Motoring: Nissan Juke Enigma
Ever since the first version of Nissan’s unusual compact SUV hit our roads, reports Iain Robertson, its visual ‘shock’ factor has been its greatest ally but naming its latest trim level ‘Enigma’ could make English scholars spin on their heels.
My first sight of the productionised version of the Nissan Juke came at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show; the car eventually reaching various territories by 2011, which underscores a decade’s worth of sales success. You see, despite my personal misgivings about its design and abysmally poor packaging, very little of which have changed over that intervening period, the Juke has been both produced in the UK (at Nissan’s Sunderland factory) and enjoyed rip-snorting registration results.
Having asked myself, if my preconceptions were incorrect, as force majeure might insist, perhaps they were. Yet, even at the original launch driving exercise, which proved very uncomfortable for my two metres tall frame, I found it difficult at best to make positive pronouncements…put simply, I did not fit. However, I did not fit anyway into Nissan’s product planning, which aimed the car directly at ‘yummy-mummies’ and people of much abbreviated stature. Despite a product name that inferred ‘agile dancing’ and, thus, a recipe for on-road fun, the only fun I could extract lay in creating sarcastic soubriquets (Puke, Joke etc.) for Nissan’s newcomer.
Thus commenced the best part of nine years’ worth of gleeful ribbing of the model and even those persons investing in a Juke, until it was restyled subtly but competently in readiness for 2020. I was only too aware that the first-generation Juke had sold with as much enthusiasm to young families (at over 100k annual platings across Europe in several years), as it did to blue-rinsers, a factor that dropped the average age to a magical mid-40s, a number that most carmakers regard as nirvana. That Juke was second only to the incredibly popular Qashqai model (for which I coined the ‘Cash-Cow’ pseudonym) was without doubt much to its credit.
Only recently, Nissan has opened a new design centre in China, a nation that loves chintz and lashings of chromium plated detailing. Nissan needs to appeal to its various markets and the spin-off to the rest of us is badged Enigma. To be frank, I could not have requested a better trim level, albeit for a car that is more satisfying to me in its second-generation, for the definition of ‘enigma’, which is given in the Oxford Dictionary as: ‘a thing that is mysterious, or difficult to understand’. Even trying desperately to avoid (to me) the blindingly obvious, applying some sticky-backed plastic to the roof panels and door mirrors, along with a set of 19.0-inch diameter Akari (Japanese for ‘light’) alloy wheels does not truly constitute ‘a new model’.
What is understandable is Nissan’s self-belief in the ‘iconic’ stature of its Juke. The company gushes with enthusiastic support, spouting forth the increasing boldness and even bravery of its new model for 2021. While these aspects might suggest tomfoolery to me, anyone spotting the alternative textural weave to the similarly extolled ‘carbon-fibre’ look is sure to be gulled into adoring the Emperor’s new clothes…my opinion veers towards the young boy in that mythical Hans Christian Andersen tale recognising that ‘invisible fabric’ makes the posing Emperor’s underwear visible.
While I am not an adopter of the latest tranche of voice-activated technology, I shall admit to being drawn to it inexorably. I have a few friends, whose lives would be incomplete did they not have ‘Alexi’ on their sideboards to talk at (I realise that it is ‘Alexa’ but ‘Alexi’ has greater comedic value). To be frank, these apparently ‘intelligent’ devices that can switch off lights, swap music channels and even manage domestic security issues are also ‘listening’ devices that ‘hear’ incidental conversations continuously and feed the consumer information back to HQ…wherever that might be!
Expanding Juke’s suite of advanced technologies, the Enigma trim level introduces Amazon Alexa voice experience compatibility to the entire Juke range. It is available with all Juke models equipped with the NissanConnect infotainment system. However, Nissan Skill allows Juke customers to control some of their vehicle functions remotely, from either their smartphones, or another Alexa-enabled device. Just by asking Alexa, they can discover their Juke’s doors locked/unlocked status, how much fuel remains in the tank, while sending a location to the on-board navigation system, among an array of reportedly more convenient and satisfying controls directly from their living rooms. Although I can understand the ‘hands-free’ safety related to engaging with Alexa on the music front while driving, I truly wonder about a need, let alone desire for greater automotive automation, especially when hearing and reading some of the more ‘negative’ stories about a questionable future of vehicle autonomy.
Nissan describes the exterior adornments of the more ‘normal’ Mark Two Juke as ‘intricate, dark and futuristic’, which is certainly braver than ‘chintz’. However, the bigger alloys do lend the Juke a more design-centric value, even though they wreck the ride quality that the alternative 17.0 and 18.0-inch alternatives improved significantly over the often knobbly first-gen models. Now that I am able to slot behind the steering wheel of the latest Juke, I can report that its overall handling, roadholding and comfort standards are on a higher plane, with crisper steering responses, enhanced dynamic balance and less over-servoed brakes into the better mix.
The list price for the latest Juke Enigma starts at £23,195, which I feel is a touch ambitious for a car that features no advanced electrification, other than stop:start, on its platform. It is not that Nissan cannot do it, playing the role of ‘E-queen’ most fruitfully with other models in its line-up, but it might be perceived as a little short-sighted in the current environment, even with the e-coupe Ariya on the horizon. However, the latest Juke does perform strongly with its 114bhp, turbo-triple petrol engine, topping out at 112mph, despatching 0-60mph in 9.9s, while logging a CO2 rating of 141g/km and returning 45.6mpg (official combined). Tekna+ trim is still £1,900 costlier than Enigma but the broader suitability of the Mark Two version of Juke does supplement its value to the compact SUV class.
