When I saw that Lacey was looking into the Nissan QashQai I thought I’d have a look-see myself. A compact SUV is an intriguing concept to me, and I saw that you can order it as an all wheel drive (AWD) option for about $4000 extra, but at a starting price of just over $20k, it’s quite a reasonably priced little vehicle.
Let me put my bias right up front – I’m a muscle car girl if I can get my hands on one, so when I saw that the QashQai only had 141 horsepower, I was a little turned off. An SUV with only 141 horsepower??
Now, yes it is a small SUV, but it’s curb weight wasn’t as low as I’d have thought it would be. It was just over 3300lbs, and to put that into context, my Camaro (the big giant muscle car) is just over 3900lbs, so it’s not really that small in my own limited comparison.
The super tiny SUV market is picking up overseas in the European market in particular, due to higher fuel costs and taxes on higher displacement engines. Suddenly the very small engine, and the ability to have an SUV are making sense to me. Even here in North America though you can see the popularity of the smaller SUV segment increasing as people become more aware of fuel efficiency and curbing their own emissions. Smaller car – less mass to move – smaller more efficient engine – less fuel consumed and emissions created.
I started looking around this week as I was writing this little mini article, and you’ll have to tell me if you’ve seen the same thing, but I swear every little SUV or CUV that I see is driven by a senior. The average age of the drivers I’ve seen is about 70, and especially for the smaller Buick – the Encore.
And if you look at the weights of the cars above, it will tell you one thing – these aren’t lighter vehicles, but they are taller “sedans”. We once did a creative exercise where we stretched out a typical generic sedan shape by extending the height just a smidge and surprisingly, it looked exactly like the SUV by the same generic standards. Is this all these smaller SUVs really are?
So what’s the draw?
I’m thinking that it’s the improved visibility and cargo room, with the handling and fuel economy of a small car – easy to park, easy to drive, easy to pack full of people and stuff, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to fill up.
As an anecdotal side note… I find it funny that Buick was trying to rebrand and make their cars sound all funky and hipster, but everyone I’ve seen driving an Encore is an elderly or very senior man. Turns out they like the car that is easy to park and handle, while being higher up for better visibility, and maybe even ease of getting into and out of….
