Nissan Juke VS Holden Trax
Nissan Juke
Likes
- Funky looks
- Decent interior space and boot
- Full safety equipment
Dislikes
- Frustrating dual clutch auto
- Missing a few tech items rivals get
- Could do with a hybrid version
Holden Trax
Likes
Dislikes
Summary
Nissan Juke
The Nissan Juke was meant to herald a new era for Nissan in Australia.
It was the first in a slew of new-generation SUVs and has now been joined by the Qashqai, X-Trail, and Pathfinder as part of a new-look Nissan.
Unlike those others, though, the Juke hasn’t quite resonated with buyers. Since arriving to what Nissan probably expected to be fanfare back in 2020, the new Juke has since sunk to the bottom of its compact SUV segment, outselling only a handful of other models.
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So, what went wrong? Is the quirky styling of the Juke too much? Are there too many appealing choices in the compact SUV space? Alternatively, could the Juke be an underrated gem worth checking out?
I find myself in an upper mid-spec ST-L to find out.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 1.0L turbo |
| Fuel Type | — |
| Fuel Efficiency | 5.8L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Holden Trax
Small or compact four-door SUVs have found favour with those who might usually climb into a hatch but, for whatever reasons, are now looking to a vehicle with the ability, actual or otherwise, of being sporty and even a little bit outdoorsy. The reality is most of these vehicles will spend their time on city and suburban streets, which perfectly suits them, and their owners’ lifestyles.
However, some of these diminutive SUVs are better at their intended purpose – and do it with much more style – than others.
How does the base-spec turbocharged Holden Trax, the LS, hold up in a bustling market segment? To find out, read on.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 1.4L turbo |
| Fuel Type | Regular Unleaded Petrol |
| Fuel Efficiency | 6.7L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Verdict
Nissan Juke6.9/10
The Juke is a fun little car. It looks cool, it packs most of the important features and safety equipment, but while it can be fun to drive, it’s also a little clunky around town.
It’s so frustrating, because there is a great car in there somewhere, and it would take only small tweaks and enhancements to bring it out.
Holden Trax7/10
The Holden Trax looks nice enough and is pleasant enough to live with day to day. Like many others of its ilk, the Trax may be marketed as an SUV but that catch-call moniker, which has come to be accepted to mean that a vehicle is actually sporty and off-road capable, is misleading.
As an adventure vehicle the Trax falls well short – it needs a diesel engine and much improved capability (AWD) and space – but as a lively daily driver for a young starter, or a one-child family, then it’s perfectly adequate.
If you’ve got your heart set on a Trax and you’re patient, perhaps you’ll wait until 2020 when the next-generation Trax is due here.
Design
Nissan Juke
Urban style is clearly what the Juke is about. It’s always been about this, but the original incarnation, while unusual, was a bit bulbous and awkward. The current version is a razor-sharp re-interpretation of the original.
Ugly duckling no more, the Juke blends the elements of Nissan’s current design language with its own unique take, in a clever way.
The roofline and bulbous face of the original car, complete with its ‘eye’ headlights are all maintained, but this time they look more contemporary with a splash of chrome and gunmetal plastic in the face, offset by gloss blacks running down the doorline.
The new light fittings look great and the curviness is also gently off-set with some sharp angles. The massive 19-inch wheels finished in a two-tone gloss black and aluminium brush keep this car looking like a concept come to life. Just don’t crash them into the curb. It would be very easy to.
The cool elements continue inside, with rotary air vents, a blend of textures, including a gloss grey for the vent claddings, with white stitching for the wheel, seat, and into the door cards, too.
There are touches of chrome about the place, and an ambient red LED light surrounding the shifter, which sits on its own little pedestal thing.
It’s quirky and punches above its weight when it comes to soft trims in the doors. Like most higher-grade Nissans the seats are pretty comfy, too, clad in a hard-wearing synthetic leather material.
But it won’t be for everyone, and it’s not without its downsides. The abundance of grey plastic down the centre console is a bit cheap, and the tech offering doesn’t match the youthful style.
The centre screen is adequate, but compared to many rivals it’s a bit small and dull, and the Juke is still missing a digital overhaul for its instrument cluster.
The black headlining, usually reserved for sportier cars, makes the cabin feel smaller than it is.
Holden Trax
It’s a small SUV and it looks sporty and outdoorsy enough in a generic sort of way. A nuggety stance, short-wheelbase and roof rails add to this Trax’s activity-friendly demeanour, without promising too much. Take a look and make up your own mind if it’s your cup of tea; I’m not your life coach so decide for yourself whether it’s cool or plain.
Practicality
Nissan Juke
The Juke is a small SUV in the true sense of the word, sitting below the Qashqai which is more like a mid-sizer these days in terms of dimensions.
However, it’s quite cleverly packaged on the inside and is more useful than it first appears.
The front seats, for example, offer heaps of headroom and a surprising amount of width, and while the seats are manual, they’re pretty adjustable. I was able to find a great seating position.
There are big pockets in the doors with an integrated bottle holder suitable for even the largest bottles, although the centre console area is a bit less versatile, choosing its funky design over additional storage.
