My elderly neighbors have one in the front yard for sale. Been the wofes car for years.
Ive always liked the looks of the juke, and nismo is a fond name from playing gran turismo on the playstation.
What do i need to know? Anything special to look at? Is there a reason to run like a motherberkeleyer?
More importantly, how are the headlights? The miserable headlights on many cars takes them off the list....
I think that the nismo was an appearance package on these, so don't expect too much Grand turismo action from it. AWD was CVT automatic only, manuals were FWD and had a basic torsion beam rear suspension.
Just NISMO, or NISMO RS? I like the RS Recaros, and had a serious close call on buying one about five years ago.
Manuals are fwd only, AWD is CVT, and Nissan CVTs from this era have issues, though I haven't heard that the problems actually happened on the NISMO Jukes. The first year, (2013, IIRC) is a little unique, being pre-facelift. Published numbers show them to be on the wrong side of the SCCA stability rule. They advertised them as lowered, but published overall height and track width were identical to the plain models. When I asked Nissan about this a few years ago, they said both things were true. Owners have suggested their cars are shorter overall than published numbers. Regardless, don't expect to auto-x without suspension changes.
IIRC the base Nismo was an appearance package, the Nismo RS got you some extra power and other go-fast bits. As others have said, Manual is FWD only. I haven't searched for one in awhile but they seem to have higher resale than a base Juke.
It's got Nissan's not-so-venerable, replace it every 70K miles, CVT if it isn't a manual.
I remember making a lot of folks mad when they brought their brand new Juke in for its first service only to tell them it had a recall, needed fuel lines, or maybe a pressure sensor, something fuel related in the engine bay, that was on national backorder, and they risked an engine fire if they kept driving. Put a lot of folks in rental cars for a long time and the dealership had to stop selling them for maybe 6 months. I'd wager that's long been fixed by now though. Just a not so great memory associated with the Juke.
The big round lower lights are the headlights, not fog lights. The top squinty lights are just running lights and turn signals. I don't recall any customer complaints.
A peculiar design flaw related to aesthetics, we replaced a few A/C condensers at the customer's expense. The lower bumper cover has giant holes in it, and does little to protect the condenser from road debris. Customers weren't too happy about that one either. I think the Nismo has a different bumper design so that might not be as big of an issue.
Looks are polarizing. They ain't for me, but I like boxy old Volvos and lust for a Merkur XR4ti so what do I know.
So to summarize, not pretty, shoddy build and not all that reliable. Got it.
Just took a peek over on Nissan's press website (because I'm in that minority that thinks it's cool):
Standard Juke and Juke Nismo are rated for 188 horsepower and 177 lb.-ft. of torque. Nismo RS models are rated for 215 horsepower and 210 lb.-ft. of torque for the manual, with the CVT getting a reduced 211 horsepower and 184 lb.-ft. of torque.
We even reviewed a 2015 Nismo RS.
For me, I always thought Nissan was missing out by not entering it into rally:
I just got a vision of a Juke with billet wheels on it. My mind's eye is scared.
Our HR lady has one with the Nismo package. I took it for a spin when she first got it, fun little car. Recaros are nice with the typical hard side bolsters. Needs a bit more power but a neat nimble little car.
Nope. That thing is rough, cvt auto, and overpriced. Gonna pass. Cool looking, but not cool enough
As are many Nissans from that era, slow, ugly and no fun to drive. That said, Nissan sure sold a metric ton of them.
But it really looks at home as a rally car, doesn't it? Maybe the street is not the Juke's proper venue.
noddaz said:But it really looks at home as a rally car, doesn't it? Maybe the street is not the Juke's proper venue.
My thoughts exactly. I always felt like they missed that mark.
Well I can tell you they're safe. My mom center punched a tree at like 40 mph in her regular Juke a couple years ago. I was in the backseat and just had a seatbelt bruise. Parents (late 60s) in the front went to the hospital to get checked out but went home the same night. No broken bones or anything like that.
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