Five Days with a Juke

[major_clanger]

darth_hamster and I don't own a car and unless Sian finds a perfect job that isn't commutable by train we will probably keep it that way for the time being, hiring a car or van as and when necessary. I arranged to rent a car over the holiday so that we could do family visiting and make such bulky-purchase shopping trips as needed to finish fitting out our new flat. There's a small Budget depot nearby that I've used a few times before and as it's convenient and the staff have always been helpful I booked through there again. The example car for medium compact was a Ford Focus; that sounded big enough for what we needed so that's what I got.

Come the morning of Christmas Eve and we went to pick up... a Nissan Juke.

This caused much hilarity as I'd been commenting on the Juke's ugliness only a couple of days earlier. But now we had one for a week and a bit, so here are my impressions so far, based on a 300-mile return trip to Surrey and an expedition to Ikea.

Size: It's not large inside, although not as small as you might imagine. I was able to get plenty of legroom and didn't feel squashed despite my height. It is a bit deceptive; inside it feels a bit like a Mini, but the Juke is considerably larger than a standard Mini on the outside.

Driving Comfort: The steering wheel is rather small but the road feel is good. The main issue I have is with visibility - the doors come up quite high as do the bug-eye headlight units, and between them the driver's view of the nearside is rather poor. It's not a problem on a straight road but I found myself very careful manoeuvring around car parks as I kept on feeling I was going to cut a left corner too tight. However, reversing is aided by a feature in the next category...

Equipment: Very good. There is a reversing camera (which helps compensate for the poor visibility), climate control and full AV/satnav with USB input, although as we didn't pay for satnav our car didn't have the requisite map card installed. The controls are clear and sensibly-located.

Storage: Not bad for the Juke's size. The hatchback boot isn't huge, but the floor lifts out to reveal a further trunk area. Apparently this is for the optional spare wheel, the default option being a reinflation and sealing kit. The rental office advised me to call their assistance number if I had a puncture! Other than that there is the usual array of storage spaces and (decent-size) cup holders. The Juke managed one large trolley-load of Ikea purchases but I wouldn't have tried to get any large packages home in it.

Overall it's not a bad car at all, but if we were buying I would probably prefer something that used its volume a bit better rather than trying to be an SUV. I like the equipment spec though.