Nissan Qashqai review

There’s enough space for five normal humans, and the boot is a decent 479 litres; at the smaller end of the scale for this size of car, but still good. Fold the seats down and you can get 1,415 litres measured to the roof, so very usable for family life.

The upper tiers now come with Alcantara wrappings for the inside (dash, door cards, centre console lid, knee pads), and the facelift introduced new materials for the trim pieces. Seemingly simple stuff that actually makes a big difference.

The seats are either partially quilted real or synthetic leather on the more expensive ones, and there's 64-colour ambient lighting which can change with the drive modes.

Will the tech blow my mind?

You won't feel hard done by. There's an Around View Monitor with a 3D function that uses eight cameras to give you a solid view around the car, including a ‘stood off’ perspective that allows you to scroll around the car and have a look about. Plus there’s that ‘invisible bonnet’ that projects your perspective to just behind the front wheels without anything in the way.

Which is all well and good, but unless you're commuting from a scientific outpost within the Arctic Circle, probably of marginal use in a small-ish SUV.

Of more use – and it really is useful – is the wide-angle front view which allows you to do a quick check from a blind junction without sticking the whole nose of the car out into the road. And you can store that view in the memory so that it automatically activates when it gets there. So you could set it to pop on coming out of your driveway. Handy.

Is the connectivity any good?

Google comes built-in on all but the entry-level Qashqai, so there’s plenty of the good stuff. Standard Google Maps with over-the-air updates, Google Assistant – which allows for voice control of some of the car’s functions – and Google Play, so you can download apps direct into the car.

Then there’s an app of the sort that will be familiar to EV owners. You can lock and unlock the car, check the status, where you’ve parked it, close the windows or even track it if it gets nicked. Way better than Nissan’s old system.

Anything else?

There’s also great news if you like proper buttons and switches, because Nissan has resisted the temptation to ditch the physical climate controls and drive mode toggles. It could have put all of that into the 12.3-inch central touchscreen, but instead it keeps a proper climate control panel and actual toggles down by the drive selector. Very sensible.

Quick word on car seats too: the front seats automatically slide back when you get in or out, and if you've got a whopping great car seat in the back the mechanism will do its best to crush it. Luckily you can disable it in the settings.