Nissan Qashqai Review (2021-present)
Nissan Qashqai cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Lots of clever tech
Roomy and practical cabin
Stylish looks
Cons
No plug-in hybrid
Underwhelming performance of 1.3 mild hybrid
High-spec cars are very pricey
The CarGurus verdict
The Nissan Qashqai has been one of the UK’s best-selling cars for a number of years now, and the latest third-generation model lays a more worthy claim to that status than ever before. It’s a big step up over the versions that have gone before, with significant improvements in dynamic ability, interior quality, style and technology.
Importantly, it’s maintained the appeal that has traditionally made the Qashqai so popular, with strong practicality, comfort, ease-of-use and value for money. You might lament the fact that the powertrains have rather limited performance, and that there aren’t more powertrain options available, but that doesn’t take away from what is an excellent all-rounder in the family SUV class.
What is the Nissan Qashqai?
The Nissan Qashqai is a mid-sized family SUV. But you probably didn’t need us to tell you that, as it’s dominated the family car market for many years already. The original Nissan Qashqai first arrived in 2006 and is credited with starting the ‘crossover’ genre, which blends the convenience and low running costs of a regular family hatchback with the chunky styling and raised ride height of an SUV. Over the years, the Qashqai has grown bigger and more off-roader-like, but the range is still dominated by front-wheel-drive models with efficient engines.
The Qashqai received an extensive facelift in 2024, which is easiest to spot at the front end of the car due to the new-look front grille and headlights, although the rear end has also received some aesthetic revisions.
How practical is it?
Practicality is strong in the latest Nissan Qashqai. There’s loads of legroom and headroom for rear passengers, although there are no sliding seats for extra versatility, like you get in a Skoda Karoq. The seats do fold flat in a 60/40 split, though, and at up to 504 litres, the boot is very competitive for the class, although some versions get less outright capacity depending on whether they have four-wheel drive, or a stereo subwoofer, or both. In all, however, a split, variable-height boot floor makes for convenient hidden storage, and the clever design means that the two pieces can be slotted into the floor to divide up the space in different ways.
The driving position has a good range of adjustment, and you sit fairly high so you get that imposing SUV loftiness, even though the Qashqai feels more hatchback-like to drive.
There’s no seven-seat option, though. For that sort of space and versatility, you’ll have to look to the bigger Nissan X-Trail, or rivals like the Skoda Kodiaq and Kia Sorento.
What's it like to drive?
What you won’t find in the Qashqai line-up is a diesel engine. The Japanese manufacturer has chosen to shun diesel altogether with the mk3 Nissan Qashqai, and instead launched it with a 1.3-litre mild-hybrid petrol engine, available with 138bhp or 156bhp.
Both mild hybrid engines get front-wheel drive and a six-speed manual gearbox as standard. Four-wheel drive and a CVT ‘Xtronic’ automatic are available on the higher-powered DIG-T 158 engine.
The mild-hybrid tech is essentially a very small battery and electric motor that also doubles up as the starter motor. This gives the turbocharged 1.3-litre petrol engine a performance boost when you accelerate, and so helps to improve your fuel economy, although it never drives on electricity alone.
So, what are the mild hybrid powertrains like for performance? Well, the higher-powered version is punchy enough to make easy work of a fast motorway merge or snappy getaway into a roundabout. It does need working fairly hard to get the best from it, though, so don’t expect diesel-like urgency from low revs.
We’ve never had the chance to try the lower-powered version, but on paper at least, there’s not a huge deficit on torque or acceleration figures, so we wouldn’t anticipate a huge drop-off in performance overall.
In 2022, Nissan added the Qashqai E-Power model to the range, which is the first full-hybrid version of the Qashqai. It goes about things in a rather unusual way, though: even though there is a 158bhp three-cylinder 1.5-litre petrol engine, it never actually drives the wheels, acting instead like a generator for a 187bhp electric motor.
As a result, the E-Power actually feels more like an electric car than a hybrid to drive, with the immediate urge of the electric motor giving a muscular-but-measured take-off, and building speed in a smooth linear manner that remains unbroken by gearchanges. Granted, it’s not ultimately all that quick, and you’re certainly not pinned back in your seat like you might be in some fully electric alternatives, but that’s absolutely appropriate in a car like the Qashqai, as is the relaxed and effortless way that the E-Power system goes about its work.
The E-Power is impressively refined, too. The generator engine stays impressively hushed, partly because Nissan has set the car up so that the petrol engine only works harder at high speeds, when wind- and road noise (of which there are moderate amounts) helps mask the work the petrol engine is doing. And it works, because the revving of the engine is never intrusive and always distant.
And while the Nissan’s regular petrol engines need to be revved to get decent response, making them slightly raucous occasionally, they are at least quiet when you’re holding a steady throttle.
Overall, the Qashqai generally feels pretty effortless to drive. The pliant suspension means ride comfort is pretty good, although we’d avoid buying a car fitted with the larger wheel choices, as these can make the ride feel a little more jumpy on some surfaces.
The Qashqai certainly isn’t a car that enjoys fast direction changes, but there’s enough body control that it feels tidy and stable in most situations, and the steering is responsive, direct and nicely weighted at speed, but light enough at low-speeds to make manoeuvres easy. Pretty much everything about the way the car drives just gels nicely to make the Nissan Qashqai a reassuringly easy and confident companion.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
Every third-generation Nissan Qashqai gets a colour touchscreen perched high in the centre of the dashboard. On early versions, the lower two trims got an 8.0-inch screen, while N-Connecta and above got a 9.0-inch version. Even at the time, the graphics looked a little grainy compared to the screens in rivals like the Kia Sportage, but the system is easy to use and has the key features that you’d want. That said, you didn’t get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in entry-level Visia trim, so that one’s best avoided. These phone-mirroring apps let you use your phone’s functions easily on the car’s screen. They only work when the phone is plugged into the USB input on lower spec Acenta models, but N-Connecta and up gets wireless Apple CarPlay.
When the E-Power was introduced in 2022, it got its own reworked infotainment system with a bigger 12.3-inch screen. With much sharper graphics and less lag, it’s a real step up from the original system, but the user interface can be a little bit bamboozling at times due to complex menu layouts and ambiguously designed on-screen icons. During the extensive facelift that took place in 2024, this higher-grade infotainment system was rolled out across the entire Qashqai range.
Equipment levels are very respectable in the Nissan Qashqai. On early models, even the entry-level Visia model had air-conditioning, adaptive cruise control, LED headlights and rear parking sensors. Mid-spec N-Connecta was the sweet spot on balance of cost and comforts, though, as it added dual-zone climate control, ambient interior lighting, keyless entry, surround-view parking camera and a large digital driver’s display. Stepping up to Tekna earned you a head-up display and wireless phone charging, while top-spec Tekna+ pushed the Qashqai to new levels of luxury with quilted leather seats, a Bose sound system and a massage function for the driver’s seat, but it’s also seriously pricey.
From the 2024 facelift, the entry-level Visia trim was ditched due to slow sales, making Acenta Premium the entry-level choice, slotting in below N-Connecta trim, and a new N-Design trim was introduced alongside the Tekna version, below the range-topping Tekna+. Small revisions were made to the kit lists of each, but mostly in terms of exterior styling finishes and seat upholstery, so there was actually very little change in the amount of luxury kit provided.
Nissan Qashqai running costs
The Nissan Qashqai is competitively priced when new, especially given its generous equipment levels. It’s expected to be worth more than most of its rivals if you choose to sell it on after a few years, too. Monthly finance costs are in line with the competition, although alternatives like the Mazda CX-5, Seat Ateca and Skoda Karoq offer lower monthly repayments and often come with zero interest options.
Unless you can find a great deal, we'd suggest people avoid the high-spec Nissan Qashqai Tekna and Tekna+ trims, as they're seriously expensive and you can easily get a well-equipped, bigger family SUV such as the seven-seat Skoda Kodiaq for the same money.
Fuel economy on the Nissan Qashqai is also acceptable, if not exceptional. Most models achieve official figures of around 44mpg but, on our test drive we struggled to improve on 35mpg despite a useful amount of relaxed motorway driving. The E-Power fares slightly better, though we couldn't really improve on around 40mpg despite official figures suggesting around 55mpg ought to be possible.
A service is due every 12 months or 18,000 miles on most versions, but if you choose the E-Power, then routine maintenance is needed every 9,000 miles.
Nissan Qashqai reliability
Nissan's reliability record is a bit mixed. It ranked 28th out of 31 manufacturers in the 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey, and we'd prefer to see Nissan extend its standard warranty from the bog-standard three years and 60,000 miles to something that is more of a match for Hyundai or Kia.
Reliability data for the current generation of Qashqai placed it 14th out of the 33 models in the family SUV class of the same What Car? survey. This is an improvement over the previous model which was down in 21st.
- The Nissan Qashqai might be from a Japanese manufacturer but it’s built in the UK, at the company’s Sunderland factory. It’s the most successful model to be built in Britain; several million have been produced in Sunderland since the original Nissan Qashqai first started production in December 2006.
- Standard safety kit includes autonomous emergency braking around town, traffic sign recognition and adaptive cruise control. Standard safety kit was improved during the 2024 facelift, when things like intelligent speed assist and emergency brake signalling were added to the standard roster. When it was crash tested by Euro NCAP in 2021, the Qashqai earned the full five-star rating.
- The Qashqai does a very competitive job on quality. There are many cars in the family car class that deliver a plush-feeling interior, and the Qashqai is a match for most of them, with plenty of cushioned surfaces, glossy finishes and interestingly placed stitched fabric and leather. One or two panels look and feel a little more functional, but don’t undermine the feeling of sophistication.
- If you want to keep it affordable: Go for the Nissan Qashqai Acenta Premium, with the lower powered DIG-T 140 engine and manual gearbox. We haven’t driven this engine yet, but it has a similar amount of torque to the more powerful version and is likely to feel fairly similar in real-world use, yet costs quite a lot less. You also get a reversing camera, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, dual-zone climate control and 17-inch alloy wheels with the well-priced Acenta Premium trim level.
- If you want to look really sharp: The Nissan Qashqai is a seriously smart-looking car as it is, with styling reminiscent of the Nissan Juke. The angular lines, and particularly the bold headlight design, help it to stand out from the rest of the class. If you want to make a big style statement, go for Tekna as it gets two-tone 19-inch wheels as standard, then add the contrast roof and one of the brighter colours. The black roof with Magnetic Blue paint looks really great, although those contrast roof exterior options cost over £1,000.
- If you want the best company car: The trick here is to stick to smaller wheels and front-wheel drive, in order to keep the Qashqai’s list price down and its CO2 emissions to 144g/km or below; there are high-spec models that creep above that, and fall into a slightly higher Benefit-in-Kind tax band. We’d go for the DIG-T 140 Mild Hybrid 2WD in Acenta Premium trim. You can get the CVT automatic and keep emissions below that 144g/km mark, too. In fact, the CVT transmission reduces emissions a fraction, so that’s a great option for high-mileage drivers who want the ease of an auto gearbox. Ultimately, even with the arrival of the lower emission Qashqai E-Power hybrid, there are far cheaper company cars on offer if you look to one of the many plug-in hybrid options. Even premium rivals like the Land Rover Discovery Sport P300e plug-in hybrid substantially undercuts the Nissan Qashqai for company car tax costs, as does the full hybrid Toyota C-HR Hybrid.
