Test drive Nissan Qashqai
Having missed the segment of business sedans, the Nissan dealership refused to release the Teana model in Russia and repurposed production facilities for the production of crossovers - at a plant near St. Petersburg, Qashqai and X-Trail have recently been assembled, which are exactly what make the brand a cashier in Russia ...
But this is still a foreign country from which Russia imports wines and fruits. We did not see a single truck with tangerines at the customs post: it turned out that private traders were engaged in fruit, who manually transport three boxes of citrus fruits on carts "for personal use" - without any checks and customs payments. On the Russian side, boxes are piled into trucks and transported to markets. It turns out something like a local assembly without unnecessary paperwork and customs costs. And the tangerines are intact and the prices are reasonable. Local assembly of cars is needed for about the same, although the process is, of course, more complicated.
Having missed the business sedan segment, the Nissan dealership refused to release the Teana model in Russia and repurposed production facilities for the production of crossovers - at a plant near St. Petersburg, Qashqai and X-Trail have recently been assembled, which make the brand a cashier in Russia. In the process of transferring production from the UK, the Qashqai got a new suspension, and the amount of changes was really significant. And now a localized almost Russian car drives along the roads of the almost Russian Caucasus, easily sorting out almost Russian irregularities and holes with the adapted suspension. And not only pits.
Standing in demi-season boots almost knee-deep in a snowdrift, we shiver from the cold and wait for help. After all, we went in the summer, but ended up in real winter - here, where at almost a kilometer altitude above sea level there is a karst basin with Lake Ritsa, known throughout the former USSR, over the past couple of days there has been more than in all of Moscow in a week. And the organizers of the test promptly closed the route to the lake, turning everyone around where there was already snow on the roadsides. The road up is not easy, and the tires on the test cars are summer tires.
We got to Lake Ritsa almost by deception: we asked to drive only a little to shoot, then climbed even higher - until the road turned into a narrow track, on which it was impossible to turn around. The all-wheel drive Qashqai climbed quite confidently through the snow porridge even on summer tires, but the oncoming pickup, as a senior, climbed into the snow itself to let us pass. Still, even the second generation Qashqai is a compact car and does not seem solid to the locals. Whether it is a Toyota Land Cruiser or a Lexus LX, albeit with an incomprehensible past - it is on these that the locals make their way here in order to beautifully sit with barbecue on the very bank of the Ritsa. And we ended up stuck - having dug four neat holes under the summer wheels, Qashqai, even with the inter-axle clutch lock on, depicted a diagonal hanging, helplessly rotating one front and one rear. Although the same car on winter tires, sent for us by the organizers, made its way across this virgin soil quite easily.
Back down the icy road, they descended carefully and slowly, in manual CVT mode, turning on a virtual second or first before turning, and crawling them on the verge of sliding. And as soon as the serpentine ended and the road ran in a long ribbon along the stream along the picturesque gorge, they pressed on the gas heartily.
Two-liter engine with a capacity of 140 hp. gives the crossover quite decent dynamics, but the brooding CVT conceals the feeling of acceleration. It seems that the speed increases quickly, but the howl of the engine on one note deprives you of the feeling of dynamics - the Qashqai by trolleybus picks up "over a hundred" prohibited in Abkhazia, and at the same time gives a little emotion. Although overtaking is given to him without difficulty - after a pause to change the gear ratio, the variator inflates the engine speed, and the car, howling, makes a forward march.
You might want to go faster, but there are no more powerful options in the engine lineup. Unless you agree to the 1,2-liter engine, which in the second generation Qashqai plays the role of the base one. The modern turbo engine produces a full 115 hp. and paired with a manual transmission, the crossover is pretty decent. Especially if you are not too lazy to work with the lever, exactly falling into the traction range of the turbo engine. The younger engine pulls well from 2000 rpm and spins up briskly up to the cutoff. If you believe the data of the technical characteristics, then in acceleration to "hundreds" the younger is only symbolically inferior to the two-liter, and the maximum speed with it is even higher. The only pity is that the turbo engine does not fit with the all-wheel drive transmission and is offered in not the richest trim levels.
Another thing is that a small-cubic turbo engine is a priori more expensive, and the Qashqai 1,2 apparently does not bring benefits to the dealership. But not to have such a conditionally basic version with front-wheel drive and a manual transmission in the lineup means losing a significant part of customers who come to the segment for cars in the simplest versions. It is possible that a simple and cheap 1,6-liter aspirated engine will still return to the range, but nowhere in the world such a version exists, and it is not so easy to adapt this engine to the current architecture of the car.
However, for those who have managed to change the suspension, nothing is impossible. From England, the Qashqai was delivered with a ground clearance increased to 200 mm (+ 30 mm) and other settings for the springs and shock absorbers, but on our roads it still seemed too stiff. The localized version received a front subframe from X-Trail with slightly different chassis kinematics and a new electric power steering. That is why the track of the Russian car has become a little wider, and plastic edging with side wings appeared on the wheel arches - the only external element that makes it possible to identify the Russian-assembled Qashqai. Other signs of adaptation, for example, an additional electric heater for the passenger compartment, air ducts for the rear passengers and an oversized washer fluid reservoir were also on the previous cars.
Nissan claims that it took nine months to select the characteristics of the suspension and fine-tune the driving characteristics. There is a result: the new suspension is noticeably more comfortable and does not try to beat the riders at every junction of the asphalt. The downside is the buildup after the asphalt shear waves, which, however, remains very moderate. At the same time, everything was and remained well with handling, although the new electric power steering gives the steering wheel too artificial effort. In urban modes, the Qashqai steering wheel seems empty and light, at speed it is moderately elastic and quite understandable. The suspension does not rattle, and in general, the updated Qashqai rides quietly on a good road. But the soundproofing of the wheel arches (the ones with wider plastic edging) leaves much to be desired. The crumbling of stones on the off-road sometimes turns out to be too strong, and the rustle of spikes on the asphalt at speed turns into an unpleasant hum.
The Russian Qashqai has not become more accessible in comparison with the British. The dealership assures that right now the prices are adequate, but before the car had to be sold at a loss with the expectation of a quick organization of local production. So the most affordable Qashqai 1,2 is still selling for $ 13 and with a CVT - 069 more. The two-liter starts at $ 93 but adjustments for CVT and AWD raise the price tag to a substantial $ 000. Finally, there is an exotic version with a 14L diesel that costs $ 845, but it seems to be left for formality. After all, Qashqai, especially the Russian one, should be not only accessible, but also understandable. Like soulful Abkhazians who speak Russian.
