Nissan Juke vs Nissan Qashqai: interiors

Behind the wheel

Driving position, visibility, build quality

If you like sitting far from the road, the Nissan Qashqai’s driving position will hold the most appeal. In the Nissan Juke, you still sit higher than you would in a conventional hatchback, but not to such an extent.

Personal preferences aside, though, both cars provide a fundamentally comfortable driving position with lots of seat and steering wheel adjustment. It’s all manual, though; you’ll need one of the higher Qashqai trim levels if you want electric seats. The Juke doesn’t offer them at all.

Forward visibility is good in both cars, thanks in part to windscreen pillars that don’t block too much of your view at junctions. Look over your shoulder, however, and it’s slightly easier to see out of the back of the Qashqai; the Juke’s even chunkier rear pillars and small rear windows make reversing harder. Fortunately, both cars come with sensors at the front and rear to help when manoeuvring in tight spaces, as well as a 360deg camera that gives you a bird’s eye view of the car while you park.

With both being Nissans, there are design similarities between the two cars’ interiors. The dashboards are logically arranged in both, with clearly labelled air conditioning controls that are easy to reach. However, the higher quality of the Qashqai’s interior reflects its bigger price tag; where the Juke has hard plastics on parts of its dashboard and on the insides of its doors, the Qashqai gives you soft-touch materials. Even the steering wheel in the Qashqai looks and feels markedly nicer than the Juke’s, thanks to the softer leather that covers its rim.

Opt for the Qashqai and you’ll find a fully digital instrument panel behind the steering wheel, rather than the old-school analogue dials that feature in the Juke. Our Qashqai also had an optional head-up display, which comes as part of the £815 Tech Pack. It projects handy information such as sat-nav directions and your current speed onto the windscreen directly in your line of sight, and is a feature that isn’t available on the Juke, regardless of trim level or selected options.

Infotainment

Nissan Juke

The Juke comes with an 8.0in colour touchscreen, a DAB radio, Bluetooth, built-in sat-nav and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto smartphone mirroring. The menus are fairly easy to navigate, but the graphics look dated compared with those of many other systems and there’s often a pause between touching the screen and the system reacting. Tekna trim’s upgraded Bose stereo system is much better than the Qashqai’s standard system; it even has speakers in the headrests.

Nissan Qashqai

The Qashqai matches the DAB radio, built-in sat-nav and Bluetooth of the Juke, and trumps it with wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto smartphone mirroring, so you can use your phone’s apps via the touchscreen without plugging into a USB socket. The touchscreen itself is bigger, too, at 9.0in; this makes some of the icons easier to stab, but the graphics still look outdated and the pause between input and reaction is just as frustrating as it is in the Juke.

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