2011 Nissan Juke Review - First Drive

[AutoGuide.com]

Let's not ignore the elephant in the room. The Nissan Juke is ugly. On one hand, Nissan should be commended for going out on a limb and not producing yet another two-box crossover. On the other hand, it's difficult to find a good angle from which to view the Juke at.

While it does look masculine and assertive, the design is a bizarre pastiche of different shapes and surfaces which are visually jarring. The only possible explanation is that the Nissan stylist responsible for the exterior decided to sketch his vision of what a Suzuki SX4 would look like when crossed with a blowfish.

As our day with the Juke wore on, the initial shock of its styling began to fade, but there is a real danger of this car being perceived as the Son of Aztek. Nissan's target demographic of "young, urban, connected males," who are obsessed with signaling their social status with ostentatious Polo shirts may also react negatively to a vehicle that's "so ugly, bro".

The interior is another mixed bag, with some very innovative touches mixed with some equally nasty, cheap hard plastic. The dash betrays the fact that this car was built to a price, with its expanse of black, grainy material that could have come from a Versa, while the center console lacks any useful storage place for iPods, cell phones and assorted gadgets that people carry with them.

While Nissan touts the gearshift surround as being styled like a sport bike's gas tank, complete with high-gloss paint, the money spent on this neat but useless feature should have gone into a high-quality, soft-touch dashboard, something that the average consumer is much more likely to notice and can be used by dealers as a selling point.

More: 2011 Nissan Juke Review - First Drive on AutoGuide.com

[car_crazy]

finally a review that clearly lays out all the positive and negative things about the juke without sounding biased. definitely a good read. despite the looks i still want one.

[Violet West]

Should be several new reviews out today from Canada, after the Canada release.

[Violet West]

I wish they would quit harping on the cheap, hard plastic. What do they think this is, a Mercedes?

[Gooner]

Should be several new reviews out today from Canada, after the Canada release.

It's the Canada release today? Where did you hear that. I have contacted several dealers in my area (Ontario) and they have no clue about anything lol...

[Violet West]

not sure where I saw that; seems like I've seen commentary to the effect that because there were several "waves" of opportunities for the Canadian journalists to drive the thing, they all had to wait for the same day (today) to release their reviews. I'll see if I can find the reference.

ETA: can't seem to find it right now, and of course I may be wrong

[valy63]

Have a look to this canadian news : http://www.auto123.com/en/nissan/juk...1&artid=122109
thanks Kevin

[Scott716]

Here is another Canadian story:

2011 Nissan Juke Sport Cross

Notice he described the dash as soft touch and pebbled(sounds nice)...thats alot different then how it's described in that other review. This sounds more like my 06 Jettas dash.

[Keane]

Because I haven't posted yet, I can't post a link but another Canadian review is at Canadiandriver.com

[proteus]

This review isn't very trustworthy -- the AWD system is disappointing? Then why does everyone who has experience driving cars love this system? Also, complaining about plastic in a sub $25,000 car? Really?