Nissan Qashqai

Bought the Qashqai 2.0 after 16 yrs of continental ride. Have to say that I am very impressed with the car. The car drives well, with decent 2.0 NA power. Most importantly the car is very well insulated. It is extremely quiet. I can safely say that it is better insulated compared my previous Golf GT, Volvo S40, Jetta GLI, Alfa159 and Merc A180. As for FC, I will say that it's at the normal range of 10km/L. Overall I feel that it's one of the best family SUV money can get within its similar class.... Read More

I used to own the pre-facelift Qashqai but I had decided to upgrade to a bigger SUV as I found the car rather small and under-powered for my liking. I was drawn to the exterior design and lines of the Qashqai a year after it was launched. Having driven the Sunny way back in 2000, I found that Nissan had made good progress over the years, so decided to sign on the dotted line. What attracted me too, was that it came turbo-charged at 1.2L, so I ended up paying much less road tax for a car that is almost at 1.8L size. I drove it to Malacca and back within 1 day and I was quite impressed with its ability to cruise and its fuel economy. The high driving position and rather cossetting interior made driving along the NS highway a breeze if you go at about 110 - 130 km. The doors closed with a reassuring thud (unlike typical Jap cars) and the car feels real solid and heavy. Daily driving, however was much less ideal. The engine felt under-powered, even though the turbo kicked in at 1750 rpm to pull it along. At about 3500+ rpm it ran out of grunt quickly. I must have used the Eco mode only once in my four years of ownership - a bicycle probably can outrun a Qashqai set in eco mode. The CVT gearbox was another of my bugbear with this car. While it tried to mimic a traditional 6-speed autobox, the shifts were rather unnatural, and often, I found the car seemed to be in a wrong gear (whereas technically it shouldn't cos it a CVT!). Other than its mechanical aspects, I had little complaints about its interior. There were plenty of buttons and functions for you to play around with. The only downside was that it had no Android auto or Apple Carplay for the pre-facelift version. Also, it did not come with an auto tailgate. I got really tired opening and closing the tailgate manually, especially when you have bags/boxes to carry and are trying to get it to open or close with your hands full. Maintenance wise, I did not expect it to cost as much as the X-Trail. I was also doubtful of the mechanical reliability of the engine and CVT gearbox.... Read More