It features two good bottle holders, but a tiny armrest box and a shallow tray with one 12V socket and a USB-A outlet, as well as an auxiliary audio input under the climate controls.
On the topic of climate controls, I love the fact the Juke maintains a dedicated ventilation panel complete with buttons and dials for all the core functions. No touchscreen nonsense here.
The media screen, as mentioned, is a tad small, and falls victim to glare easily.
The stock Nissan software is a massive upgrade on the brand’s previous-generation products, but while it’s functional it’s far from the prettiest or the fastest on the market.
The back seat offers more space than you might assume, but it’s not as well thought-out as the front of the cabin. At 182cm tall I fit behind my own driving position with just enough space for my knees and just enough headroom.
There are decent bottle holders in the doors, and a further two small ones in the drop-down armrest. The backs of the front seats are clad in that synthetic leather material, which is nice, and have soft pockets, too.
The back of the front centre console offers just a single USB-A outlet and a small cubby. There are no adjustable air vents for rear passengers. It also feels a little claustrophobic back there thanks to the black trim on everything and smaller windows.
Boot capacity for the Juke is impressive for an SUV in this class, with 422 litres on offer, which is close to the volume we’d expect from something a size-bracket up, and 1305L with the second row folded down. There is a space-saver spare under the boot floor.
Holden Trax
Its interior is plain, but practical. The LS has cloth trim and expanses of plastic, which make it a bit ordinary to look at but very easy to live with in the real world because day-to-day life involves liquid spills, crumbs and dirt – lots of dirt.
Storage spaces include a narrow glovebox, narrow plastic door pockets, four cupholders in centre console (no lidded bin here) plus two in the rear centre armrest, and driver and front passenger seat-back pockets.
The rear cargo area is a 356-litre space with the rear seats in use and the cargo cover in place), or a 785-litre space with the 60/40 rear seats folded into the floor. For this to happen, the rear-seat bases flip forward into a vertical position and the seat-backs fold forward to make the ‘new’ flat floor.
Price and features
Nissan Juke
The Juke range kicks off from just $28,390 which gets you into a base ST and reaches to $36,890 for the top-spec Ti.
We’re driving the $34,440 (before on-road costs) ST-L which is the upper mid-grade car.
It scores concept-style 19-inch alloy wheels, synthetic leather interior trim, an 8.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, a 7.0-inch digital screen between the analog dials, a surround camera system, single-zone climate, keyless entry and push-start ignition, and LED headlights.Â
The quite attractive ‘Magnetic Blue’ paint our car wears is a $700 option. For an additional $1133 you can also step up to the ST-L+ grade which adds alternate two-tone seat trim, chrome and black highlights and a 10-speaker Bose audio system.
While this ST-L grade gets the lion’s share of Juke equipment without the price-hike to the Ti (and is therefore the pick of the range) there are some notable items missing at this price.
For example, there’s no wireless phone charging, no head-up display, no fully digital instrument cluster, and no electrical adjustment for the seats. The 8.0-inch multimedia screen is starting to look a bit dated, too.
Still, it looks trendy and those massive wheels are well above the standard for a car at this size or price. So, if you’re going for style over equipment there is a choice to be made here.
Nissan also hasn’t cheaped out on safety equipment, with most active stuff coming standard, even on the base ST. More on this later.
Pricing is about line-ball with its most direct competitors. It’s a tad cheaper than some like the outgoing similarly-styled Toyota C-HR (Koba 2WD - $35,695), or slightly more expensive than others like the current equivalent Ford Puma (ST-Line - $33,190) or Mazda CX-3 (Touring SP - $34,300) although it is also ever so slightly larger than those last two by width, height, and wheelbase.
Holden Trax
The Trax is a front-wheel drive small SUV and the LS is the base-spec variant.Â
Our tester – a MY19 LS with a 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and six-speed automatic transmission – has a listed price of $24,490 drive away. The Trax LS is available with a five-speed manual gearbox, but it’s matched to a 1.8-litre non-turbo petrol four-cylinder engine. The turbocharged LS is the way to go, I reckon.
The LS has a stack of standard features for the price, including Holden’s MyLink multimedia system, with a 7.0-inch colour touchscreen, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Bluetooth connectivity, USB port and power socket up front, cruise control, rear-view camera, rear parking sensors, as well as hill-start assist, hill-descent control, and more. No Trax has AEB.
Our test vehicle has 17-inch alloy wheels with a space-saver spare.
It has an Absolute Red paint exterior; prestige paint colours are available – including Mineral Black, Burning Hot and Abalone White – but they cost an extra $550.
Under the bonnet
Nissan Juke
In the Juke’s messy engine bay lies a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine which sends 84kW/180Nm to the front wheels.
Nissan has its own 'HR10DET' engine code for this unit but it’s actually a Renault 'H5Dt' engine as evidenced by Renault logos all over the place.
Power is communicated by a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic which has been a source of strife for this car since it arrived. This very European engine and transmission combination is one which the Juke shares with its Renault Captur cousin.
