The 2012 Nissan Juke is a pretty unique car. It has a crossover styling and Nissan bills it as “the bold urban sport crossover.” And they aren’t kidding. The Juke is very distinctive when it drives by. I remember first reading about the Juke and how it was targeted towards 20-30 year old males. Well, I can tell you that the demographic may be a bit broader as my family did have a lot of fun with the Juke. It is definitely designed for more of an urban environment, being compact to squeeze into small parking spots, zipping around corners and dodging traffic. Yet is can fairly comfortably transport a family of 5 (and a small dog) here and there in a suburban environment. For a road trip, I would limit it to 2 people so that you can load up the back with your gear.
With the unique styling also comes fun. I found the Juke to be pretty enjoyable to drive. In fact, there is one word that I used repeatedly in my video below to describe it – “peppy.” (I think I said “peppy” about 5 times!) So what drives the peppiness of the Juke? A few things: its turbocharged engine and its low weight. The Juke has a 1.6 liter direct injection turbocharged 4-cylinder engine which cranks out 188 hp. That’s not a super huge amount of horsepower but when you consider that the Juke only weighs about 3000 lbs, that is enough pep to really move this compact crossover around. Just in comparison, the Nissan Rogue (which is the car that I actually own) has less horsepower (170 hp) and weighs about 200-400 lbs more. So given these factors, the Juke has a sticky and quick ride. The handling was tight and grippy, and when the turbo kicked in, you could throw people back in their seats.
The styling of the Juke is different, and not different in a bad way, it is just that it does take some time to get used to. Its very youthful and has definite themes that run throughout the vehicle. For example, there are dramatic bulbous ovals throughout various components of the body. You can see it most prominently in the front lights.
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