2011 Nissan Juke First Drive: PerformanceNissan set up a wonderful driving route that helped showcase the Juke’s sportiness that all starts with the turbocharged engine. The Juke’s power comes from a 1.6-liter turbocharged and intercooled inline-four that produces 188 horsepower and 177 lb-ft of torque. I had the chance to drive both transmissions available in the Juke with Nissan’s Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT) proving to be far more engaging than the manual gearbox as the clutch and shift felt a little numb on these pre-production Jukes (Nissan engineers on hand said this could change on production models). In Sport mode, the CVT actually returns virtual shift points unlike the smooth shifting that Nissan has sold the CVT on for years. The CVT and manual both give the Juke similar EPA fuel economy estimates with the FWD manual models getting 24 miles per gallon in the city and 31 mpg on the highway and AWD CVT getting 25 mpg city and 30 mpg highway. The most fuel-efficient combination is the FWD CVT which gets 27 mpg city and 32 mpg highway. The most exciting part of the Nissan Juke is the optional Advanced Torque Vectoring AWD system that gives the Juke excellent cornering abilities. While the Juke’s all-wheel drive system will surely come in handy in poor-weather conditions or light off-roading, the true purpose of this system is to improve performance. This system has the ability to split the engine’s torque evenly between the front and rear axles and even split it among the rear wheels which gave the Juke AWD impressive handling along some twisty roads. Another element that helps improve the handling of the Juke AWD is the different rear suspension layouts. The Juke FWD features a rear torsion bar suspension, while the AWD models have a multi-link rear suspension. Between the suspension and AWD, the Juke felt a lot like a tall Z car with some of the best handling and cornering abilities of any crossover on the market. Nissan designed the Juke to feel just as refined as it is sporty and even included an electronically controlled, liquid-filled front engine mount to reduce driveline noise, vibration and harshness (NVH)
(And/NewsTechnology)
