This Juke is no joke

Text and photos by Ardie O. Lopez

The past year has been a frenzy of new car releases, to put it mildly, and the crossing over to 2016 hardly broke that pace. This time it’s Nissan Philippines’ turn to add to the list of covetable automobiles that the market will seriously mull over. Make way for the all-new Nissan Juke.

A sporty subcompact crossover that’s unlike anything you’ve seen before—on Philippine roads at least, the Juke was first introduced in 2010 in Japan where it sold over 10,000 units in just a month.

Many of us motoring journalists who’ve traveled for overseas launches and drives have seen it for at least a couple of times. It certainly is the kind of automobile that turns heads. Apparently, it took that long for the Philippine market to be deemed ready for it.

Zipping with personality

First thing that strikes you when you first see the Juke are its “four eyes.” Counting the fog lamps integrated into the bumper, you’ve got three pairs of lights that flank the signature Nissan grille.

It initially struck me as weird, seeing two totally different pairs of headlights (well, the top ones are actually LED clearance lamps) stacked on a single fascia is like seeing too many fonts on a print ad.

But Nissan’s designers were on to something, since the Juke’s one-of-a-kind, rule-breaking design actually grows on you.

Its profile reveals a tapering rear end, rear door handles mounted on the C-pillars, and oversized bulging haunches! It also has a relatively high ride clearance, and an overall toy-like appearance that’d make you (well I, for one, would most certainly) want to mount 19-inch alloy wheels just to indulge its unique look.

If you Google its Nismo Juke RS iteration, you’d see its potential as a seriously fun high-performance toy car.

Fun covers all bases

For a tall-ish compact crossover equipped with an inline four-cylinder 1.6-liter DOHC 16-valve gasoline engine, the Nissan Juke zips in and out of traffic with ample power.

Its handling proved to be agile and responsive, as our 20-Juke convoy briskly snaked through Edsa in the middle of the morning rush hour to get to NLEx, with San Juan, La Union, as our destination.

We had plenty of seat time with it, with a five-hour drive ahead of us.

Once we hit the expressways through SCTEx and TPLEx, we got to stretch its legs, so to speak, and see how viable it was as a long-distance cruiser.

Automatic shifting with its XTronic (CVT) transmission was smooth and seamless, with well-set gear ratios, maximizing the revs with minimal power wastage.

Its 1.6-liter engine didn’t seem strained, and hitting 170-180 kilometers per hour (just on well-calculated short bursts to test acceleration) was no problem at all. There was, however, a noticeable engine noise that better sound-deadening materials could significantly reduce.

It also has what Nissan calls its I-con drive selector, which gives you three driving modes—Eco, Normal, and Sport.

Toggling between them did significantly affect the car’s behavior and performance, with the Sport mode, being the obvious fun choice, providing more assertive acceleration and longer duration in between gear shifts, pushing the speedo needle to triple digits more quickly.

The Juke is amply equipped with safety and performance-enhancing features like dual airbags, ABS, EBD with brake-assist, but it could use more airbags and some form of stability control.

It’s quite good value, however, at P980,000. For that price, you get keyless entry, a push-button engine start/stop function, the I-con drive mode selector, and even cruise control.

The interior is decidedly thematic, which makes it as fun inside as it is outside.

Seating is surprisingly comfortable, and the driving position is good. Its sporty leather-clad steering tweaks the audio quality from the factory speakers acceptably good.

Seriously, it’s Juke time

Driving the Juke for the entire way from Manila to La-Union gave me a very clear impression of its upbeat and enjoyable nature. It feels light, and certainly agile—with very predictable handling.

Its precise “pointability” and comfortable ride quality made it a pleasure to drive, even on long duration.

It’s feature-packed with all the essentials; it’s zippy yet fuel-efficient. Best of all, you can take it home for less than a million bucks.

The Juke having a one-of-a-kind look is a welcome bonus that totally sets your apart from a sea of look-alikes in traffic.

It took a while for the Nissan Juke to finally roll out on our streets and highways, but the timing couldn’t have been better.

If you’re looking for a ride with a good set of features, impressive performance and a unique look, all bundled up in a very attractive price point, the Juke’s for you.