Juke prospects strengthening

Pulling the wraps off the car at the Australian International Motor Show in October is the clearest sign yet that Nissan Australia wants the Juke here — on sale.

Since the global launch of the adventurously styled crossover hatch built at Nissan's Sunderland plant in the UK, the importer has shown varying degrees of enthusiasm for its introduction here. But Jeff Fisher, Nissan's General Manager for Media Enquiries, today confirmed with motoring.com.au that an example of the Juke would be on display at the local show in Sydney.

"We'll have Juke there," he said. There's still no formal word as to whether the car is a goer for the local market however.

"We think it makes sense, but it's not a done deal yet."

The Juke has been on Nissan Australia's agenda for at least two years, but Mr Fisher doesn't subscribe to the view that the decision to go ahead — or not — has been delayed.

"It wasn't really a delay; [we] made the call that at the time it wasn't right for our product portfolio, and... we were looking to reduce complexity in the product portfolio. That was Dan's [former MD Dan Thompson] motivation. Time's change, [there's] a different emphasis on things and... we're a lot about the brand now, so we've launched brand campaigns and we're spending some money on that."

The Juke, according to Mr Fisher, is a "brand car", a vehicle that will boost the brand image. It's also a vehicle already on sale in New Zealand, so clearly currency exchange rate fluctuations that stood in the way of the car's importation in the past are no longer a hurdle.

"The emphasis is changing really... it's about design, it's about technology, it's about trying to be a little bit different — a little bit catchy, a little bit more edgy. And Juke's all of those things," Mr Fisher concluded.

The styling of the Juke may be an acquired taste, but Nissan will be confident of selling a fair number of the cars if and when it goes on sale, not least of all if there's a NISMO variant in the range.

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