Is The 2012 Medium Size Car The Car For Everyone?

While the small car is said to be all the car you need, the medium size car is said to be the car for everyone. They’re as good to drive in town as they are on the motorways with enough versatility for most purposes and affordable running costs.

Medium sized cars have been the best-selling sector in the UK for over a decade. It’s highly competitive being challenged by cheaper super-sized small cars, the small MPV, Crossovers and small 4×4 SUV. Hence, you’ll find good levels of equipment and but for one or two they achieve 5-stars in the Euro NCAP crash tests.

You have the choice of prestige brands with the Audi A3, BMW 1-Series and Mercedes, popular models such as the Focus, Astra, Golf and value brands like Hyundai and Kia. However many private buyers see the crossover Nissan Qashqai – which looks like a 4×4 SUV but is based on the Megane like the Scenic MPV – as an attractive alternative. And more of this type of competition has entered the market with viable crossovers from Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi and Skoda.

Medium size cars appear to have stopped growing and settled around 4.3m in length. This type of car is a handy size and it’s fairly easy to find an end-on parking space. Inside they comfortably seat four people. Boots sizes are good bearing in mind most SUVs and some MPVs offer little improvement unless their rear seats are folded.

Interior space in this class remains static with some boot capacities shrinking which is probably due to improving side and rear end protection. Another thing to watch out for is all round visibility which is a safety feature and very poor on some models. This is due to styling and safety improvements. Back and rear windows on many models have shrunk with window sills and shoulder lines sweeping up at the rear. The view can then be obstructed by thick door posts, wide rear quarter panels and thickly framed tailgates. Higher-backed seats and chunky headrests don’t help.

The joys of owning this type of car is most perform strongly plus they offer amazing handling, road-holding and stability. With improvements in fuel consumption, emissions, and safety the medium size car remains highly competitive and always worth a look and definitely a drive.

You’ll find all the cars in this class are very similar as they would be given they’re all the same size. They all seem to have the same type of trim and engine options. The only differences could be branding and your taste in style and comfort.

Regards
Ralph

The Crossover Car Concept Reviewed

The 4×4, SUV market is changing rapidly with many new Crossover cars entering into this market sector. If you’ve considered these types of cars you have decisions to make between cars and then whether to just to keep your money in the bank. The question is do Crossovers do what they say on the tin (fence paint ad slogan enters the social repertoire)?

Obvious Crossovers include the Ford Kuga, Skoda Yeti, and VW Tiguan. They answer the question, what does it say on the tin? What is a Crossover? A Crossover is a SUV built like a car. A Kuga is a SUV built on a Focus platform. A Yeti and Tiguan are SUVs built on a Golf platform.

So what’s a SUV? It’s an estate car body on a light truck chassis – ladder chassis. Many come with four-wheel drive promising all-terrain capability. They knew you’d never test it. It’s like selling fabric nuclear bomb proof tents.

SUVs – I hate them – had more power than they could handle on tarmac, no more space than an estate, were agricultural to drive, uneconomical and less than safe to say the least. I’m not saying this about capable proper SUVs like the Land Rover Discovery 4 or Volvo XC90 when they’re used to tow, go off-road and climb mountains – not social ladders.

The new Crossover concept being built like a car handles and drives more like a car, can now be as economical as small cars and have all the latest safety features.

But if a Crossover is a SUV built like a car and a SUV’s an estate car on a truck chassis, it begs the question why not just buy an estate car?

As we know the Ford Kuga is based on a Ford Focus platform as is the Ford Focus Estate. So what are the differences? Here they are.

Price –

• Kuga £21505 to £26715
• Ford Focus Estate £17095 to 25095
• Focus Hatch £15995 tp £23995

Length –

• Kuga 4.44m
• Focus Estate 4.56m
• Focus Hatch 4.36m

Minimum/maximum load space –

• Kuga 360/1355 litres
• Focus Estate 476/1502
• Focus Hatch 316/1101

Engine options –

• Kuga 2.0 diesel FWD or AWD with auto option, 2.5 petrol AWD manual or auto.
• Focus Estate manual 1.6 diesel and petrol, 2.0 diesel and petrol with a diesel auto option.
• Focus Hatch same as estate.

