“With
‘downsizing’
now a way of
life, Nissan have added their 1.6-litre
petrol and 1.5-litre diesel engine
options from the original Qashqai
line-up to the newer Qashqai+2
range as customers move to smaller,
more fuel-efficient and less tax-
hungry engines...”
APART FROM PICKING UP NUMEROUS AWARDS for their multi-use design, Nissan's
Qashqai ranges have also picked up considerable sales both in the UK and mainland
Europe.
With 20,814 registrations in the UK last year, the Qashqai/Qashqai+2 shot
to the top of the SUV sales sector, outselling the Honda CR-V, Land Rover Freelander,
Ford Kuga, VW Tiguan and Toyota RAV4 to name but a few. Not a bad performance
in a sector when fuel prices, higher taxation, the anti-4x4 lobby and the recession
all contributed to sales dropping overall by 22 per cent to 136,525 units.
Downsizing is now an all too familiar word in today's economic climate with
sales of 'small' cars showing the only increase in demand. But in Nissan's case,
with their versatile, easy-to-live-with Qashqai+2 SUV-cum-MPV, downsizing refers
to the two additional engine options that will now run alongside the established
2.0-litre petrol and diesel units. The 1.5-litre dCi diesel engine and the 1.6-litre
petrol newcomers are available with front-wheel drive traction (which explains
the '4x2' tag) — not 4x4.
Starting at £15,495 for the Qashqai+2 1.6 petrol and £16,995 for the 1.5 dCi
diesel, 'downsizing' also refers to purchase price and vehicle taxes. Currently,
road tax for the 1.6 petrol is £145 and, for the 1.5 diesel, £120 — against
£210 for the 2.0-litre petrol and £170 for the 2.0-litre diesel.
A reminder of what the Qashqai +2 is all about: it is aimed at families who
have the need for seven seats (or five seats and extra load space) in their
vehicles. The wheelbase, over the standard five-seat Qashqai, has been extended
by 135mm and the overall length by 210mm to 4,525mm. The roof height at the
rear is increased by 40mm to 1,645mm and this results in 16mm more front seat
headroom plus 10mm more for the middle row — along with 23mm more knee-room
for the middle row seats as well. The Qashqai+2 also has restyled front and
rear doors as well as a new tailgate with a deeper rear window.
With all seven seats in use the boot space is minimal but fold them flat (without
having to remove the headrests) and the load space is 550 litres. Fold both
the rear and centre row seats flat and the maximum load space increases to 1,520
litres.
On top of that, the Qashqai+2 offers competitive pricing and running costs,
sharp good looks, a high level of specification and safety equipment and even
better ride comfort and compliant handling than most SUVs and some MPVs —
whichever configuration you decide on, the '+2' Qashqai is a good purchase.
At the recent press launch for the additional wallet-friendly Qashqai models
I had a brief test drive in the 1.6-litre petrol (113bhp/115lb ft) model which
has front-wheel drive and a five-speed manual gearbox. Officially, this engine
will return 40.4mpg in the combined cycle and my test vehicle, over a combination
of typical UK roads, returned a competitive 38.7mpg. Given that its CO2 emissions
are 165g/km, this means a road tax bill of £145 — increasing to £175 from
April 2009.
The petrol engine is certainly willing although it gets very vocal under hard
acceleration and whilst cruising at 70mph. Clearly it could do with a six-speed
'box for motorway travel. The acceleration isn't brilliant either, as you might
expect from a small engine in a biggish vehicle. The 0-62mph official time of
12.9 seconds sounds better than it really is and 108mph is the top speed. This
unit is fit-for-purpose, family travel into town, holidays and so on but its
performance is limited and it makes driving hard work.
The better option is the 1.5-litre turbodiesel unit with 102bhp but superior
torque: 177lb ft from 2,000rpm. Top speed is 109mph and 0-62mph takes 13.3 seconds.
However, the greater torque means this is a much better engine to drive in real-life
conditions. It is more flexible; it makes lighter work of going up hills and
dealing with low speed roads and turning into side roads without the need for
changing into first gear at walking speeds. The added benefit of having a six-speed
gearbox also means high-speed cruising is quieter — with this torquey engine,
the fairly large Qashqai+2 just rolls along pretty well in a relaxed manner.
The official average consumption figure is 49.6mpg, although my test car only
returned 40.3mpg — less than the 43.2mpg I recently achieved for the same
type of driving conditions with a 2.0-litre diesel Qasqai+2 2WD. Small engines
need to be worked harder and sometimes that means less fuel economy.
Despite the +2's longer body, legroom is very limited and access poor for rear
row passengers — in other words, it really needed to be longer still. On
the plus side, the larger Qashqai has smart SUV styling, family hatchback running
costs, a high standard specification, refinement, a comfortable ride, good grip,
nicely weighted steering and the extra two seats/more load space. And, compared
to the 2.0-litre models, owners will pay £50 less annual road tax and £1,200
less in purchase price. That said, I'd still opt for the 2.0-litre diesel: it
makes more sense; if not in wallet-friendly terms then definitely in driver
friendliness. — David Miles
Nissan Qashqai+2 Acenta 1.5 dCi 4x2 | £18,495
Maximum speed: 109mph | 0-62mph: 13.3 seconds | Overall test MPG: 40.3mpg
Power: 102bhp | Torque: 177lb
ft | CO2 149g/km | Insurance group 6
“With
‘downsizing’
now a way of