2021 Nissan Qashqai

Nissan Qashqai

Nissan’s Qashqai is the quiet achiever in a segment full of big personalities—think Mazda CX-5, VW Tiguan, Toyota C-HR. Urban types love its just-right size and that SUV-height driving position, but you won’t be fighting for parking space at Cresta. Petrol engines range from a 1.2T up to the 1.3T, and there’s that trusty 1.5 dCi diesel if you’re chasing lower fuel bills. You’ll find manual, CVT, and semi-auto boxes in the mix. Here’s the catch: no new Qashqais on showroom floors, so you’re buying used—prices stretching from R142,500 to R354,840, with a median of R209,500. That’s a gulf that tells you Qashqai buyers hang onto them, too, with models from 2011 to 2023 and average mileage just above 107,000 km. Most buyers land on the 1.2T Acenta CVT, which is thick on the ground between R170,000 and R270,000. Diesel fans will have to hunt—1.5 dCi Acenta Plus models are scarce but command R290,000 to R345,000, which makes sense for those clocking up big distances. There’s a single 1.3T Acenta Xtronic at R354,840, and that’s as fancy as it gets. On paper at least, the Qashqai’s big win is its cabin space—rear headroom that feels almost generous for the segment—and a road feel that’s more settled than the C-HR, especially on Joburg’s patchwork tar. No, it won’t turn heads. But it’s what the Qashqai should have been from the start, and that matters.