Efficiency –

• Kuga 47.1 to 27.4 combined mpg, 156 to 244 CO2s, 114 to 130 mph, 10.3 to 7.9 seconds to 62 mph.
• Focus Estate 67.3 to 47.1 mpg, 139 to 109 CO2s, 112 to 134 mph, 12.7 to 8.8 seconds to 62 mph.
• Focus Hatch not significantly different from the Estate.

Insurance groups –

• Kuga 18 to 24
• Estate 11 to 22
• Hatch same as estate,

So let’s be negative and knock one or two out – deduction.

• Price – you pay more for a Kuga, less for an estate, even less for a hatch.
• Length – there’s an 8 inch difference, the hatch is the shortest, the estate the longest, the Kuga is in the middle. Does that matter to you?
• The Focus estate has the most load space, the hatch the least.
• You have 1.6 engine options with the Focuses/Foci and a 2.5 with the Kuga. There’s a AWD drive option with the Kuga.
• The huge difference is the a hugely significant difference between the Foci and Kuga fuel economy and a hugely significant difference between Focus and Kuga emissions.
• But a Kuga is no faster and a Focus can be significantly quicker. Not to mention you can’t and wouldn’t dare throw a Kuga around like it was a Focus.
• Yet a Kuga costs more to insure than the Foci

For me, I’ve always hated SUVs and do what they want with them for now and call them Crossovers but I still don’t buy it. If a SUV was an estate car body on a truck chassis why not buy the estate? They cost less to buy. OK they’re a bit longer, but have the most load space – and they’re more versatile. The Focus Estate is more economical, eco-friendly, as fast, quicker. Plus you can chuck it about and the car insurance premiums are less.

If I was interested in a Crossover I’d probably graduate to the real deal like a Discovery or XC90 to do the real job of towing a cabbie cruiser or taking me off into the vast wilderness of West Sussex, that’s if Iwas able and willing to pay the price.

So looking at the crossover car concept, I’m not convinced and prefer the real thing – an estate car.

You might like to compare the VW Tiguan and Skoda Yeti with the VW Golf hatch and estate and see what you come up with.

Regards
Ralph
carbuyersinfo.co.uk. Car Comparisons to help you find the right car for you, your lifestyle and budget.

My 9 Most Popular Medium Sized Cars

This class of car is supposed to be the car for everyone. The idea is you don’t really need an estate, MPV or 4×4. These cars claim to accommodate most of your lifestyle at an affordable price. That’s why they’re the biggest selling sector in the UK.

Of the 9 I’ve had to remove 3 because it’s impossible to calculate their value. You can view my method in the previous post. There’s no doubt the Audi A3, A4 and VW Golf are 3 of the most searched cars on the internet. But Audi, Skoda and VW devalue this because you can simply go to their site and freely download brochures and price lists.

Free brochures and price lists may not seem that important. However it complies with the original concept of the internet as a place to freely share information. If you want to be, do or have something not immediately available to you, you should be able to freely find the answers on the Internet – get a brochure and price list.

Google insist publishers go further with pages that not only provide this content on the landing page but do so openly with the minimum of navigation. Audi, Skoda and VW do this and there is no value in visiting any other product related site to get the answers you want.

Think of the advantages to the user:

• They don’t have to spend time and petrol to drive to a dealer.
• They don’t have part with their details so it’s private.
• They don’t need to answer questions from salespeople or on online forms.
• They can virtual shop which – I’m told – is enjoyable.
• They can place the full picture in their own minds rather than a third-party place it there.

I should make you aware there are 2 website models.

1. Free information but you pay with your attention being interrupted by ads as on my carbuyersinfo.co.uk site.
2. You pay for information without advertising.

