2014 Nissan Juke details

2014 Nissan Juke

The 2014 Nissan Juke is offered in four trim levels: base S, well-equipped SV and SL and the top-of-the-line Nismo.

The 2014 Nissan Juke is a vehicle you either instantly fall in love with or run screaming from as fast as you can. From its big-eyed bumper-mounted headlights to the elongate clear plastic turn-signal/parking lights that run the length of the fender tops, the Juke appears otherworldly. Move to the side, and a roofline that squats low as it moves rearward is accented by color-keyed integrated rear-door handles giving the 5-door Juke a coupe-like appearance. A single-piece hatch with electronic release opens to reveal the Juke's rather tiny cargo hold.

The 2014 Nissan Juke's cabin is nearly as aggressively styled as its exterior. There are a lot of organic curves and body-colored surfaces, while silver accents add cheerful ambience. But there's no shortage of hard plastic surfaces, reminding you of the car's budget price tag. On the other hand, the Juke's controls are large and easy to operate, and the cabin features lots of thoughtful storage compartments.

Indoors, the Juke Nismo offers a substantially updated interior. The driver gets to toss around a sport steering wheel with Alcantara grips, black leather and red contrast stitching. There's even a red leather band at 12 o'clock just like some of our favorite aftermarket bits. That same motif makes its way to the leather shift knob, but the biggest improvement comes to the fronts seats. Nissan ditched the standard thrones in favor of comfy, heavily bolstered buckets with suede trim. With Nismo embroidery on the backs and matching red stitching, these seats are excellent. You won't find anything else like them in this class.

Under the hood there's a 188-horsepower 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, with either front- or all-wheel drive, and a choice of manual or continuously variable (CVT) transmissions. You'd think this powertrain would yield a quick little urban runabout, yet it's oddly ponderous and rather noisy. Likewise, gas mileage isn't anything to beam about, at 27 mpg city and 32 mpg highway at best.

The entry level Juke ST comes with a five-speed manual transmission or CVT while the Juke ST-S is fitted with a six-speed manual and the top-specced Juke Ti-S has the CVT with preset ratios that give a sort of a manual mode.

Bluetooth streaming comes standard, it has steering-wheel mounted controls, cruise control, speed limiter, remote keyless entry and the ST-S and Ti-S variants have a five-inch colour VGA LCD screen, satellite navigation, six speakers. The topline Nissan Juke Ti-S also has heated leather seats.

The 2014 Nissan Juke comes with antilock disc brakes, stability and traction control, active front head restraints, front-seat side airbags and side curtain airbags. A rearview camera is optional.ST-S and Ti-S models get rear view camera, rain sensing wipers and auto on/off headlights with dusk detection.