Test drive Nissan Juke vs Citroen C3 Aircross
Last year Nissan returned the unusual Juke to Russia. The competitors also took careful steps, but the bright Japanese did not have direct opponents on the market until the Citroen C3 Aircross appeared.
The attitude of people to the appearance of Nissan Juke is completely polar: it annoys some, others admire it. I'm not ready to refer myself to any of the camps, but I can say with full confidence that someday, years later, it will be called a classic, as they say today about the Volkswagen Beetle, Mercedes G-Сlass or Ford Mustang. Judge for yourself: Juke has been produced for almost ten years, but it still looks relevant and even fashionable. And absolutely recognizable. When you see a glimpse of cars in the stream, you can no doubt recognize only a few models, and the Nissan Juke is definitely in the cohort of such cars.
With the interior, this trick will not work. The interior design was outdated even before the Sochi Olympics, and the only thing that saves the roundness of the front panel today is a bright finish. What is really missing is the steering wheel adjustment for reach. The tide of the center console rests on the knee and hints that the interior was not painted for large men. But if you consider that the Juke is more often driven by petite women, problems disappear by themselves: the seat is a little closer to the steering wheel, and the driver sits in his own safety capsule high above the road behind a reliable fence of black body kit and with glass of dimensions majestically floating in front of the hood.
From the passenger compartment, the pseudo headlights floating in the air seem a little unreal, especially when you turn on the turn signals. And Juke is not afraid to be stuck in a snowdrift, because it has almost boat body bevels, made of unpainted plastic. Delicate radiators are visible through the windows of the front bumper, but no one is going to fly into these drifts from acceleration, right?
The Juke clearly knows how to present itself, and its visual versatility in this sense plays into its hands. It is, as it were, a crossover and a compact hatchback, a car for both a beautiful defile in the stream and for an incendiary drive around the city. With the latter, however, not everything is clear, because with a well-tuned elastic chassis, the Juke has soft and even airy pedals with lazy recoil, as well as a not too clear steering wheel, which is more suitable for trouble-free parking. Although the suspension is far from soft.
For the same reason, the "more travel, less holes" rule for the Juke hardly works. As soon as he runs into a larger speed bump or a pit deeper and sharper, the body immediately begins to shake nervously. The short wheelbase makes the car jump slightly on the dirt road, which makes you want to slow down immediately. It is also better to cross artificial irregularities on foot, and in general the Juke is not about racing.
The paradox is that the only power unit with a 1,6 engine with a capacity of 117 liters. from. and the variator is very lucky, though not too fast. It is at least adequate and understandable, and the declared 11,5 s to a hundred do not matter at city speeds if the car's reactions are always predictable. The Nissan Juke is a purely urban option and is still genuinely good as a city car. Judging by the sales of direct or indirect competitors, Juke-level events in the automotive world have not yet taken place.
Exactly a year ago, I was dashingly driving along the dirt road of the Shahumyansky Pass on the coast of Greater Sochi, driving exactly the same Citroen C3 Aircross and thinking about how absurd this illogically beautiful and cute car seems to others on a muddy rocky road. And also about the words with which drivers of overtaken cars are not of the first freshness remember me, if gravel accidentally flies out from under my wheels.
The thing is that in this car, even with a relatively modest 175 mm of ground clearance, there is a feeling of conditionally off-road driving, because the landing turns out to be vertical, and the interior itself, in which the strict geometry of straight lines ends exceptionally elegantly with oval-shaped curves, is extremely reminiscent of a number of well-deserved SUVs ... Even taking into account the fact that everything in Citroen is made of simple plastic.
Generally, due to the peculiarities of the fit, the C3 seems more masculine. From the inside, the salon-aquarium looks large in many respects due to the strictly vertical planting and high roof level. And the C3 Aircross should become the most practical among the cars of the subcompact segment, because it has a function of longitudinal adjustment of the second row and a number of options, including a folding front passenger seat backrest and a double floor with a hidden niche.
As a result, this tightly knocked-down little car with rounded sides, neat overhangs and ostentatious body protection just wants to be taken out on some adventures somewhere far from the solid road, relying on good geometry and indestructible plastic. This is self-deception, since there is no all-wheel drive, suspension travels are modest, and the ground clearance leaves much to be desired. But the rounded body is really well covered from below with plastic protection, and in the very center of the console there is a washer of the proprietary Grip Control system. And even though it rather performs the function of error protection, in some places it really helps.
The electronics prevent the wheels from slipping too actively and maintains the engine thrust in accordance with the selected algorithm, so the ESP Off position will probably be the most demanded of the modes for an experienced driver. Achieving diagonal hanging is not difficult, but the machine can cope with it without manipulating the selector. Arsenal Juke in this sense is more modest, and Nissan does not offer all-wheel drive versions now.
Calling itself a crossover, Citroen C3 Aircross does not protest on unpaved surfaces, but does not provoke fast driving either. It seems that everything is in moderation here - when driving fast on such a road, the car slightly bounces and shakes the passengers, but does not try to fall apart and, in general, quite persistently blows bumps and pits. On the pavement, it is a little worse: the C3 Aircross has a completely non-sports suspension and when trying to drive recklessly, it frankly falls in corners. Bus landing only aggravates these feelings, and you quickly abandon high-speed maneuvers in favor of a calm measured ride in the general stream.
Three-cylinder turbo engine with a capacity of 110 liters. from. paired with a 6-speed "automatic" - a fighter, albeit with character. You can make the car go fast, but it's still more comfortable in quieter modes, when a smooth ride begins to exactly match the smooth lines of the body. But in the case of the C3, there is a feeling that its soft driving habits, coupled with a soft exterior, do not allow the car to be sold more actively.
In fact, the main car in the compact fan car segment was and remains the Kia Soul, but it can hardly be called a crossover. In fact, this is a large and bright hatchback, and the Juke and C3 Aircross style clearly gravitates towards off-road, and this is a completely different perception of the car.
If we compare several important market factors, then the potential for the development of the C3 Aircross can be discerned. First, the Kia Soul is starting to change its generation right now, and the new one may turn out to be more expensive than the current one. And secondly, Nissan Juke, with all its originality, is far from new, and the market life of the model is nearing the end. The Ford EcoSport, along with the entire brand, may leave the market altogether, and the ultra-fashionable Toyota CH-R is much more expensive. All this means that the compact Citroen in 2019 has every chance to take the position of the most affordable of fan cars, and then the market will be able to discern all its other advantages.
| Body type | Universal | Universal |
| dimensions (length / width / height), mm | 4135/1765/1595 | 4154/1756/1637 |
| Wheelbase, mm | 2530 | 2604 |
| Curb weight, kg | 1242 | 1263 |
| engine's type | Gasoline, R4 | Gasoline, R3, turbo |
| Working volume, cubic meters cm | 1598 | 1199 |
| Power, hp with. at rpm | 117 at 6000 | 110 at 5500 |
| Max. torque, Nm at rpm | 158 at 4000 | 205 at 1500 |
| Transmission, drive | CVT, front | 6-st. Automatic transmission, front |
| Maximum speed km / h | 170 | 183 |
| Acceleration to 100 km / h, from | 11,5 | 10,6 |
| Fuel consumption (city / highway / mixed), l | 8,3/5,2/6,3 | 8,1/5,1/6,5 |
| Cargo space, l | 354 – 1189 Feet | 410 – 1289 Feet |
| Price from, $. | 15 533 | 18 446 |
The editors would like to thank the Dream Hills Club administration for their help in organizing the shooting.
