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Our Fleet Test Drive: Nissan Qashqai - 3rd Report
Date: 08 March 2008 | Author: Guy Bird
Keep the screen clean and our Nissan's panoramic benefits are clear...
Main Report - 5 March 2008
Who doesn't love a car with a sporty and sloping roofline? Even tall people do as long as they can shoehorn themselves in.
Trouble is, swoopy exterior roofs can make for cramped and claustrophobic interior cabins - which is why the panoramic roof on the Qashqai is a must-have option.
Hand over the £700 for the massive single expanse of glass and you'll see why. The Qashqai may be 4x4 in looks but its roofline is 'compact sporty hatchback', so the panoramic roof is important in adding a good feeling of space to the still decent actual space.
From the inside, passengers see the world go by with ease, without obstruction from twin or even quadruple sunroof frames [1] as on most other cars. It's a great view, as long as you keep the car fairly clean, and without any goldfish bowl side effects. And occupants of passing double-decker buses or high-up truck drivers don't get to peek in, due to heavily tinted glass that stretches pleasingly in an almost seamless curved line - from the windscreen to above the second row of seats [2].
Best of all - from a fleet manager perspective - RV guys like panoramic roofs. Jason King, Glass's head of market intelligence, reckons the Qashqai's should be worth 50% of its option cost in three years, adding: "Everybody likes them, they really open things up for rear-seat passengers and they probably even reduce car sickness too." What's not to like?
