The wife is well overdue a new car.

Found a decent lease deal on a Qashqai Acenta 1.5 dci which she is happy with. Pretty bog standard but ideal for what she will use it for (lugging kids and associated junk around).

Obviously it will be new/warrantied etc but are there any odd quirks etc that she will find the next couple of years to whinge about? What are they like to live with?

Cheers.

My wife has a four month old one. Being honest I was expecting it to be a bit of a dog to drive and be in but it’s actually surprisingly nippy. Load space is excellent and loads of space inside for four.

The elevated driving position is good, and the kids enjoy being able to see more than they can out of my car.

Overall, I can’t think of anything I don’t like other than the fuel release button which is inside the car and there’s no other way to open the fuel filler flap. Queue lots of getting out, trying to open it, remembering it’s inside, opening door, releasing lever, going back to fuel filler. It’s a first world problem I know, but it’s a diesel and it’s not that often that it needs filled up. Real world driving she’s getting about 49mpg.

My mum has one. Make of that what you will

Overall, I can’t think of anything I don’t like other than the fuel release button which is inside the car and there’s no other way to open the fuel filler flap. Queue lots of getting out, trying to open it, remembering it’s inside, opening door, releasing lever, going back to fuel filler. It’s a first world problem I know, but it’s a diesel and it’s not that often that it needs filled up.

My Octavia has this, only a button on the dash instead of a lever; you get used to it very quickly!
Having driven three Qashqai in the last week, I’d say avoid the auto ones, and petrol as well, the petrol manual you do have to push it quite hard to get up to speed, and if you find yourself stuck behind a learner on a steep hill, you quickly find that you’re down into first gear. A manual diesel is the way to go.
Other than that they’re fun to drive, they cruise happily at motorway speeds, the slightly higher driving position is great for keeping an eye on other traffic, and the front seats are really very, very comfortable!
Doing runs of around 100-150 miles at a time, every day, you quickly discover which car seats start to become uncomfortable after a short time! The Qashqai, Kuga, Focus and Citroen DS3 are the winners so far, with the Vauxhall Mokka close behind.

A Vauxhall with comfy seats? That will be a first.

The ride is bouncy due to the live rear axle – think the 4wd version has independent suspension. From anecdotal experience, electrical reliability is disappointingly poor (air con, parking sensors, battery and glow plugs all faulty within first year of ownership from new).

However quite practical, economical and aside from nausea inducing suspension quite comfortable on long journeys.

I’ve got one, ntec+ but with the 1.5dci engine.

Getting about 54-58mpg on my A road commute to work, it was initially a bit slow but now I’m used to it now. Comfy at 80+ through France on the autoroute.

Interior is wearing pretty fast on some of the hard plastic area’s (like kick plates)

No issues yet in 7 months / 12,000 miles

we have had ours about 3 years now , solid car if a little dull i suppose but i have never been that fussed about cars . Only issue we have had is a seized wiper motor which was a common fault and cost more than you would expect to fix but i would hope thats sorted now (ours is an 09).
Pretty comfy and pretty cheap to run , we did glasgow to basingstoke on 1 tank of petrol .

Had one of the original ones, both loved and hated it. Great family car, shocking Nissan customer service and more faults then I care to mention. Fuel pump failure, internal door handles stopped working, keyless entry stopped working, xenon light leaked and not covered by warranty. Other than that it was great…

With the problems I am having with a diesel and town driving, if that is your thing I would think carefully about a dci

Sort of car a total ‘prat’ drives IMO. Enough of these SUV monstrosities on the roads as there is.

Our maud will fit right in behind the wheel then!

Looks like it’s a goer then, thanks all. Can I ask what kind of problems you’re having mechanicaldope as it will be the dci?

I’m guessing mechanicaldope has a diesel with a DPF, which if you only do very short journeys will clog up, same happens with every car with a DPF.

Not a Nissan but 2 egr valves in 80000 miles, totally blocked dpf filter, blocked cat and God knows what else. A fraction of the power it is meant to have even after having these things “fixed”. The mechanic says everywhere he looks something is clogged up. Basically, diesels are not the right car for town driving.

Her current focus tdci is the same, nothing an italian tune up doesn’t sort out.

Not got a Qashqai but got the Renault derivative Kadjar. 1.5 dci Signature Nav so equipment levels are great. Getting 52 mpg on a semi rural commute. Drives fine and is quite lively for a big car with a 1.5 dci engine. 4 months in and no complaints yet.
Went for the Renault only because there are thousands of Nissans about and list price was a bit less with the Renault. It’s my third Renault now and dealers have always been good and had no reliability/build issues despite what most people say.

A Vauxhall with comfy seats? That will be a first.

If it was a Vauxhall you might have a very good point. However, it’s an all-new platform, and is a Nissan UK design.
Vauxhall aren’t alone in that, the Kia Ceed that’s parked out front had me shifting around halfway through an eighty mile drive this afternoon, the seat squab is a bit firm, so you sit on the seat rather than in it.
The old Vectra 1.8L did have the most uncomfortable seats though; the wooden pew seats at the Union Chapel are more comfortable!
The seats in the Vauxhall Mokka are actually pretty comfy, though.
It’s things like seats that a short test drive don’t really show issues with, it’s only after you’ve been in the car for an hour and a half to two hours that the niggling things come to light, and I’ve been doing a lot of that recently.

We have a new 1.2 petrol turbo one, high spec and I really like it with one major BUT…

DON’T get a petrol 1.2 Turbo…. Struggle to get 30mpg out of it, my T5 is more economical!

Lot’s of DCi’s here at work and they’re all getting good MPG.

Also they’re not that big inside (reverse tardis!)
We have 3 kids (4,10, 13) and they do nothing but moan when they’re all in the back seat!

All that said, it’s not a bad place to be, Mrs & I have done a few long trips in it and enjoyed it.

Luckily ours is on 12 month lease so when it goes back it will be replaced by a diesel.
The fact it’s on lease also negates any issues with DPF/EGR etc, not our problem if it clogs up

Had a 1.2 turbo from new on a 63 plate, we did 45K miles in 2 and a half years.

MPG was pretty good, usually averaged 40+, 50+ urban. We chose it over the diesel because the wife, whose car it essentially is has a 50/50 split between urban and rural driving with almost no motorway work.

It stood up pretty well from a cosmetic standpoint to the abuse we gave it with a house move and many many trips to the tip/recycling center, only minor scratches were caused by the dogs claws to the rear bumper, one of them is getting on and tried jumping in a few times when my back was turned and didn’t quite make it.

As a drivers car it’s pretty character free, too light and floaty with the steering for my tastes but the wife loved it, that said I reckon it handled ok.

Bad Points.
It drank oil like an alcoholic given a fresh bottle of white lightning! The excuse from Nissan was that “all these modern cars with thin oil do!”. I had to check and usually top-up every couple of weeks.
Battery failed. Was warranty replaced although it took a few days as apparently it wasn’t uncommon as it was freezing cold at the time.
Electrical gremlins, warning lights etc. Nothing serious that caused the car to stop, just annoyances with it claiming the key wasn’t in the car (keyless start), Stop/Start system faults, brake warning light on despite after checking by the garage them being fine. All minor stuff like that, we were always convinced it had a half-hearted gremlin it work, he couldn’t really be bothered to break it properly, just liked showing us annoying messages that could usually be cleared by “rebooting” the car.
Absolutely gutless, you had to really spin it up to get shifting and it basically encouraged a more relaxed style of driving.
The panoramic roof screen, made a worrying clattering noise when opened after about 18 months, we never opened it so just left it.

In fact we replaced it with a new one a few months ago (1.2 petrol again), this one seems to be slightly less gutless although not frisky by any means, trade off is that it definitely gets worse MPG, so I wonder if they’ve done some tweaking to the software, perhaps to avoid a VW type scandal? Or maybe someone got t-boned on a roundabout because it was so slow pulling away….who knows.
New one handles better, bigger wheels on it seem to make a difference but the ride is more crashy too. you can also adjust the steering weight/feel, buried deep in the settings somewhere. The wife likes it light and floaty though.
Jury is still out on the oil usage with this one…..I really should check it.

We bought one about 4 months ago and so far love it. Brilliant deal for one just under a year old. Great to drive, loads of kit, economical but also fairly quick, and loads of room inside.
Can’t really fault it so far.

So from what I am reading, the 4×4 version is a better bet as the suspension is better than in the 2WD version?

Looking to replace my current car with one next year (the +2 version) and trying to decide between buying a newer 2WD or a slightly older 4×4.

Brilliant deal for one just under a year old.

So what sort of price was that if you don’t mind me asking?

Got mine from Motorpoint have a look, went and had a good look around. Ive had my 2015 1.2 for 8 months, some early 1.2’s and Jukes had oil problems now all sorted. Family of 4 dont fid it sluggish or poor MPG doing 46-52 mpg brim to brim. Easily copes wth my trips around west Wales and Brechfa loaded up with family/bikes. It’s been said very comfy.

A 4WD version will likely be give worse MPG, and also – surely it’s not really a live rear axle on the 2WD version? It’s not an agricultural vehicle, afterall!

Had one for 12 months 1.5dci got 70mpg from Newcastle to Scotch corner the other day 20000 miles a few little electrical niggles all fixed – they feel quick when you first drive them but really have no top end – will cruise all day at 100mph on the contintent and still do 45mpg – tends to stall in 2nd gear if you get lazy with the revs – handles quite well but I think low speed ride quality a bit shite

Well interestingly my oil warning flashed on this morning… So went to the dealer to get them to top it up (full maintenance lease… I’m not that lazy normally)

4L in 11,800 it took to top up.

So I should make it to 18,000 within the 12 months for it’s first service without another.

4 litres ? to top it up?

Yeah, I suspect it was on fumes in the sump.

Thanks everyone.

Went for a 1.5 dci Connecta with comfort pack in the end, decentish spec and got it for not a lot more than the basic one. Waiting for a 66 so hoping her current car lasts that long.

If it took 4L to fill it up I would reckon that engine will be borked if not now soon. I would also say that there will be some small print somewhere that states you should check the oil regularly even if it’s on a service contract and if it took 11k for the oil level to drop by 4L you haven’t been checking it. I’d get shot sharpish. They will use any excuse to charge you for a new engine. Mrs Inbreds Skoda is on a service contract but we still have to check Fluids and tyres once a week.

It’s not really safe to treat the car like that – on the motorway it’s dark and raining you are overtaking a line of lorries and
The engine goes bang – think of the children!