Sellers who understand this by-pass both with free downloadable PDFs.

Having said all that it doesn’t distract from the –

Ford Focus being the most popular car in the UK both new and used. There’s now been a Ford Focus for sale for a long time, building a huge fan base and a global reputation for durability and reliability. It has dynamic styling, space, sweet driveability, economy and safety. You can download free information from Ford without exchanging your details – with a little navigation.

#2 is the larger more expensive Mercedes-Benz C-Class which has all the attributes of a Focus with a touch of prestige we wish we could afford which makes for a strong second-hand market.

#3 almost on a par is the Vauxhall Astra for exactly all the same reasons above. There’s been an Astra for sale for over 30 years and their list of loyal customers continually grows.

#4 BMW 1-Series may not be a top 10 seller and too expensive for most but huge demand for a used BMW 1-Series supported by enthusiastic BMW dealers brings the 1-Series back into the market.

#5 is the even more expensive BMW 3-Series which can appear in the top 10 new car best sellers when repmobile sales are good. It’s the huge and continuous demand for used BMW 3-Series that ratch it up the rankings

Here’s where I’d place the A3 and A4.

#6 is the Nissan Qashqai. It’s different. Spacious but not as much as its style promises. Comfortable to drive. Reasonably economical and safe. The fact is we like Nissan in the UK and the Qashqai has captured peoples’ imagination in away we’ve not seen for some time.  It’s been a real success story…

Like the VW Golf.

All the above cars are of a very similar size with similar space. They’re all good to drive and are economical and safe.

What sets them apart is the demand for them both as new and used cars. Most importantly over the years they have built a long list of loyal customers. If their web sites become trusted sources of information they’ll win in the future as the best supplier of information which is what our age is about. Check out the above websites and you’ll discover one is at risk for informative content, transparency and navigation.

The handful of remaining contenders don’t figure because the don’t pump enough volume of cars into the market place. The French have had more than enough owners on their books and many remain loyal franchophiles but not enough stick to figure in my rankings for popularity.

Regards
Ralph

The Best Way to Save Car Fuel Costs

Car fuel prices are biting hard to the point of having to think twice about making a trip in the car.

There are a good dozen tips on how to save car fuel mainly concerning driving styles, carrying unnecessary weight and keeping your car in good repair.

The biggest saving to be made is to buy a more economical car when you’re planning to change. It’s not worth rushing out to change your car now as the cost to change will buy many years of motoring in terms of fuel costs. So best wait until you’re due to change.

When the time comes you’ll have to look a lot deeper than the fuel economy data. It’s not simply a case of your old shed averaged 34 mpg and your intended purchase has a combined 57 mpg. When you compare new cars for sale there’s more to consider than fuel economy data.

Your choice is confused by petrol, diesel, hybrid or coming soon electric. It’s not just a straight choice between a diesel Ford Focus and hybrid Lexus CT 200h. What about Ford’s EcoBoost petrol engines? It’s not just about comparing car fuel costs. What about the comparative price of the cars to buy?

You might come across stats saying near 60% of new cars sold are diesel and accept it as social proof you should do the same. It’s not a simple as that. Near the same percentage of new cars are sold to businesses who in the main are higher mileage drivers who get quicker savings on mpg to pay-back the added cost of the car and diesel fuel. You can see reps running about in their new Mercedes but there’s more to it than it being a Mercedes C Class CDI these cars are fitted with advanced fuel saving technologies and the business owners are profiting from the calls they make on very long journeys. It will work out differently for a private owner.

Diesel and hybrid cars cost more than petrol cars to buy. So you need to compare the costs of running each to find out at what total mileage you start to make savings.

Diesel cars cost between £1,000 and £2,000 more than petrol cars. Petrol fuel costs £6.22p today compared with diesel at £6.45p. As a general rule it takes some 45,000 miles with a small or medium size car before you save on fuel costs. With some small cars it can take 100,000 miles. In other words several years down the road. Diesel works better with large cars and in some cases you can only buy a SUV with a diesel engine, some manufacturers do not offer a petrol option.