I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but I would prefer a continuously variable transmission (CVT) which Nissan uses elsewhere in its range. It would solve maybe the main issue with this car, which we’ll explore up next in the driving section of this review
Holden Trax
Our test vehicle has the 1.4-litre DOHC 16-valve four-cylinder iTi petrol engine – producing 103kW at 3000rpm and 200Nm at 1850rpm – matched to a six-speed automatic transmission.
The turbo gives the Trax a welcome kick in the automotive pants, making the turbo-equipped variant the pick of the bunch.
Efficiency
Nissan Juke
One of the reasons this car comes equipped with a dual-clutch automatic is to chase fuel efficiency as well as emissions output. On paper DCT autos don’t suffer the inherent losses of a traditional torque converter transmission.
The official combined cycle fuel consumption figure is 5.8L/100km. My week of driving, weighted slightly more towards freeway conditions, produced a marginally higher average of 6.8L/100km. It’s not the claim, but it’s pretty good.
This little engine requires mid-shelf 95RON unleaded fuel, and the Juke has a 46-litre fuel tank, suggesting a driving range of 793km using the official fuel consumption number.
Holden Trax
This Trax has a claimed fuel consumption of 6.7L/100km (combined). We clocked up more than 300km of highway and back-roads driving, with a smattering of gravel-road driving thrown in. We recorded 10.7L/100km, which is much thirstier than claimed.Â
Driving
Nissan Juke
The Juke can be fun to drive, and I wanted to like it more, but the transmission its peppy little engine is paired with is frustrating.
Outputs of 84kW/180Nm doesn’t sound like a lot, but power isn’t the problem. The little engine has a fun turbo-surge which pairs with the Juke's light frame to make for a car which is quite athletic when you push it.
The issue is a mountain of turbo-lag conspires with the clunky dual-clutch automatic to make it far too sluggish off the line.
There’s a full second (or two, at times) to wait for any power to arrive, which simply isn’t good enough at T-junctions and roundabouts, the kind of situations a little urban SUV like this will constantly be encountering.
Nissan says the transmission software was even updated after the Juke’s launch, but it’s still not where it should be.
It has good traits, too. When you’re out on the open road, it has quick, snappy and well-defined shifts, and the engine is much better when it’s being properly pushed, too.
It has a gruff, entertaining tone, and the Juke’s light frame, firm ride, and comparatively heavy steering make it a joy to throw into some corners.
The long wheelbase for such a small SUV, paired with a decent set of tyres, also keeps it confident when its predecessor was a little clumsy.
Again, though, the reasonably hard ride, not helped by the very large wheels, isn't its best trait in an urban environment. The Juke is by no means uncomfortable, it just seems like the priorities for this little SUV aren’t in the right place.
I’ve said this before but there’s a great car in here somewhere. The Juke is fun to drive in the right environment, it’s just this environment is not where most prospective buyers will primarily be looking to use it.
What could fix this issue? A different transmission perhaps. Better yet, an e-Power hybrid powertrain.
Holden Trax
Driving position is high, steering is quite sharp and handling is tight and controlled, so there’s plenty of welcome driver involvement from the get-go.Â
The turbocharged engine makes for a lively and responsive drive and, combined well with the six-speed auto, this 1376kg Trax offers up plenty of zip from stop-starts and oodles of oomph for smooth overtaking.
Ride is very firm, bordering on harsh, with rear-seat passengers* especially feeling the lumps and bumps of irregular road surfaces by way of the tight suspension. (*I believe my children.)Â
Interior space is not an issue though as everyone can manage head and shoulders nicely in the tall cabin. The seats are lacking in full support though, making long trips not such an appealing proposition, and in-cabin noise builds early and becomes quite hard on your ears.
Safety
Nissan Juke
The Juke's standard active safety features include freeway-speed auto emergency braking, lane departure warning with lane keep assist, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, adaptive cruise control and traffic sign recognition.
Last time I reviewed this car I complained about the way it vibrates the steering wheel when the lane keep function decides you’re going out of your lane. But having since experienced so many more invasive lane keep systems, this one seems comparatively low-key.
Elsewhere, the Juke gets the standard array of six airbags (dual front, side, and curtain) and wears a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating to the 2019 standards.
Holden Trax
The Trax has a five-star ANCAP rating as a result of testing in August 2013.
The LS has six airbags (including full-length curtain airbags), dusk-sensing headlights, reversing camera, rear-parking sensors, hill-start assist and hill descent control.
Ownership
Nissan Juke
Nissan offers the Juke with a five-year, unlimited km warranty, with five-years of roadside assist included.
It requires servicing every 12 months or 20,000km and the cost is subject to a capped price servicing program for the first six years.
This averages $651.33 annually, which is not cheap for a small SUV in this class.
However, there is also the option of a pre-paid five-year service plan which brings the annual cost over five years down to a more reasonable $429.60.
But, notably, it does not include the pricy $1521 sixth-year interval. It’s worth asking yourself how long you’ll own the car for before splurging on it.
Holden Trax
The Trax has a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and service intervals are recommended at 15,000km/nine months.