Nissan Juke NISMO

However, what if you're not a woman or in dire need for something a little more sporty? Just not this one, the Nissan Juke, okay? Because ever since it came out in Japan since the summer of 2010, it was already a hit because in its home market, Nissan scored over a ten thousand orders for the Juke, surpassing the 1,300 units per month sales target. However, despite being a hit, the Juke's well critizied over its unconditional design, even though it was designed in Britain, and its small room. Thing is though, the Juke was the first to feature Nissan's brand new MR16DDT DIG Turbo engine, which seems to be okay but not quite hot enough to satisfy its tastes.

Well known fact that stunt driver Terry Grant drove a Nissan Juke to pull off a world record by driving round Goodwood in two wheels! Anyway, if you think the Nissan Juke's not quite good enough to satisfy your "unsatisfied" hunger, there's another Juke that...um...well, you decide the outcome...

2013 Nissan Juke NISMO

 Nissan's tuning division, NISMO, took some time and some precautions to tinker the Nissan Juke compact crossover and the finished product resulted in this, the NISMO version of the Nissan Juke, the hot crossover with some sporty orientation in mind thanks to NISMO.

Thing is though, I sometimes didn't like the looks of a normal Juke because it's a bit of an oddball and it's a bit of a...joke but for the NISMO model, this is not a joke because the blokes from NISMO took it very seriously to make the best better and with the Nissan Juke NISMO, it's a struggle in the process.

First of all, the NISMO model of the Juke uses the 16GT FOUR model as its foundation for the NISMO Complete Car based on the Juke and by the looks of it, it's not a bit of a half-cook rooster that was fried up before its cockfighting debut. Surprisingly, instead of a fried rooster, I think the Juke NISMO kinda looks like a clown because the red side mirrors and the black, white, and silver exterior paint doesn't make any sense of being a sporty Juke model with a track-focused mind. Feels like it's as ruined as the elementary students messed up sets of Meccano toys and instead chose over LEGO because it's so easy to create stuff out of a million LEGO bricks. This feels like a Mecanno because it's so complicating to make than LEGO blocks.

Same goes for the NISMO-tuned suspension as well. Although, the NISMO tuned suspension offered on the Nissan Juke NISMO is capable enough to handle like a normal hot hatchback, it's still a bit fidgety, it's a bit Meccano-ish, and it's full of drama everytime this car went on the corners. It's the same feeling I've expected on last year's Hyundai Veloster Turbo because while the Juke NISMO is not on the same league as the Veloster Turbo, they both share the only experience in common; the handling that makes the driver very stressful. However, while the Veloster Turbo is a bit more stressful than the Juke NISMO, the Juke NISMO is kinda more of a beginners' luck. If you're the kind of bloke who got a driver's license for the first time, this car really doesn't matter if you're not concentrating but sometimes if you're not concentrating, it would be a straight and curly ride to your Sir Chief's office.

2013 Nissan Juke NISMO

Power comes from the same MR16DDT DIG TURBO engine but Nismo gave 10PS more, so now, it carries 200PS of power and 250Nm of torque while being mated with the XTRONIC CVT-M7 and All Mode 4X4-i with torque vectoring that some say it reduces the risk of having a little thing called catastrophic understeer. That seems to be quite juicy though, in fact, the improved chassis and the improved engine really makes it keen enough to tingle someone else's gentleman stuff over and over but only if it used in the right way.

With all that tinkering lead to its price and the Juke NISMO will cost you about  2,851,000 Japanese Yen and what can you say? Expensive? Reasonable? I can't say but with such pricing comes with the car that has an improved engine, improved chassis, unique exterior details, and the ride and handling that's about as hard as making Meccanos in your home.

Photo: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd