A ccording to Nissan , in the UK you’re never more than 500 metres away from a Nissan Qashqai . The company kindly lent me their pristine 2008 heritage fleet model and, as you do, when you’re in a certain type of car you notice other ones on the road. Suddenly, I was hyper-aware of the Qashqai’s ubiquity , and, when I parked the very sprightly Mark 1 version in an airport car park, it was not 500 metres before I passed another, a slightly down-at-heel scuffed example but obviously still rated reliable enough for an airport run.
Indeed, Qashqai-spotting over the course of a week, I was also impressed by how many neat and tidy Qashqais were plainly giving useful service to their owners, almost two decades old. The Qashqai was a bit of a gamble and a quiet revolution when it was launched in 2006. A gamble because Nissan were ditching their traditional saloon and hatchback staples such as the Primera and moving to this (then) novel concept of a more SUV style of design – a “crossover”.
That was the family car revolution. It’s sold more than 750,000 since, and somehow Nissan have managed to retain the Qashqai’s place in the bestsellers’ lists, despite a vast range of would-be rivals from everyone from Dacia to Mercedes Benz . It’s also a great British success story, and the staff at Sunderland are rightly proud of their creation.
But that is no reason to rest on your Nissan Laurels (and if you get that joke you need to get out more), so the time has come for an.
