Knightsbridge, west London, apart from being home to several Lebanese restaurants and Mohamed Al Fayed’s posh haberdashery, is where shoppers-who-like-to-drive go.
If you want to buy a new dress from Billionaire (genuine shop), then meet the other WAGs in Harvey Nick’s or – we musn’t be sexist – catch up with the chaps at the Drones Club, you drive to Knightsbridge and park in Harrods’ car park or, as I did, on a meter in Lowndes Square. More people can see me and my car that way.
Which is important, because I want to know if my QashQai can cut it alongside BMW X5s and Mercedes MLs. London street spaces are not big and the +2 part of the QashQai adds an intimidating 2 metres. But the steering lock, big wing mirrors and rear-view video meant I slipped into gaps on the first attempt every time. I was amazed – and so was everyone else, as they looked out of the windows of their BMW 7-Series and the like.
Of course, wanting to fit in with the idle rich, I came out with a bundle of notes and no small change. While this will end your shopping trip before it begins in any other borough of London, this is Knightsbridge. The area has a disproportionate need to change rubles and dirhams into sterling, which means there is a bureau de change on every corner. So I had no trouble turning my £20 note into loose change for the meter.
Trotting back to the QashQai to feed the meter, I was disappointed to note that no crowd had gathered. Looking up to the back of Harvey Nick’s my disappointment was compounded when I realised that not one person was hanging out of the windows. ‘But look at the enormous front-to-back glass roof!’ I cried in my mind. ‘You can see the stars at night and enjoy the morning sunshine like never before!’
While I was waiting for a yummy mummy to come over and chat about my wheels, a Land Rover Discovery chugged past looking fantastic. It should do: it’s a £30,000 competitor to the BMW and Mercedes offers, which can’t do much more, on a practical level, than the £20,000 QashQai +2. Which is probably Nissan’s problem with this car – the QashQai +2 gets overlooked as ‘just another QashQai’.
No one seems to notice that this is not the smaller, chirpy 5-seat family car, so used prices are in relative terms softer on the +2 model. It’s a full-on alternative to bigger 4 x 4s and MPVs such as Ford’s S-Max.
The test car had 7 soft leather seats, an attractive sat nav, rear parking video, alloy wheels, air conditioning… I could go on. It handles better than a Discovery, albeit not as well as the BMW or Mercedes. It cruises well, if not quite as majestically as the others. The 2.0 diesel engine is unrefined compared with Nissan’s petrols and 1.5 Dci engine, let alone the premium competitors. True, you can get some luggage in with the seven people in a Discovery, whereas the QashQai doesn’t have a boot left once the seventh seat is in use.
It doesn’t quite match the big premium models in space, presence or driving experience, but then it is £10,000 cheaper and there are few truly direct competitors at that price. So go and buy one before others work this out and the prices firm up.
What’s the market like?
While there are well over 1,000 used QashQais on the market at any one time, there are less than 100 +2s. You can now pick up entry-level Visia-spec models from £12,000 with less than 20,000 miles on the clock, which means the car will feel like new but you’ve saved yourself nearly £4,000 – or 25%. The better specifications (Acenta and Tekna) can be found with similar amounts off.
There are twice as many petrols as there are diesels to choose from, so as well as offering a more refined drive, you should be able to haggle more off the price. You get 40mpg from petrol, 49mpg from the diesel, so buying the petrol won’t see your fuel bill rocket either.
What else can this budget buy?
Because the +2 seems to be struggling to differentiate itself from the conventional QashQai, the prices are cheaper compared with other 1- to 2-year-old small 4 x 4s. Land Rover Freelanders start at £15,000, Toyota Rav-4’s likewise. Ford Kugas and VW Tiguans are no cheaper. But Renault’s car-like Koleos is a less attractive but very pleasant option.
Summary
The QashQai +2 is an excellent middle ground between big, lumbering 4 x 4s and car-like soft-roaders. It doesn’t turn heads or wow the driver with refinement (especially in 2.0 diesel form), but it’s relatively well made, capable and available at excellent prices.
By: Matthew Tumbridge