Radically styled it may be, but plans for Nissan's new Juke small crossover are far from niche-only: the Japanese brand plans to sell about 20,000 Jukes in a full year with 80 percent conquest sales. No mean feat for such polarizing design.
At 4135mm long, 1756mm wide and 1570mm high, the Juke is quite a bit bigger than a Ford Fiesta but still sits on Renault Nissan's B-segment platform. It shares a lot of the 2009 Qazana concept's beach-buggy-esque looks with six front lights - including two main prominent round ones and two more hood-mounted angular lamps - a bold triple-circle lower air intake and massive fender flares around each wheel. The jacked-up mini-SUV styling on the Juke's lower half - slightly ironic since most sales will be two-wheel drive versions - is teamed up with a coupe-like top half with a rear-sloping roofline, tapering and slim DLO, hidden rear door handle, and Nissan 370Z-style boomerang rear lights - virtually identical to the design elements on the Qazana.
That the car made it to production in this minimally altered form is testament to Alfonso Albaisa's persistence in keeping the core theme intact. In fact the only significant change is the omission of the concept's suicide rear doors, which had to be sidestepped due to production costs.
While the exterior face clearly plays out a rally car theme, the interior looks more to motorbikes with a fuel tank-shaped and metallic painted center console and two prominent motorbike-inspired driver dials dominating the IP. The rest of the interior is more regular production Nissan with just a few tweaks in material usage. Space inside isn't huge but will fit four adults with ease.
The forthcoming more conventionally styled Mini Countryman appears to be the Juke's only direct competitor for now.
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