Confession time: I never thought the Nissan Juke was as good a driver’s car as some people claimed it to be. It was weird and quirky and different, sure, and it came with a manual. And sometimes tuners did weird shit to it, and that was fun. But was it that great to drive? Not... really. Sadly the Juke’s replacement, the 2018 Nissan Kicks, looks neither interesting nor compelling to drive.


Yes, the Juke is dead, replaced in the lineup with this four-door subcompact that apes the different-colored-roof trend everyone is jumping on right now. The Kicks is amazingly boring, coming with a naturally aspirated 1.6-liter four rated at 125 horsepower and 115 lb-ft of torque and a CVT only. No manual, no turbo.


But there’s tech! Like a 7.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and a thing called Around View Monitor, which gives you a bird’s eye view using all the cameras. So there’s that.

I for one am sad to see the Juke go, kind of. Even if it wasn’t a superb driving machine, it was weird. And weird is in short supply these days, especially at Nissan.


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