Is Britain becoming overrun by the Qashqai?

rjk

rjk

OcUK Staff
Joined
8 Aug 2007
Posts
25,629
I noticed something the other day.

Every journey I take recently, I am spotting more and more Nissan Qashqais.

Personally, I dont see the attraction as it is far from my kind of car, but what makes this fairly standard looking SUV such a big hit?

does it have some sort of legendary warranty term with it?
is it surprisingly economical in these financially pushed times?
does it come with favourable finance options making it more affordable to more people?

I counted 10 of them on the road in a 15 mile trip yesterday evening...

It seems odd to me that this car is so popular in recent times. Surely a car that size is not as economic as say, a Focus or an Astra?

or perhaps, for family requirements a Mondeo.

I am simply wondering where the appeal lies in such a fundamentally dull looking car? I am sure that the majority of the regular posters in OCUK Motors would share my sentiments that it would not be high on the list of priorities if you had £17895 to put a new vehicle 'on the road'

Its smaller cousin the Juke also baffles me. Again a popular choice recently and almost as frequent as the Qashqai on public roads these days.

Am I overlooking something important that makes these two offerings from Nissan such great cars?

why aren't these people buying Mondeos to cart their families around in!
 
Its cheap and its a pretty cheap car on the mobility scheme too, the Grand picasso became very popular a few years ago for the same reason.
 
Heh strangely enough I noticed on my way back from work friday there seemed to be a lot of them about all of a sudden (past 3-4 in 5 minutes) - theres a Nissan garage just around from where I live and for ages they'd had loads just sitting there.

I'm guessing they are probably percieved as a good family car (room and safety wise) due to being fairly bulky for what they are.
 
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Surprisingly good on fuel for what they are as well

Cheap to run no deposit on mobility and they are viewed as prestigious by the idiots that buy them/ get on mobility
 
ok ok, i get the mobility deal. sure, they are spacious and i reckon that they would fit the bill for a vehicle with those requirements easily.

but what's the excuse for the rest of the people buying them?
 
I know a lot of people near me own them through Friends/Family deals via employees at the Washington Nissan plant.
 
The Nissan Note is pretty popular now, as well. In fact, we bought the entry level one a few years ago for a variety of reasons. It was a seriously low price, no mod cons that we haven't missed (except air con, but you can survive without it for most of the year), hasn't skipped a beat reliability-wise, spacious inside and boot-wise for a small family and, most importantly, cheap enough for you not to worry about the toddler ruining it (toddler's ruin EVERYTHING - well, mine does). So far, almost the perfect family car.
 
It's not a bad car, I had one on hire for a few weeks. In the right spec and engine I could live with one if it felt a little more solid.
 
The Nissan garage in Manchester has a carpark FULL of them! some tastes GTRs too mind.

Yeah garage around the corner from me used to have about 20-30 of them parked around the side and a nice GT-R and 350Z was very hard to resist the temptation to splurge my savings on one of those 2. I'm guessing there must have been some kinda scheme or something because those Qashqais were sitting there for best part of 18 months or something without any selling that I could see.
 
They want a cheap reliable 4x4?

They're actually 2 wheel drive, we have several in or company car pool. I've driven one quite regularly and they really aren't too bad. Economic (1.5 diesel), high driving position, comfortable, easy to drive, loads of room inside. As an everyday car i would be happy to own one. In fact I'm really hoping that my girlfriend (who works at the same company) is going to get offered one soon, so we can stop using the Mx5 for everyday stuff like going to the stables, taking the dog out etc.
 
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