Gadgetory

the Duke has been a polarizing car since it's launched by Nissan in 2010 in one camp you have the people that hate it for its weird looks and then you have the enthusiasts who recognize the sheer brilliance of this car I'm one of those enthusiasts I love this car now Nissan recognising the fans put the Juke in the hands of its Nismo tuner department who gave it more power and better handling let's take a look at the 2013 Nissan Juke Nismo and check the tech and it does have some funky looks it's got these round headlights down here on these blinker lights that sit up in their own casings up above the level of the hood as a mismo you can only get this car in black red or white and in either case it's got these red mirror caps it also has these 18-inch alloy wheels with this nice finish on it this is also aerodynamics on the car that Nissan says gives up 37% more downforce than a regular Juke that's going to help you in the corner he's had a lot of plumbing on this engine here underneath all this is a 1.6 liter block not very big but it produces 197 horsepower that's 9 more than the standard Juke even though it's really the same engine what helps Nissan get this kind of power out of this thing is it's got direct injection so the fuel delivery is a lot more efficient than in the port injection car also we have a turbocharger on here the same turbo as the standard Juke so all that extra power actually comes from the Nismo tuner Department shipping the engine just reprogramming the software to get more power out of it it also has 184 foot-pounds of torque now with this small engine you get pretty good fuel economy too that's 27 miles per gallon city 32 miles per gallon highway for the manual version with all-wheel-drive in the CVT to take two offs as part of the Nismo package you get these sports seats here they've got this pseudo suede on here this kind of synthetic suede they've got these bolsters - which are decent they're not too high that it makes it difficult to get in the car also we have a manual transmission in this car that's the biggest compromise in the Juke Nismo is that the manual transmission 6-speed only comes with front-wheel drive Nissan also offers an all-wheel-drive system for this car which has torque vectoring across the rear wheels so it'll give you a fantastic handling but you can only get that car the all-wheel drive system with a continuously variable transmission now Nissan does an excellent CVT and they even put this one in the hands Department to give it or hopefully give you extra power make sure it's always in your power band but I don't know we're racing around and stuff like that I'm not sure if a CVT is gonna do it you're probably going to want the manual but then you can't get the oil drive it's a compromise another really cool thing about the Juke that we also see in this Duke Nismo is D mode we get this little panel down here and if I push the climate button it shows the normal climate controls the temperature all that good stuff then I hit D mode and all the buttons change the screen changes and you can set it between normal sport and eco now Sport Nico might not sound too revolutionary you see that in a lot of cars but in this one the sport mode not only changes the throttle response it also changes the steering response that's something Nissan can do because they use electric power steering in this car so put it in sport mode it actually sharpens up the steering as well as the throttle response it bring in an eco mode steering stays the same throttle response is reduced so supposedly you're not going to use as much gas and the air conditioning is actually detuned as well so it won't be quite as powerful but you'll save more gas that way as well and the sport mode changing the steering and the throttle tuning you only see that in cars like BMWs and Audi's that cost twice with this Juke cost so that's a really good value and we also have a navigation system in this car this is about an $1100 option and I don't know I'm I really don't like the system it's SD card based but even though it's based on flash memory the maps really refresh pretty slowly and the screen size is tiny when you're under route guidance you get very small graphics telling you where to turn it would be easy to get lost if you're in an unfamiliar city with a lot of junctions does show traffic and it does try to reroute you around bad traffic problems so I like that I would really hesitate to get this option now the advantage is that when you plug in an iPod or a USB stick to this USB port down here then you get the full music library on the screen for USB Drive you just get file and folder arrangement but with an iPod in there then you get the full artists albums genres all that good stuff what's really missing in this car with navigation or with is Bluetooth audio streaming now that's a big feature that Nissan left out in this car we also have Rockford Fosgate audio system that's pretty nice it's got the regular six speakers then we also have a powered subwoofer and as you'd expect with Rockford Fosgate there's a lot of bass response it really pumps Iko brings down the acceleration to keep it locked that throttle just doesn't tip in it takes a while to build up speed steering stays the same as a normal mode as far as the throttle goes that fighter tuning that makes me think that merging in passing gonna take a while to sport mode that's where the fun starts the own experience really tightened up with that sport tuning mode I like that a lot and then the yeah rival becomes a lot more sensitive this the right quality is always a little bit crop it's got the most suspension tuned so you sort of don't feel that ride on a rough road it's really gonna make you yeah you're gonna feel it through the seats it's not the most comfortable thing but a dozen a corner green doesn't really improve its handling the corners keeps car really flat it makes it really rotate nicely around the apex it's a bug car I would think on an autocross track this thing would be a blast now let's price out our 2013 Juke Nismo 23 750 delivered now 1170 gets you that navigation system and the Rockford Fosgate audio system I would probably go aftermarket with that stuff because you don't get a lot of features the sound is good but you don't get Bluetooth audio streaming so you can get more features if you go aftermarket with that stuff 23 750 is about competitive in the hot hatchback segment you get more power from a Ford Focus ST but this car is a lot of fun and I especially like that tunable steering and throttle control