Another consideration is fuel saving technology. Some cars are saving fuel with reduced rolling resisting tyres, stop/start, weight reduction and energy recuperation. Again this comes at an extra cost at present with a more expensive car or as optional equipment. Eventually they’ll become standard like ABS, ESP, PAS and increasingly air con. So it’s worth comparing the value in this area. Also look out for cars making leaps forward with energy recuperation technology we haven’t heard of yet.

Petrol power is nowhere near dead. Petrol cars and fuel are cheaper to buy. Turbo technology means more power per litre and smaller more economical petrol engines.

One thing you’re pretty certain of is when you do change your car the new car will be far more economical than the one you part exchange.

After you’ve considered your options there’s still the issue of emissions. Diesel cars have lower CO2 emissions but emit particles. Hybrid save on CO2s and tax. With electric cars there are concerns about the environmental cost of producing the electricity. There are a good number of hybrids on the way from Audi, Chevrolet/Vauxhall, Porsche and Volvo.

So the message is when you are due to change your car compare all factors with a calculator in hand and not just go on fuel economy data.

Regards
Ralph
carbuyersinfo.co.uk Car Comparison Website to find the best car for your purpose and purse compare their differences and similarities

Two of the Best Estate Cars for Your Money

It’s easy to say premium brands like the BMW Tourers, Audi Avants or Mercedes Estates are the best but they’re expensive and in some cases offer no more load space than their saloons with 5 seats up.

A Mazda6, C5, or Accord estate may look good but again they cost.

The fact is the majority of these cars are company reps cars.

So what’s the best estate car when you’re paying with your own money?

Here are two real estate cars offering significantly more load space than their hatch backs.

The Ford Focus Estate has an entry price of £17095 subject to dealer offers. The Skoda Fabia Estate starts at £10980.

With the seats up the Ford Focus hatch offers 316 litres of space while the Ford Focus Estate offers 476 litres. With the seats down the hatch and estate offer 1101 and 1502 litres respectively. So there’s a significant difference in load space with plenty for holidays and trips to garden or furniture centres.

The shorter Skoda hatch provides 315 litres with the seats up, the estate 505 litres. With the seats down it’s 1180 for the hatch and a huge 1485 litres for the estate. That’s all in an overall length of 4.25m.

Both the Focus and Fabia estates have a good range of diesel and petrol engines. The Focus tdci and Fabia tdi may be attractive for their fuel economy and low emissions but they cost more to buy and diesel fuel is more expensive than petrol. Your mileage has to return savings over and above these added costs. My guess is you’ll have to do 45,000 miles before you start to break even.

The Fabia has interesting 3 cylinder petrol and diesel engine options. Their other diesels are 1.6 as are the Focus diesels.

It seems the 1.6 diesel is becoming the preferred smaller diesel engine. BMW demonstrated what can be done with a Peugeot 1.6 diesel engine in their Mini. Renault have now added a 1.6 in addition to their 1.5. I wonder what this means for the Fiat 1.3 and 1.7 diesels also used by Vauxhall.

Improved petrol engines still remain viable especially as they cost less to buy and petrol is cheaper than diesel. The Fabia uses the VW group TSI engines and Ford have the own variations, the EcoBoost being a great combination of economy, low emissions and performance.

EcoBoost is a combination of advanced injection, VVT and turbo technology. The Fabia Greenline option uses stop/start and energy recuperation technology previously only found as standard in more expensive cars.

Everyone must know Zetec is Fords value pack with sports styling. Skoda has now introduced the SE Plus which is a combination of their most popular features in a value pack.

So a premium brand may appeal but the Focus and Fabia Estates have as much if not more space with the seats up. The engines are economical, clean and can be quick. The advanced technology is there with more to come. Plus the trim levels provide a lot of equipment as standard.

So there we are, two suggestions for estate cars if you’re using your own money.

