body that cause the hard ride but that was a little annoying, but easy to overlook.

We took the AWD Juke out for a spin and switch between AWD and FWD and in the city environment we noticed no real difference.

Safety:

Now our test drive went very well so sadly I wasn't able to test the safety features of the Juke but The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave the Juke a Top Safety Award. When driving the Juke I felt safe and did not note any major blind spots or issues with the design of the vehicle.

Features:

We were looking at buying the base model Juke and was pleasantly surprised with all the features that were offered. The base Juke S comes with the four-cylinder/CVT drivetrain; 17-inch wheels; an AM/FM/CD audio system with an auxiliary jack and Bluetooth connectivity; power windows, locks and mirrors; remote keyless entry; and a 60/40 split rear seatback.

Also when buying a SUV you know your gas mileage won't be the best but the Juke offers you a gas mileage number that you can deal with. The EPA rates the Juke as high as 32 mpg highway, Tim over at GoodCarBadCar would tell me not to trust those numbers, I'll update once I know more.

Well to finish off this review I'd like to say I loved the Juke and it's near the top of my list of vehicles to buy. The big thing holding me back is that Nissan doesn't offer 0% financing right now.

Take one for a test drive, you'll love it.

Kennyo