Yes, no, yes.........
The facts - The Qashqai is obviously a car that has caught the imagination of the car buying public, as these things seem to be selling like hot cakes (witness Nissan can't produce enough of them). They give the image and stance of an off roader (read they are huge, look butch and have a particular limited interior), with out the perceived environmental impact. They are relatively inexpensive to purchase and run and seem to retaining their value well.
The feelings - They are huge, and how they can say they compete directly with Golf is anyones guess. The design, especially the interior, is short sighted and smacks of a company that was desperate to get a car to market because they were not making any money with their current lacklustre model. It is also one of those cars that probably "clinic'd" well, with most of the numpty population in attendance. It just looks like a more socially acceptable off roader.
Summary - As you can tell I have very mixed feelings about this vehicle, but may be that is me not thinking "outside the box". If it gets people out of their genuine 4 x 4's then this can only be considered as a good thing. What is of concern, is the car buying population buying one of these and then wanting to trade up to a 4 x 4, a market where Nissan, at the moment, has a very large part of its range. Until the whole light weight trend comes back, which it is slowly starting to with the likes of the Mazda 2, it still seems like a retrograde step.