Regards
Ralph
carbuyersinfo.co.uk  Car Comparisons Differences and Similarities Revealed

Why Are Some Big Powerful SUVs More Economical Than Small Cars?

It’s a fact. In the UK the Ford Focus 1.6 petrol engine has a combined mpg figure of 47 mpg  with three options for performance. There are diesel options. A BMW new x3 xdrive 20d returns 50 mpg does 130 mph and hits 62 mph in 8.5 seconds. The 30d does it in 6.2 seconds and has combined 47 mpg. You obviously don’t get both at the same time. An Audi Q5 2.0 TDI has a 45 mpg combined figure.

Obviously the Ford Focus has diesel engines but many owners don’t do the mileage to justify the added cost of the car and fuel. Diesel works well in large cars and is the only option in some SUVs.

How do they do it? It doesn’t make sense. We’ll have a look in a minute but first let’s describe the problems.

In 2006 I posted A guide on Renault fuel economy and CO2 emissions on carbuyersinfo. I discovered at the time only tiny petrol engines or fairly small diesel engines achieved less than 130 CO2s. It also had to be a small-sized car. A few medium cars managed it. It needed to be manual or Quickshift, not automatic. It was noticeable Renault’s common rail injected turbo diesels had high power outputs.

So it’s remarkable how economical big powerful SUVs can be.

BMW explain their EfficientDynamics as a combination of auto stop start, brake energy regeneration, electric power steering, optimum shift indicator, lightweight engineering, reduced resistance, low friction fluids and active aerodynamics. The same approach is taken by Audi.

Automatic stop start is easy enough to understand. When the engine switches off you’re saving fuel and emissions. Stop Start can be found on many cars as standard or an option. The question is, is the price you pay for stop start less or more than your fuel savings.

 Brake energy regeneration is one step towards solving a problem manufacturers have long been aware of. A significant amount of power produced by an engine goes to driving other motors, the alternator being one plus pumps not to driving the wheels.

Brake energy regeneration collects energy wasted for charging the battery. When your foot is on the gas energy to the alternator is reduced, when you’re rolling or braking energy is increased above the normal level.

The more the alternator and battery can be boosted to drive motors and pumps the more engine power there is to drive the car meaning smaller engines are needed. Which leads us to …

Electric power steering which has been in production on everyday cars for over a decade. Back then they said it saved one mile per gallon. Not a lot in it for you. But multiply it by the 200 gallons you’ve bought per year multiplied by the last ten years and it adds up. It’s especially important for our environment when you then multiply your figure by the millions of cars made and sold every year.

Optimal shift indicators have been available for some time and is now more widely used.

Lightweight engineering has long been an issue in car manufacture from the early days of Peugeot, Renault and Ford. BMW and Audi can afford aluminium at the prices they charge.

Reduced resistance is reduced rolling resistance tyres which are widely available mainly as an option extra. Again is the price you pay more or less than your fuel savings especially as tyres inevitably wear out? Do they actually cost more to manufacture than previous tyres?

Low friction fluids and active dynamics to help your engine reach operating temperature faster are nothing new.

The big difference is large SUVs cost at least twice the price of the bread and butter car the man in street buys. They can afford aluminium and energy recuperation systems. The rest is on most cars or an optional extra.

It will come one day as ABS became standard in 2006 and ESP will be later this year. Legislation to some extent now drives car safety, economy and ecology. All you’ll have to do is decide on style.

I should say I’m not for one moment suggesting and X3 or Q5 is cheaper to run than a Ford Focus. Nothing could be further from the truth. A Focus is way cheaper to own.

Regards
Ralph

Is There Any Real Competition In The UK’s Largest Car Sector?

The are over 30 small cars for sale in the UK. Over 30 SUVs, Crossovers, 4x4s of various sizes. And over 30 estate cars. Just over 15 MPVs and about the same for large cars and again luxury cars.

