Thabiso Malimela
About nine years ago, car manufacturers came up with the idea of basically putting a normal hatchback on stilts and having the audacity to call it an SUV – alas, the Crossover SUV segment was born. And heading up this compact SUV revolution was the Nissan Juke. To be honest, some grew fond of the car (and crossover SUVs in general) while some openly gagged at the thought of it. Surprisingly, the number of people who rebuked the Nissan Juke and the number of units Nissan sold over the years are reason to suspect that some of the Nissan Juke’s haters secretly went on to purchase one. Speculation aside, the Nissan Juke paved a way for many more offerings in the segment, which means more rivals for it to compete against. And with the market swiftly moving in a direction of more premium offerings, I think it’s safe to say that the current Nissan Juke is well past its sell-by date.
Nissan has, however, announced that a brand new Juke will be fully unveiled at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show, which actually kicks off next week on the 12th of September. And along with the good news, they have left us with some details to nibble on before we get the full meal not too far from now.
Exterior – “Striking Yet Roomier”
Attention people of the land! Please note that due to an effective exterior redesign, there will be no more urges to puke when you see the new Nissan Juke!
Undoubtedly the most talked about topic with regards to the new Nissan Juke is its much-needed exterior redesign. Due to its unusual styling, it took the change of one letter in the name “Juke” to find a fitting word to describe the outgoing car’s role the car community. Yeah, it was that bad! Although reminiscent of the outgoing car, the new car’s styling has indeed taken a turn in the right direction. Among the similarities it shares with the old car, the most obvious is the basic contour which includes the bulbous front end, sloping (and now floating) roof and pronounced wheel arches. The round LED headlights (which now feature a Y-shaped signature insert) are still disguised as foglamps and the porthole of a rear windscreen are clear signs of styling cues being extrapolated from the outgoing Juke.
Image Credit(s): Motor1 
Image Credit(s): Motor1 
Image Credit(s): Motor1
Despite the similarities, the new Nissan Juke still succeeds in being identifiable as a modern Nissan as it takes some of the more likeable styling cues from the Micra, Qashqai and X-Trail which altogether culminates to a handsomely striking package, especially in the rear. The floating and sloping roof, exaggerated rear wheel arches and long-ish bonnet do plenty in giving the Juke the look of a menacing machine. The presence the Juke is able to achieve with this look is one that I never thought would match that of the Toyota C-HR. The familiar V-shaped grille features some LED daytime running lights that actually look like headlights as Nissan continues the headlight/foglamp trickery from the outgoing car. The wheels can be spec’d with either 16-inch steels, 17-inch alloys or a rather conspicuous 19-inch alloy option. Eleven different colours will be available along with a set of contrasting roof and mirror colours.
Main Changes Apart From Exterior
To cut the long story short, the Nissan Juke is now a bigger car. The questions left to answer is, how big? Well, the new Juke is based on the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi CMF-B platform which it shares with the Renault Captur or if you want to be blunt, the Renault Clio SUV. Altogether, this means that the new Nissan Juke will be able to accommodate an all-electric or hybrid powertrain and that leaves much space for hybridised and/or all-electric models of the new Juke (which SA probably won’t get due to our nose up attitude towards hybrid and electric cars).
Adopting the CMF-B platform means that the Juke is 23 kg lighter than before through the use of lighter and higher-strength steels in its bodywork. The car is now 35 mm wider, 25 mm taller, 85 mm longer while its wheelbase grows by 105 mm. These dimensional augmentations mean that the interior gains some extra room with kneeroom experiencing a 58 mm growth and headroom an 11 mm growth. Moving into the posterior end of the car, the compact rear end will have you fooled into thinking the Juke’s boot space is comparable to a contortionists box. Compared to the old car, the now 422 litre boot is 68 litres larger, which is a 20% improvement – I’m pretty sure that figure would look pretty handsome in a PowerPoint presentation.
Interior – Spec’d To Reach “New Levels Of Performance And Technology”!
First thing first, there’s currently no word of the specification spread across the range of the new Nissan Juke. So like a true optimist, let’s go with how good the new Nissan Juke’s interior can get. Firstly, the new interior is designed to exude a premium and high-end feel through the use of soft-touch plastics, metal-looking trim inserts, an electric parking brake (because some people still think that’s a high-end thing) and an option to spec Alcantara leather seats. There’s an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system which features TomTom’s built-in satellite navigation which may prove to be a futile addition as you can always connect your phone using Android Auto or Apple CarPlay and using Google Maps or Waze navigation software apps instead. Although not confirmed yet, there’s reason to suspect that the infotainment system will incorporate a rear reversing camera and a 360 degree parking camera. Behind the reach adjustable and multi-functional steering wheel is a 7-inch digital driver information display that sits between two analogue dials. In case you’re not impressed yet, the new Nissan Juke comes with on-board Wi-Fi!
An Array Of Safety Features
On the new Nissan Juke, you will find Nissan’s ProPILOT autonomous driving aid. This driving assistant electronically controls the steering, acceleration and braking to help you keep the car within lanes and will also stop and move the car in traffic conditions. I must, however, note two things. The first being that this system works best on motorway-style roads and second, it obviously requires you to be in the car, in the driver’s seat and awake! There’s also an intelligent emergency braking system with pedestrian and cyclist recognition which will automatically stop the car if there is a pedestrian, cyclist or any other object in front of the car. So does this mean someone can hold you hostage by just literally standing in front of the car?
Engine And Running Gear
Image Credit(s): Motor1 
Image Credit(s): Motor1
By the looks of things, the new Nissan Juke is designed to look cool and sporty like those running shoes dads like to wear to the mall (along with baggy jeans). So it should go like a running shoe, right? Well, just like the dad in the baggy jeans, fast and sporty are not words you should associate with the Nissan Juke’s performance. This is in part due to the Nissan Juke’s engine offering – a 1.0 litre 3-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine that should, in theory, consume fuel as much as a designated driver should consume alcohol – frugally, if at all. This powerplant is set to produce 86 kW and 200 N.m of torque on overboost. This engine is available with either a 6-speed manual transmission or a more advanced 7-speed dual clutch transmission which features the use of paddles for those who want to manually override gear shifts. In the manual, expect to achieve 0-100 km/h times of 10.4 seconds while the dual clutch will do the same sprint in 11.1 seconds. The Nissan Juke should be able to reach 180 km/h before it runs out of oomf.
Summary
The second generation Nissan Juke has a lot to overcome before it can reclaim its spot as the king of crossover SUV. Among these are the Volkswagen T-Cross, the Toyota C-HR, the Mazda CX-3 and most importantly, the image of the outgoing Juke. It’s still too early to draw definitive conclusions but from what we now know, Nissan is more than just determined to make a mark in the segment it played a role in making.
The Nissan Juke In A Sentence: No more puke!
