The lower-powered petrol engine may well be constructed from copper and brass, for all we know, given its geriatric combination of thirst and lack of power. Winner: Nissan Juke Performance & HandlingĬhevrolet’s Trax is available with three engines: a 1.6-litre petrol engine producing 113bhp, a 1.7-litre diesel with 128 horses up its sleeve, and a 138bhp 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol option. The hard grey plastics fall behind the Nissan’s softer surfaces both to the eye and the fingertip, though there are probably more places to store your stuff in the Chevy. Inside, there’s a motorcycle-inspired digital dashboard – something of a Chevrolet hallmark – in an otherwise unremarkable setting. For a smallish car it genuinely possesses big-car presence. The front may resemble a flat cliff face adorned with lamps, grilles and a gold bow-tie, but the sides feature some bulging organic surfaces designed to catch the light in a pleasingly fashion. But there is strength and character in its bluff, boxy design. The Trax, by contrast, seems almost boringly square and conventional. So pieces of the interior resemble a scuba-diver’s flipper or a motorcycle petrol tank, there’s a bottle-rack under the front bumper, hidden rear door-handles, huge arches, a rakish roofline and a seemingly random selection of headlamps. Somehow, Nissan managed to take all the madcap claptrap usually reserved for one-off, motor-show concept cars and waved it all straight through to the showroom. The word “crossover” was coined to describe cars that mix elements of off-road style with other automotive genres, and there could hardly be a clearer illustration of the term than the Juke. So how exactly will it fare when pitched against the class leader? The strong-selling, British-built Juke has become such a common sight on UK roads that its weird, four-eyed face now seems almost normal.Īmerican brand Chevrolet will be hoping to enjoy similar sales success with its Trax, a chunky new supermini-sized off-roader that’s freshly arrived on UK roads. Experience has since shown that large numbers of people do indeed want a supermini on stilts with a sledgehammer approach to subtlety. When the Nissan Juke was unveiled in the spring of 2010, it wasn’t entirely clear who might want to own a small car with a 4×4 stance and peculiar coupé styling.
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