2012 Nissan Juke SL AWD: Small SUV, big style/fun quotient

Written by Steven Macoy
Thursday, 29 December 2011 15:09

Nissan has been turning out some truly daring automotive designs in recent years, and some have even produced imitators — witness the Nissan Cube, which begat the Kia Soul. But Nissan must have taken its most creative designers and locked them in a back room somewhere, and the inevitable result was the Juke.

So what is a Juke? It’s a lot of things: sporty subcompact, small SUV, well-equipped economy car, commuter car (in a pinch), conversation piece. You can even put a couple fairly compact adults or average-sized children in the back seat, and make a day of it in reasonable comfort and style.

Our top-of-the-line 2012 Juke SL, with all-wheel drive, had a base price of $25,550. The bottom-of-the-line Juke S starts at $19,770. All Jukes are equipped with the 188-horsepower turbocharged Four, bolted to a continuously variable transmission or six-speed stick shift.

That’s more than enough muscle to motivate this 3,210-pound car, and the CV transmission does a better job than most of transferring all that power to the Juke’s four wheels. It’s no econobox — the best we were able to do on the fuel-economy front was in the mid-20s range — and few would dare take this toy SUV, with just 7 inches of ground clearance, off-road. But it’s endlessly fun to drive. The promise of an entertaining ride, offered with every curve and flourish of its one-of-a-kind shape, is more than delivered by the power train and suspension.

And just in case you forget to think about how much fun you’re having at the wheel of the Juke, glance down at the domed, amber driving lights atop the front fenders — an echo of the lighted amber hood ornaments that adorned Pontiacs of the early 1950s.

Fun though it may be, the Juke comes with a few liabilities. The most serious one is insufficient legroom for tall drivers, and very short front-seat cushions that provide inadequate thigh support. Tall adults might feel cramped in the back seat because the rear-sloping roof diminishes headroom. Nissan’s Versa and Cube, built on the same platform, are more accommodating in this respect, but lack the Juke’s pleasing personality and sharp driving dynamics.

In an era of relatively colorless cars, our dressed-up Juke had brightly colored interior trim splashed here and there, including a center console and other components rendered in glossy, bright red plastic. Otherwise, the interior is fairly conventional, but in a good way: Nissan resisted the understandable impulse to make the controls weird or counterintuitive, in keeping with the car’s unconventional lines.

The Juke garnered a Top Safety Pick award in crash-testing by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Introduced for the 2011 model year, it’s too new to have compiled a reliability record.

While very tall drivers might find the Juke too confining, its versatility, all-weather capability, modest price and high fun quotient make it an intriguing choice in the small-SUV segment.

Steven Macoy ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) is a longtime car enthusiast and full-time editor who lives in Bethel.

Base price: $25,550

Engine: 1.6-liter turbocharged inline Four, 188 horsepower, 177 lb.-ft. torque

Transmission: Continuously variable automatic

Drive: all-wheel

Weight: 3,210 lb.

Suspension: MacPherson strut front, torsion beam rear

Wheels: 17x7-inch alloy

Tires: P215/55R17 98V all season

Seating capacity: 5

Luggage capacity: 10.5 cu. ft.

Maximum cargo capacity: 35.9 cu. ft.

Fuel capacity: 13.2 gallons

Fuel economy: 25 mpg city, 30 mpg highway

Fuel type: premium unleaded (recommended)