Seems Nissan is making a habit in the last few months of introducing oddly designed vehicles. Well, oddly shaped in the view of the North American market anyway. The new 2011 Juke fits right in there. However, this little tyke grows on you with exposure. I recently gave the Juke a through shaking across the coast of British Columbia and I came away with an unexpected fondness for this little car.
One major factor in this affection is the starting price of $18,960. With the average transaction price of an automobile running just over $29,000 the Juke is a bargain. Also, though the name Juke may throw some folks. The word Juke according to Nissan and the dictionary means to “dodge obstacles,” such as a football player dodging a defender. With a little research I discovered it also has a very different meaning in the south as a noun. A Juke (Juke Joint) is a place where alcohol, dancing and female company might be found. Let’s just let that one go for now at least with this car. Although I am sure that the fun factor could be employed here but in a fat different manner.
Seriously though folks, looking deeply into what makes the Nissan Juke work you will find the basis of a very fine economy vehicle. Based on a compact crossover design the Juke offers a great deal for a small package. Yet as small as it seems on the outside it is quite large on interior space. The wide low profile suggests its excellent handling attributes. The Juke squirts around turns on country roads and dives into small spaces in the urban San Francisco environment. It easily turns from a cool little commuter to a fun back-road car.
Part of the reason for the outstanding handling is the available all-wheel drive system. The basic component to the all-wheel drive weighs just 63 pounds but it sure makes a huge difference in the vehicles ability to keep four wheels firmly planted on the road. Don’t get me wrong, the front-wheel drive Juke is just as fun to drive, but the AWD adds a whole different perspective.
The exterior design is anything but mundane. We had more than one media type scratching their head as they grazed at the front end wondering why the fog lamps are mounted in the front bumper next to the grille. And, we had a whole lot of embarrassed automotive experts blushing as the Nissan folks explained those are not fog lamps they are the head lights! The fog lamps are below in the lower valance
Nissan engineers also fooled everyone by tagging a turbocharger onto the small inline four-cylinder sitting under the hood. Officially there is a 1.6-liter direct injection gasoline engine sitting under that sloping hood. This engine, according to Nissan, offers up 2.5-liter performance with 1.6-liter economy. That is the beauty of small turbochargers on small engines. These turbos create a heap load of performance without breaking the bank. As they do here punching performance of this engine up to 188 horsepower and 177 lb-ft of torque. May not seem like much until you realize there are much larger engines out there that can’t come close to these performance figures.
A manual transmission is only available in a front-wheel drive. However, both drive derivatives, FWD and AWD, receive the Xtronic Continuously Variable(CVT) automatic.
Nissan continues to surprise us as they introduce a variety of vehicles that fill the voids in some case we did not even know we had. The Juke is just another entry into that constant variable we’ve seen from this inventive group. The move to the music city, Nashville has apparently done some good.
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