Stylized & Small

The Juke's face is hard to characterize. Fang-shaped parking lamps sit atop the hood; the portals below them appear to have fog lights, but they're actually the headlights. The grille meanders about the midsection, and a plastic garnish underneath houses a row of Swiss-cheese holes, which suffice for the lower air inlet. As you might have guessed, I never did warm up to the look. One passer-by said he loved it, but added it's not the sort of design he thought would age well. Other Cars.com editors' opinions ranged from cold to lukewarm; one editor said his wife likened the face to a Dodge Neon gone horribly wrong.

Sharing its platform with Nissan's Cube and Versa hatchbacks, the Juke is thoroughly compact. Its overall length — 162.4 inches — is about even with a Honda Fit and nearly 7 inches short of the Versa hatch. Size notwithstanding, the Juke has a burlier stance: It's a few inches wider than both those cars, and despite standing just a smidge taller than the Fit and its ilk, the Juke's extended fenders, dark lower cladding and raised rear stance suggest a ruggedness the other cars lack.

    See also:

    Vehicle set-up
    1. Park the vehicle on a level surface and apply the parking brake. 2. Start the engine and let it idle until it reaches operating temperature. 3. Turn the engine off and wait more than 10 min ...

    Initialization
    When the ignition switch is placed in the ON position, NISSAN Voice Recognition is initialized, which takes a few seconds. If the button is pushed before the initialization completes, the sys ...

    Lockout protection
    When the power door lock switch (driver’s or front passenger’s side) is moved to the lock position with the Intelligent Key in the port and any door open, all doors will lock and unlock automa ...