Search by the «nissan» tag

There might be some discreet sniffling at the demise of the Ford Mondeo and VW Passat saloons, but to me the slow death of the MPV multi-purpose vehicle is sadder still. For the past four decades, the best MPVs have been exemplars of clever packaging, unlike a great many so called sports utilities, which often make miserable use of their size.

Sport, Normal or Eco? We work out how best to configure our crossover. The Nissan Qashqai has a Sport driving mode. This surprises me a bit, because the Qashqai isn’t the sort of car you would think of as being sporty in any way, shape or form. That’s not meant as a criticism: the Qashqai is very good at what it does. But I would describe it using words like practical, durable and sensible. Sport? Not so much.

The Mk1 Nissan Leaf was the first mass-market electric vehicle to be sold in the UK, designed to bring zero emissions motoring to a wider audience. Today, the first examples are more than a decade old, and often appear as the most affordable electric models in used car searches. So should you rush out and buy one, or would that be as sensible as throwing money onto a bonfire? Is buying a 2010 Nissan Leaf a good idea?