New Nissan Qashqai vs Europe: Autocar's 5000-mile road trip

2 April 2014
Feature

The longest test to date of the all-new Nissan Qashqai takes Autocar from the car's birthplace in Sunderland, England to Istanbul and back again. Why Istanbul? Because it bridges Europe and Asia and to the east lies the heart of the Nissan brand, while Europe is a key market for the Qashqai.

Richard Bremner, Mark Tisshaw and Matt Burt make the journey.

From Sunderland to Istanbul (and back again) in Nissan's ground-breaking crossover

Autocar's 5000-mile road trip

Follow Autocar's trip as it happened:

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day one

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day two

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day three

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day four

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day five

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day six

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day seven

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day eight

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day nine

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day ten

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day eleven

Nissan Qashqai from Sunderland to Istanbul, day twelve

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Comments
7

The Apprentice

3 April 2014
It is a good car beyond question but you pay the price for it. Nissan charge a big premium for that nice White paint your car has, all other colours are £525 (apart from base poverty Red) but they charge a whopping £725 for White.

Milking the fact its now very trendy.

Brands like Hyundai with the IX35 are more clued up, White is the free colour on their car (OK its not pearl but looks good, White doesn't really need a pearl finish).

Paint aside, whilst the Qashqai has grown a bit its still on the small side compared to the IX35, Honda CR-V, CX-5, Sportage and such yet its priced right into their territory.

The boot may be bigger but only if you remove the false floor (and don't order a spare wheel) in which case your left with a hideous drop which would make many company H&S officers go pale at the thought of the back injuries for those of us with bulky and heavy gear. With the floor in place its still a pretty misely boot. Which is why the +2 was popular. But there isn't one any more.

So its a bit of a quandary for some of us.

ronmcdonald

3 April 2014
Is this a road test or an excerpt from Top Gear because there was very little detail about the actual car. I'm not sure anyone even mentioned what power plant was under the bonnet. Unless your name is Judith Chalmers, this is just an awful useless video. Sorry guys.

LawrieG

3 April 2014
Great car that this is, its a shame you didn't give details of the model choice options, engine details, price, features, MPG, comfort over long distances etc. This type of trip should give a good sense of "real world" ownership (albeit rather condensed) and therefore the answers to these points would really help a prospective owner in their decision making.

Velvet Munchkin

4 April 2014
Couldn't they find a couple of small niggles after 13 days? This video was 'phoned in. Did we really need to be reminded that Nissan is headquartered in Asia [Bremner]? "It hasn't missed a beat..." "It's very quiet." "It could be easily something from Germany." "Stunning scenery" "Vast waterfalls".

Roll eyes.

Come on guys, what about some real insight? And why no mention of near rivals? Lazy, advertorial rubbish. Totally unworthy!

Captain Darling

3 April 2014
Next to nothing about the car and annoying background music.It adds absolutely nothing to the video.

MaxTorque

3 April 2014
I still can't get my head around why Nissan resorted to copying the styling of Hyundai's ix35 and Santa Fe for the Qashqai's side shoulder and rising rear window lines (as well as the rear lights). Surely they could have come up with something more original than cutting and pasting bits of other manufacturers' designs? It was an opportunity for Nissan to really step it up with something distinctive-looking after the slightly anodyne original but this Qashqai just looks far too generic and bland.

lamcote

4 April 2014
What a staggering waste of time that was. I really can't believe you have gone to such effort to produce this useless video. What is happening to Autocar these days? I always thought I would be able to rely on you to produce top quality journalism, apparently not, then enough said?

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