Those twin centre cupholders are turning out to be a bit of a pain in the gearstick…
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Main Report
Unfortunately, the giant pro-skateboarder with trainers the size of a car roof doesn’t come ‘as standard’ with the new Nissan Qashqai. Which is a shame, as the big-footed wonder’s kick-flip skills featured in the car’s TV advert would come in very handy for avoiding congestion and finding quick parking.
Still, our new Qashqai 1.5 dCi long-termer – trailblazing the ‘crossover hatchback’ niche – does offer a lot of useful kit for the cash.

In mid-range Acenta trim the £16,149 car offers six airbags, a six-disc in-dash CD changer, dual-zone climate control, cruise control and rear parking sensors.
I’m a late adopter to its exterior looks – all jacked-up hatchback with 4×4 overtones – foolishly expecting something a bit closer to the slick 2004 concept of the same name [1], but the production version keeps more of the concept’s flavour than you might imagine.
It’s almost exactly the same length (4315mm), but 80mm narrower – a good thing round town for squeezing through tight gaps – and 45mm higher, so you lose a tiny amount of coupe feel for more headroom. It would have been nice to have the concept’s suicide doors and slim LED front lights, but that would have made it a £30,000 car, not a £16k one.
The curved roofline and chunky rear pillars still give a very pleasing profile and the well-integrated conventional but 4×4-height doors are easy to get in and out of. Inside, our cabin is dominated by the full-length one-piece sunroof [2] that lightens up the interior to amazing effect. The £700 option really makes the space airy in a way a twin sunroof cannot match. The mid-range cabin is decently equipped with a very modern-looking weave [3] to the orange cloth seats. We’ll see how durable it turns out to be over the next six months.
We chose a 105PS 1.5 dCi diesel (rather than the bigger 150PS 2.0) to suit our mainly urban driving habitat and because it promises an excellent combined 52.3mpg and 145g/km CO2 rating (19% tax).
It’s early days on real-world economy, but the trip computer is showing a 43.7mpg average, which is very close to the 1.5’s 45.6mpg official urban figure and about right given its city driving bias.
Early positive impressions include an easy to obtain driving position, good higher view, and fairly light steering for easy city manoeuvrability. The small engine cruises happily on motorways with little noise too. Early niggles include a slightly vague gearbox feel, care needed at start-up to get the revs right in first gear to avoid stalling, and a rear hatch that needs a firm shove to shut first time. However, most of these issues we should be able to adapt to over time.
So far, the Qashqai’s standout exterior looks, decent quality interior and frugal 1.5 engine offer a feel-good factor the old Almera never had.