What's in a name!

Posted by Samantha Castle on April 9, 2009 3:10 PM

While entertaining four visitors Weekly News reporter Samantha Castle test drove a Nissan Qashqai supplied by Slaters Nissa, Abergele.

SO what's in a name? Mustang, Diablo and Vanquish all sound full of power and mystery. Astra, Clio and Seed seem small and approachable, but what is a Qashqai?
After some internet research I found the Qashqai were middle age, Turkic-speaking nomads from Iran.
Despite its weird name and Japanese badge, the Nissan Qashqai is a British car. It was designed in Nissan's London studios, engineered at the company's workshops in Bedfordshire and built in Washington, Sunderland.
Nissan has sold almost 300,000 of them to date along with its new cousin the Qashqai+2 with two extra seats, which I had test drove recently.
For a large family the Qashqui+2 is a bargain, not only is it capacious inside with little storage compartments everywhere, including under the floor and with its vast panoramic sunroof, its like an observatory on wheels.
The black, shiny, diesel model I was given for the weekend was only four months old and full of optional extras including metallic paint, rear-view camera and chrome trim. But don't worry there are only a few optional extras with this range, which I see as a positive.
The range goes from £15,500 for the 1.6-liter petrol to £23,270 for the 2.0-liter auto diesel.
For a diesel I was pleasantly surprised to find I was permanently in the fast lane and the drive was very quiet and smooth to manoeuvre with a grand sense of safety being that little bit higher up than other road users. The handling on county roads down the Conwy Valley was great and the heated seats were a godsend after a gruelling hike up Snowdon.
I must admit I felt like I had lost an arm when I had to say good buy to that reversing camera, don't get me wrong I am a very competent driver (in a fiesta) but this was almost twice the size! And don't get me started on the six-speed gears, cruise control, air-con, six-CD auto-changer, Bluetooth and sat nav- I adore gadgets and gizmos like that, show-off that I am.
The fuel consumption averaged 40mpg, but that's probably down to the long country drives I was doing- I would expect townies and Chelsea tractor types to not get much over 36mpg, but that's a matter of opinion.
In a nutshell I liked it, comfortable and economical- it transported around five females and all their walking gear in style.