Nissan Qashqai
New from £30,075 / £224 p/m
Is the Nissan Qashqai SUV a good car?
Read our expert review
Words by: Catherine King
"The Qashqai is one the UK’s best-selling cars and Nissan wants to keep it that way. With this latest round of updates, the Qashqai gains a new front grille, tweaks to the trim levels and some nifty technology, but will this be enough to fight off strong competition from the likes of the Ford Kuga and Kia Sportage? While rivals offer an array of different fuel types, Nissan sells the Qashqai in two guises. You can have a mild hybrid, or for a unique twist on electrification there’s e-Power. This system gives smooth driving with the instant acceleration of an electric car but without the need to plug in. It’s pleasant and easy to drive, has some genuinely useful new camera features, and makes an intriguing option for those not ready to buy an electric car."
Read the review by category
Running costs for a Nissan Qashqai
4/5
The Mild Hybrid manual Qashqai starts at around £30,000, providing a decent amount of safety tech and equipment – but choosing e-Power will set you back around £4,500 more. This theme continues as you move through the trim levels, so it’s worth noting that the top of the range e-Power Tekna+ is more than £40,000. That in turn means you’ll be paying an extra £410 in VED for the first five years. However, while driving the Qashqai e-Power feels like an electric car, company car drivers will still incur higher Benefit In Kind than Nissan’s all-electric Ariya or a plug-in hybrid like Mazda’s MX-30 R-EV and you’re still only likely to get around 40 mpg on a good run.
Reliability of a Nissan Qashqai
4/5
The Qashqai is built at Nissan’s plant in Sunderland and around 140,000 e-Power Qashqais have been produced there since 2022. The system has also been around in Japan for a while now and Nissan claims customer feedback has been positive. Historically Nissan has a solid reputation for reliability and all Nissans are covered by a three-year or 60,000-mile warranty. This isn’t as generous are many rivals including Kia, Toyota, or Renault but for a fee it can be extended when your initial cover ends.
Safety for a Nissan Qashqai
5/5
Even the entry-level Qashqais have an array of safety features including blind spot monitoring, cruise control, driver alertness monitoring, lane departure warning and prevention, forward collision warning, a rear camera with parking sensors, and cross traffic alert to prevent you from backing out onto oncoming traffic. We particularly like how Nissan has created a shortcut option to configure your preferred combination of features, so for example you could turn the lane keeping assistance off but leave speed limit alerts on. You do have to apply this each time you set off, but it’s easy to get to with a press of two buttons on the steering wheel and much less frustrating than in other models we’ve driven lately, which require you to dig through various touchscreen submenus every time you turn the car on. Setting the pilot assistance function is also straightforward, allowing the car to take most of the strain out of motorway driving by adjusting your speed to the cars around you and keeping you in lane.
How comfortable is the Nissan Qashqai
4/5
Nissan has rejigged its trim line-up for the latest Qashqai, removing what was the lowest grade to make Acenta Premium the entry-level. Above this sits the mid-level N-Connecta, with Tekna above and Tekna+ at the very top. There’s now an extra N-Design trim priced alongside Tekna for those after a sportier look. This gets more body-coloured lower panels and its own wheel design. Inside there’s lashing of Alcantara across the dashboard and door cards which will likely appeal to anyone who wanted an Abarth but ultimately needed a family-size car. For those after a more traditional look, alternative trim options include synthetic leather upholstery with brown dashboard inserts. The Qashqai feels very well put together, there’s a satisfying clunk as you close the doors and a soft feel dashboard with customisable ambient lighting adding a more premium feel. The seats are firm, yet comfortable and supportive with decent head and legroom in the back, although it’s rather cosy if you are transporting three adults. There’s plenty of boot space with a configurable false floor adding flexibility. We tried out the Tekna and the N-Design versions and preferred the refinement offered by the Tekna’s smaller wheels, giving a softer ride with less squirreling around corners. That said, Nissan has worked to increase refinement by adding thicker windscreen glass to reduce wind noise compared to the previous model.
Features of the Nissan Qashqai
5/5
The Qashqai already had a decent level of tech, but it’s now been ramped up a notch. The entry-level Acenta Premium covers the basics with a responsive large 12.3-inch touchscreen and wired CarPlay and Android Auto, but it’s worth moving up to the N-Connecta grade where you’ll get Google built-in. This works well and includes a voice activated Google Assistant like the one we enjoyed in the Renault Austral we lived with recently. You will also get wireless phone charging and mirroring, plus our favourite feature, Nissan’s improved Around View Monitor. This now creates a 360-degree view of the car in three dimensions, coming in particularly handy in tight spaces. It also helps you spot smaller obstacles and kerbs with its "invisible hood view" building up an image of your front wheels as though you can see through the bonnet. The highest trim levels gain a head-up display, clearly showing important information like your speed and navigation instructions in the driver’s line of sight. All this keeps the Qashqai up to date whilst retaining the practicality of physical heating controls and proper buttons on the steering wheel.
Power for a Nissan Qashqai
3/5
Nissan’s e-Power technology is designed to bridge the gap between the familiarity of a traditional petrol engine and the improved driving experience of a fully electric vehicle. As the petrol engine is not directly connected to the wheels, an electric motor is always responsible for your motion, so the Qashqai remains smooth and consistent as you accelerate. This contrasts with other hybrids where hard acceleration results in a noticeable switch between electric and petrol power. If you have experienced silent fully electric motoring, you will notice the engine noise, designed to sound more like a conventional petrol engine, but the instant power when you squeeze the right pedal does emulate the EV experience. There’s an array of different driving modes to choose, from Eco to Sport, with each tweaking the power delivery accordingly. The reality is most people will stick their Qashqai in the standard drive mode as they go about their day-to-day. You’ve also got EV mode, for very short bursts of all-electric driving around town and you can up the regenerative breaking by using B-mode. If that’s not enough, there’s an e-pedal mode for near one-pedal driving. This is very grabby and will work best for inner cities and traffic jams. Overall, the Qashqai e-Power makes life easy, offering some of the benefits of an electric car but without the faff of cables.
Lease deals
These deals are based on terms of 8,000 miles, for a 36 month lease with a 6 months initial payment.
£269.46
Monthly payment
£1,616.76
Initial payment
£359.99
Monthly payment
£2,159.94
Initial payment
£334.01
Monthly payment
£2,004.06
Initial payment
£316.49
Monthly payment
£1,898.94
Initial payment
Standard equipment
Expect the following equipment on your Nissan Qashqai SUV. This may vary between trim levels.
Related articles and reviews
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Nissan begins UK production of the new Qashqai
We go behind the scenes at Nissan’s Sunderland Plant to discover how one of the UK’s most popular cars is built
Updated Nissan Qashqai Coming Soon: Specs, price and release info
Nissan’s best-seller gets an update, it’s more than just a facelift as the new Qashqai gains a tech upgrade too
Nissan Qashqai e-Power hybrid SUV (2022 - 2024) review
The e-Power hybrid offers an electrified path into a Qashqai and a step on the road to a full EV but Nissan may struggle explaining the tech to buyers
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