FAMILY CAR REVIEW: 2017 NISSAN QASHQAI ST

Storage in the cabin of the Qashqai is not generous. There are no wells in the doors, the door bins will hold a 600ml bottle and my wallet, but they are not big enough to hold a large refillable water bottle.

Inside the glovebox is quite large and without a manual in, it would hold an iPad and my wallet.

There is no glasses case in the ceiling, I stored mine in a little well in front of the central console storage box but it wouldn't hold very large glasses and I don't like storing my glasses in places like this really as they end up getting scratched lenses.

There are two cup holders in front of that which are well sized for disposable and refillable coffee cups. My large refillable water bottle fits nicely in there too.

There is another well in front of the gear lever with a 12V socket in there too. It's only small but I found the key or my change fitted there, and it wasn't big enough for my phone.

The central console storage box is quite deep and has a circular groove in the bottom of it. There is a 12V, AUX and USB socket in there too.

Unlike in the front, the rear passengers get wells in their doors, which I love as a mum!

I find door wells really handy for keys or little things my daughter has in her hands when I'm putting her in and out of the car.

The door bins in the back would hold a 600ml and a Pigeon baby bottle.

There are map pockets on the back of both front seats, they are solid fabric so whatever you put inside will not be visible. They do fit an iPad without a case.

There is also a little space in the back of the central console storage box that could house a few little items or a phone.

There are no cup holders in the back of the Qashqai at all so storage is quite minimal and basic, which is the overall feel I got for the Qashqai.

The basic and cheap feel continues to the boot, where the floor is very thin, and it all seems very built to a price.

When the boot of the Qashqai is empty I could get 11 shopping bags in the boot.

With the Britax Holiday compact stroller in the boot, I can get 8 shopping bags around it.

With the Britax Flexx single stroller in the boot, I can get five shopping bags in too.

With the Britax Flexx tandem stroller in the boot, I can get three shopping bags in too.

With the Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller in the boot, I can get two shopping bags in beside it.

The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.

Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.

I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres ia not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.

There are a small well and a plastic strap, on either side of the boot, that is good for holding your water bottle or sun cream. There is an automatic light on one side and a bag hook on both sides too.

The boot has a raised ridge in the floor behind the back seats that stops you being able to use the full depth of the boot floor. The rest of the boot floor is flat, so you could do an emergency nappy change there, but I don't think it would be very comfortable because the floor is so thin and basic and you really feel all the lumps and bumps underneath.

The parcel shelf is solid and it is removable but you wouldn't have anywhere to store it in the car. I did find the parcel shelf caused black marks on the stroller's fabric so you would want to be careful what was at the top of your boot.

The media screen in the Nissan Qashqai is tiny, I found it hilarious! The quality of the image is really bad and text size on it is enormous for a screen that size!

The parking sensors I found were not very reliable. In some cases when I reversed and I could see an object in the reversing camera, the sensors didn't pick them up which is worrying! When they do sound they have a very quiet beep, which makes a nice change!!

The volume of the sensors can be changed in the menus of the digital display in front of the steering wheel to low, medium or high. When set on low, it is a nice quiet sound and the setting is remembered for following journeys.

Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!

That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.

If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?

It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?

A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.

Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!

I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.

There is lane departure warning in this model, you can turn it on and off in the same menu as the sensor volume and there is a button by your right knee to switch it on or off too.

The indicators have a nice quiet tick that I'm sure would not disturb a sleeping Bub!

There was no sat-nav in the model I drove so I can not comment on this sorry!

The seatbelt alarm is loud and would seriously alert you to a seatbelt being removed at definite baby waking volume!! You can come to a stop with the engine running, take your seatbelt off and open the door without any alarms sounding though..big tick!!

Since becoming a mum I spend A LOT of time parked up somewhere with a nice view while my daughter is asleep in the back! If it's hot I need to leave the engine running and the aircon on but I do like to get out and drink my cuppa tea in the fresh air while enjoying the fact my limbs are free from said dangling child!!

SO this is a very important test as I have found that sometimes I have been held hostage by a cars BEEEEPING alarms when I have taken off my seatbelt or opened the door while the engine is still running!! (I only stand outside the car I am not a bad mother!!)

The windows of the Qashqai open and close quietly but the doors close with a real slam that would definitely disturb a sleeping baby!

The cruise control is not reliable, set at 80km/h on an undulating road the Qashqai raced off and I interrupted when it reached 88km/h, so it definitely wasn't good at sticking to the set speed.