The surprise is in the best-selling sector there are just 15 real contenders. What’s interesting is when you look closer it boils down to a choice of just 9 platforms.

1. The Audi A3 and Seat Leon are on a VW platform. That’s three in one.
2. The BMW 3-Series seems to stand alone until you discover where they source diesel engines.
3. The Citroen C4 is part of the Peugeot Group who make the 308.
4. The Ford Focus and Mazda3 are on the same platform.
5. The Honda Civic seems to stand alone.
6. The Hyundai i30 and Kia Cee’d are one group.
7. The Nissan Qashqai is on a Megane platform and part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
8. The Toyota Auris seems to stand alone as does the
9. Vauxhall Astra until you learn where they source their diesel engines.

In fairness these cars are so good it would be silly to consider entering this market and competing with them. Only the Nissan Qashai appears different.

However, nine platforms dominating the UK’s biggest selling car sector. Many have Peugeot, Renault or Fiat engines. It begs the question, is there any real competition? Do UK consumers benefit from the savings manufacturers make with economies of scale?

If there was competition there would be differences in car prices if we took Ford Focus prices as a benchmark. Does the VW Golf diesel deliver better fuel economy and performance for the money? (no) Medium small cars are going to be about the same size with similar cargo areas by virtue of being in the same class. Is the Nissan Qashai that different? Ecology and safety features are now very similar being driven by agreements, legislation or taxes.

If cars are so similar in size, versatility, ecology, and safety and turn out to have similar fuel economy and performance then they’re just a commodity to be bought on price. Unfortunately if there are not a lot of sellers there’s not a lot of price competition.

Car manufacturers overcome competition with product differentiation. In other words they offer the same product with different trim names, different engines with different power outputs, different packs and options and say their car is different deserving a different price – not that prices are different.

They then add a raft of different offers – discounts, deposits, interest rates, payment profiles, warranties – but again similar to the competition.

It really gets mixed up when the car salesperson says you can only have this deal on this model, if you want that deal you have to buy that model – NOW.

Add a little sales patter and things get very confusing. One thing that bugs me is the way stability control systems are described to make them sound different and better when last I heard there were only two manufacturers in the whole wide world. Safety systems should be all be described in the same clear understandable way as should AWD and 4×4 systems.

Which brings me to the point much of a car is assembled from parts bought from the same manufacturers is Japan, China and Eastern Europe so they can’t be that different. Hence delivery of very French Renaults is being delayed by the recent disasters in Japan.

All this means the poor punter has to drive a really hard bargain to get any value. They need to do four deals. One on discount. One on finance. One on the part exchange price. One on the options. They have to be very careful not to be suckered in by one or two offers at the expense of the other.

For example the bits for cruise control for most popular makes can be bought for £50 from a garage parts department and a mechanic will fit them for another £50. Cruise control is over £400 on most car price lists. It works the same with fogs and alloys.

So are cars different when it comes to performance and economy?

If one car has a DVLA combined 50 mpg and another 55 mpg they warn if cars rank closely there may be no difference on the road. What does closely mean?

If a car hits 62 mph in 9.4 seconds and another in 10.1 will it really make a difference on the road? No. It’s who dares wins if you’re racing which makes the Kangoo 1.5 diesel van the highest performing car in the UK. And it depends when the next gear change is after 62 mph.

So let’s get back to competition, prices and value. A Focus entered the market at around £16000 back in Feb 2011. A Kia Cee’d is around £13000 and Astra £14000 with similar performance – big price difference. When you walk up the model ranges these differences narrow or disappear. The difference is Ford and Vauxhall will offer umpteen deals from their marketing programmes and special editions with special offers making little difference in prices.

If you want a competitive deal you have to take it out on the poor car dealers. I say ‘poor’ because they have little control. Unlike most retailers who get to pick products they think will be a hit with buyers and be winners for them, garages are dictated to by manufacturers who finance most of them.

During the four decades I sold cars there were many attempts by governments to change car distribution, pricing and promotions. They all fell by the wayside.

