Nissan Juke F16 (2020-2026)

A big improvement over the old Juke – The new Juke does a great job at feeling premium, even in this price range. You’re not going to find anything glaringly cheap on the exterior. Nissan have done a decent job at presenting the Juke with minimal panel gaps, and an overall fit and finish that is impressive for a car at this price. Move under the bonnet of the Juke, and you’ll… Read more

find a down-pillow equivalent of sound deadening, helping prevent intrusive engine noise overwhelm the driving experience.

It’s fair to say Nissan have done their due diligence in ensuring the Juke is built to a high quality standard.

I did however notice that the leather boot around the gear selector had a small tear in it, around 2cm across. Hopefully this was an accident from a previous reviewer rather than being poor build quality.

The Juke ST-L is priced at $36,490, and has a few features that go a fair way to help justify this price.

These features include a turbocharged motor, dual clutch transmission, drive modes, partial leather interior, 360 degree camera, front and rear parking sensors, heated front seats, keyless entry/start and an 8-inch full-colour touch screen media display.

There was one point with this car; is 84kW and 180Nm sufficient power when spending nearly $37,000? The simple answer is yes, it’ll do.

When you purchase a new Juke, you receive a 5 year/unlimited kilometre warranty, with 5 years of roadside assistance and capped price servicing included with your purchase.

Driving around town in the Juke offered an isolating experience from the road and any outside noise, nice and quiet for the commute.

Mechanical noise is heavily reduced thanks to the large amounts of sound deadening found under the bonnet. However, when you need to press down on the accelerator to squeeze some power out of the Juke, you will get some engine noise bleeding into the cabin.

Playing podcasts, music and radio was as expected, although if you’re a fan of bass, you might find the Juke will rattle a bit.

The new Juke weighs in at just over 1,200kg, which isn’t a lot of weight to bring to a stop, compared to other CUVs and even some other hatchbacks.

The Juke is fitted with autonomous emergency braking with cyclist and pedestrian detection too. It should be noted from ANCAP’s own tests, the Juke did avoid all instances of being involved in a collision with cars, pedestrians and cyclists, except at night, with a pedestrian. So just be a bit careful at night, in areas where you might encounter a pedestrian crossing your path.

Paired to this particular motor was a 7 speed dual clutch transmission (DCT), which was quite a surprise as I was expecting the likes of a CVT (especially in a Nissan).

Getting off the line and driving around town is a little painful thanks to the nature of this dual-clutch transmission and the Juke possessing a turbocharged motor.

Moving from 0 to 10km/h can often result in a lurch if you need to lift off the accelerator, making your passengers think one of two things: You’re a bad driver (a little embarrassing) or you’re trying to drive this like a sports car in traffic, and it’s making them want to vomit.

Once you’re up to speed in urban areas, the DCT is a lot smoother and does a great job of jumping between gears without moving the car around.

There are a few tests that suggest the new Juke will accelerate to 100km/h in around 10 seconds, which is acceptable for a front-wheel drive CUV in this price range.

The claimed fuel consumption of the Juke is 5.8L/100km (claimed), which is pretty good for a CUV. What did I average during my week with the Juke? Around 7.2L/100km, with a nice mix of urban and long stretches of highway driving. While on the highway, I saw my average drop to 5.9L/100km, when driving through country roads and some elevated roads.

Around town, the Juke can make sharp turns with no complaints and complete u-turns in an 11m diameter circle, tight enough to avoid most three-point turn scenarios. The Juke offers a fun driving experience for a compact SUV, but it's not going to out perform something more performance-oriented like a Kona N.

I really think Nissan have done an excellent job designing this new interior. The Juke ST-L trims the dash with stitched leather, which is a nice touch, and really lifts this interior to where I’m sure the designers intended it to be. Yes, they did have to stick a touch-screen right on top of the dash, but it doesn’t impede your vision out of the cabin.

Moving over to the driver’s gauges, I thought the implementation of a digital display between two analogue gauges worked really well. The responsiveness of both this driver’s display and the centre display was seriously impressive, making it seamless to interact with rather than being a laggy chore.

The new Juke has a boot capacity of 422L with the rear seats up - a decently sized boot. Fold those rear seats down in a 60:40 split (to reveal 1305L of boot space), and you’re going to again be presented with another large drop, between the rear of the seats and the boot itself. Forget about seamlessly sliding cargo in the boot, the boot floor is just too uneven.

This is certainly a top 3 contender for small CUV’s if you’re looking for a stylish, roomy and safe daily driver.

*Disclaimer - I work for ProductReview as their independent car and motorbike expert. I borrow new cars and motorbikes from manufacturers and owners to review. I am not paid or incentivised by these brands to post reviews. I write and create content to provide insight and information about any new or used vehicle I can get my hands on.

Nissan's most entertaining SUV – I was excited to see what Nissan had done to make the new Juke feel ‘top of the range’ with the Ti. This time it was really about assessing what features you received when you paid $39,490 drive-away for the Ti; a whole $3,000 more than the ST-L. This Juke Ti is identical to the middle-of-the-range ST-L, except for a few additional standard… Read more

options. First, we have these 19” Akari design alloy wheels, which are dual tone and pair nicely with the shadow grey exterior.

There’s also tire pressure monitoring on the Ti, which can be helpful for when you’re out on longer roadtrips.

On the front there are ‘follow me home’ headlights, which remain on when you leave and lock your car at night, and delay turning completely off.

Inside, there are illuminated ‘Juke’ branded kick plates on the door sill and black gloss plastic highlights on the centre console and door.

There’s a Black Alcantara dashboard, knee pad, door panels and front armrest, with white piping. There are soft pad sun visors, and leather/Alcantara seats with JUKE branding embossed on the seats.

The biggest interior change, apart from the Alcantara, is the BOSE audio system integrated not only through the cabin, but on the head rests of the seats. There are designed to look like both front seats are wearing a pair of headphones.

Worth the audio upgrade? Sure! There’s a definite improvement with the BOSE system over the standard system, seeing as the audio is emanating from the headrests a lot closer to your ears than something you’d be used to before.

The BOSE audio system goes a fair way to uplift the audio quality over your traditional, less desirable speakers found in other smaller compact SUVs.

*Disclaimer - I work for ProductReview as their independent car and motorbike expert. I borrow new cars and motorbikes from manufacturers and owners to review. I am not paid or incentivised by these brands to post reviews. I write and create content to provide insight and information about any new or used vehicle I can get my hands on.