Urban Gear Works

Over the next twelve days, Urban Gear Works will be posting a wish list for the auto industry. Here's Day Eight:

Nissan Juke-R and Juke NISMO

The Nissan Juke is a quirky, but very fun little car for city living. It's a car that seems to defy classification. It has four doors, but it's almost too small to be a sedan. The interior layout and rear hatch would suggest that it may fall into the five-door hatchback category, but it seems too tall. So, it's small, sits high, and has available all-wheel-drive - is it a CUV? That doesn't seem to work either, because the design shows absolutely no intention toward ever leaving pavement. Admittedly, most CUVs are really just pretending anyway, but the Juke doesn't even pretend. Throw in the turbocharged four-cylinder, (from Nissan, a company that has made some very respectable turbo fours)  and it becomes even more confusing. However, all of the traits listed make it a very good choice for the city-dwelling enthusiast who needs a fun, small car that can do everything. The exterior styling can be avant-garde, but so much so that it's clearly intentional. 

What we would like to see for the future of the Juke is more power and performance. Nissan has already produced a handful of the absurd Juke-R, (shown above) a Juke body mated to GT-R running gear. The more reasonable, but still agressive Juke NISMO (Nissan's in-house performance division) has been confirmed for Europe, but details on an American version have been scarce. The Juke-R is a supercar in disguise, and the NISMO adds just enough performance to the "normal" Juke to appeal to the enthusiast. Urban Gear Works hopes to see more of both models in the year to come.  

Image Credit: Nissan

Read Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven