Up there on the list of perplexing automotive names sits the Qashqai. It’s correctly pronounced cash-kai and represents Nissan’s entrance into the compact SUV segment, an area where the discerning buyer finds a mid-size SUV too large for their lifestyle, but the smaller subcompact to be too limited for their daily lives. The Qashqai aims to solve that conundrum by blending a healthy mix of urban-optimized sizing and features, but is its porridge at the right temperature for Nissan to walk to the bank with this, erm, Qash-cow?
Nissan’s familial V-motion grille is present and is flanked by a pair of LED boomerang-shaped headlights, giving the SUV a handsome chiseled front fascia. Its silhouette lacks the floating roof design found in almost every other Nissan but the profile is set off by attractive 19-inch aluminum-alloy wheels that resemble a windmill in motion. Draped in a clean and safe shade of Pearl White metallic paint, this specific Qashqai doesn’t represent the playful side of its color palette which includes unique hues like Monarch Orange, Nitro Lime, and Scarlet Ember.
A particularly anemic 141-hp is produced from the 2.0L naturally aspirated 4-cylinder and it’s routed to the asphalt via an X-Tronic continuously variable transmission (CVT). Put your foot to the floor and the CVT buzzes in protest as it wrings out every Japanese horse available to muster a pass on the highway. Likewise, the steering feels muted and uncommunicative but is very responsive to inputs – an iconic Nissan trait. The chassis also balances a compliant ride without feeling overly damped. What’s important here is that in tight urban environments the Qashqai feels at home: maneuverable, nimble, and just the right size.
Make no mistake, however, as the Qashqai won’t be the fastest on the block. Though I highly suspect would-be owners would be happy to make the trade-off for the vast number of safety features available. And though both the Kicks and Qashqai come standard with Nissan’s SafetyShield 360 (a suite of safety monitoring systems), the latter can ratchet up the ante with ProPilot Assist, a batch of technologies that enables semi-autonomous driving capabilities.
Base pricing starts at 31.948 USD, while this particular SL model comes equipped with the Platinum package (2.150 USD), adding a 7-speaker premium Bose audio system, LED headlights, fog lights, memory driver seats, and mirrors. The Pearl White metallic paint option adds 300 USD to the sticker for an as-tested price of 34.398 USD, almost 9.500 USD above the sticker price of a loaded Kicks. It may be larger, but the responsive steering makes the vehicle a breeze to plot through tight spaces. If it were my money, the front-driving SV trim would be the sweet spot here, offering just the right number of creature comforts while letting me pocket an extra 2.000 USD over the AWD model.
