Now this is what I call a Christmas present – new car! It’s a Nissan Qashqai 1.6 diesel, and I hope it will be everything the little Yaris wasn’t. My patience with the Yaris ran out last summer when it became painfully obviously how hopelessly inadequate it is on the mountain roads I was driving. And then of course I’ve always had a problem with the ground clearance, it’s just not enough for the forest roads around here. And the small engine with semi-automatic gearbox… I promise you I was starting to tear out hairs in frustration when I had to literally floor the gas pedal to get any decent acceleration out of it. And then you were suddenly doing 60 kph on second gear… I’m no race driver and the Yaris is not a racing car for sure.

The Qashqai fixes all these issues I’ve had. High ground clearance, bigger and more powerful engine, manual gearbox… and then it has a bigger trunk, more space inside (so it’s just simply bigger in every way and this time bigger is better), it’s actually more quiet to drive with an efficient sound proofing and you almost never hear the typical diesel engine noise, and the interior is less plasticky which means less rattling noise when driving on rough roads. And it’s smoother over bumps, all these little things which make the driving experience fun and not frustration.

There were some things about the car that made me so happy I was grinning for ear to ear… like for example, the car actually accelerates as soon as you push down the gas pedal, instead of waiting for a couple of seconds and then shifting down to a lower gear and then slowly going faster. And even when driving at 95 kph, the Qashqai is not even doing 2000 RPM. Do you know what the Yaris does at under 2K revs? Nothing!

Of course, when I got the Yaris I was initially very happy with it, I mean you’re always happy with a new car, right? But when the novelty wears off, the little nags start to surface. But considering that the Qashqai fixes all those nags I had with the Yaris, I have high hopes that I will stay happy with the ”KasKas” (you need to be a Finn to appreciate that nickname…) for many many years to come!