Your consolation is the products are good. They would be they’re virtually the same. The was a saying in the trade that if manufacturers come up with the right solutions to same problems the answers will be the same. You just get the same message in a slightly different envelope – another old trade saying when new models were launched.

The Nissan Qashqai is different – easier access, greater flexibility, a feeling of airiness and spaciousness, an elevated view of the road – but they start at over £17000. You can’t win.

Regards
Ralph

Why Is The Nissan Qashqai Popular?

The Nissan Qashqai is an interesting car because it sells well and was one of the first modern-day crossover cars replacing Nissan’s popular Almera  hatchback car.

The Qashqai is built on a Renault Megane platform which Renault also use for their Megane estate, coupe, cabriolet and Scenic. This puts the Nissan Qashqai dimensions in competition with hatchbacks like the Focus, Astra and Golf plus MPVs like the Meriva, Scenic and Zafira.

Whilst the Qashqai is based on a hatchback and built like an MPV many see it as a sensible substitute for a SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) with it being promoted as some sort of Sports Urban Vehicle – that’s not a class of car, I just made it up. Although the Qashai has 7-seat models you wouldn’t necessarily compare the Qashqai with Vauxhall Zafira models.

So how does the Nissan Qashqai compare with its competitors, what are its advantages that make it popular? We’ll see in a moment the Qashqai is fairly similar to the new Ford Focus for sale. It seems it all boils down to style which like comfort is a personal taste I can’t comment on for you. I can however compare size, versatility, driveability, economy and safety.

A car’s style seems to somehow play a part in a car’s standing in the market place and its prestige. For some reason many motorists attach prestige to cars styled like SUVs, maybe the imagine themselves as Royals in Range Rovers.

If you compare the size of a standard Nissan Qashqai with a Focus, Astra, Golf its about the same length and width. The difference is in the overall height with the Qashqai appearing significantly higher when in actual fact there’s not a lot in it – 4 inches. The added height and shape of the Qashqai helps it appear like a SUV.

You could take the view as its built on a Megane platform like a Scenic its more like an MPV than a SUV but we don’t associate Nissan with MPVs. Nissan are known worldwide for their 4x4s leading to the assumption the Qashqai is an addition to their SUV range. The Qashqai has 4×4 options.

As an MPV the Qashqai doesn’t compare too well with the Scenic and Zafira although it does have more internal capacity than the New Meriva. The nice thing about these cars are their ease of entry and exit plus an elevated view of the road ahead.

When it comes to driving the Qashqai it benefits from the Megane’s stable platform.

If you compare fuel consumption and take 1.6 petrol engines as an example the hatchbacks do slightly better than the Qashqai which is a tiny improvement on MPVs. The combined fuel consumptions are closely ranked so there’s no guarantee there will be a significant difference in real on the road driving that amounts to a significant cost difference with a Qashqai.

There are the same differences in CO2 emissions but again they don’t amount to a huge difference in costs. However it does pay to keep an eye on this cost as you consider different makes, models and their many engine options.

It’s a similar story when you compare maximum speeds and acceleration. All these cars will comfortably cruise at a legal 90 mph and more across Europe. There’s half a second, maybe one in times to 62 mph which doesn’t mean anything on the road. Around 11 or 12 seconds feels the same, it’s when you get single figure acceleration you feel the difference.

The last thing to watch out for is ESP. All the above cars have 5-star EuroNCAP ratings but not all have ESP as standard which becomes law at the end of 2011 so insist on ESP being thrown into the deal for free.

So you can see there’s no real difference in size, a little variation in load capacity, performance and economy are very similar. The big difference is in the way these cars are styled into the hatchback, MPV and SUV sectors which is why they call the Qashqai a crossover.

The difference in style stops cars becoming so similar to the point they’re could be considered simply as a commodity to be bought on price alone. It’s also comforting to know a mixture of competition and legislation keeps cars up to mark for safety, economy, emissions and performance.

Regards
Ralph