Going up steep hills, the Qashqai seemed to struggle a little as the engine gets a bit noisy and tetchy. It was a smooth drive on flat faster roads but becomes lurchy when you accelerate hard. I found that road noise increased depending on the surfaces and the ride became a bit jiggly, which I think would be worse for rear passengers.

The Qashqai is a five-seater with two ISO Fix points, one in each of the outer rear seats. Now I had some problems with the Qashqai's ISO Fix and I would urge you to TEST THE ISO FIX POINTS in yours before you buy it if your heart is set on a Qashqai. I found that in the model I was testing, the inner ISO Fix connector of the rear seat on the left wouldn't work and I just could not connect it. I tried another model in the showroom and had the same problem. in fact, I found some of the other ISO Fix points on that car were all out of line, they did connect but weren't straightforward at all. SO there appeared to be a problem with the ISO Fix in the same position in both cars. I did make the salesmen aware of it and they made their Nissan contact aware of it. We did eventually get it to connect in one of the models but it took a SERIOUS amount of pushing and shoving, over ten minutes, from a guy who helped me just to connect that one ISO Fix! That is not a great BabyDrive feature as not parent has time for that!!

There are three top tether points, one in each of the seat backs of the three rear seats, that were easily accessible from the boot.

I managed to only fit two child seats into the rear seats and found there was not room for a third. I installed the Britax Unity infant capsule rear facing and the Britax Graphene in the two outer seats.

Apart from the ISO Fix, installing the child seats was simple and connecting the top tethers were easy.

The headrests aren't a uniform shape but the Britax car mirror attached really easily and stayed still, but I think ones that only have one strap attachment would slide and move around the headrest.

You probably could squeeze a passenger between the two child seats for occasional journeys but they would be pressed up against the two seats.

With a rear-facing child seat installed it would be hard to have a tall driver and in the front passenger seat, I found only 7.5 inches of knee room in front of the rear-facing child seats. Which is not a lot at all! I am 162cm and when the passenger seat is a far back as it would go with a child seat installed behind, I wouldn't really want to sit any closer to the glovebox!

Posting Bub into their child seat from inside the car when you only have one child seat installed is good, you have quite a bit of room. From outside the car, there is enough room the doorways are quite large but the roofline does slope down slightly towards the back.

There is plenty of room for feeding Bub in the back with only one child seat installed too.

The seats are also upholstered with woven fabric which would not be as easy to clean as say leather as they would absorb spills or rubbed-in food!

The front seats in the Qashqai are very comfortable but they adjust with simple, large plastic levers that feel quite cheap and flimsy to use! By your left elbow on the side of the seat you can adjust the lumbar support too, again it is a flimsy lever that could easily get caught on your clothes and snap off.

I found I could have a ponytail with the headrests in the Qashqai which was a nice surprise! I did find all the headrests were incredibly stiff to adjust like they needed greasing!!

Legroom is a bit tight in the cabin of the Qashqai especially with rear-facing child seats installed and the rear seats do not slide to adjust the legroom.

The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down.

Visibility in the Qashqai is compromised for rear-facing passengers because the side windows slope up quite dramatically at the back, really limiting their view out.

There are mirrors in both visors in the front, however, they are not lit. Little features like this really add to the basic feel of the car!

There are press on lights in the front ceiling and in the back, the lights are in the middle of the ceiling and too far back to be reached by the front passengers.

I often will reach back to turn on the interior light if I am driving at night time, I find my little girl gets less distressed traveling at night that way. It helps if I can reach the interior light from the drivers seat so I can turn it on and off whilst driving. I often find my daughter will need it on as we start our journey in the dark but once she falls asleep I can turn it off.

It is also useful when there are lights situated above the doors where the handles are usually positioned. These are good for when putting baby into their child seats when visibility is poor, so you do not have to reach across them to a light situated in the ceiling centrally etc.

There is a handle on both sides above the doors in the back, which are well positioned for hanging a child's toy from.

There are two 12V sockets in the Qashqai, one in the central console storage box and one in front of the gear lever in the well there.

The doors have a panel of the same fabric as the seats which would make them harder to keep clean as they wouldn't be easily wiped clean.

Generally, the aesthetics of the Qashqai I tested felt like a cheap, budget car. Everything about the interior felt like the most basic option and really built to a price. I did get to have a sit in an ST-L model and wow it felt much nicer! Even the boot floor was better quality!!!

The Nissan Qashqai scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2017.

It got an overall score of 36.56 out of 37. Getting 15.56 out of 16 for frontal offset test, 16 out of 16 for side impact and pedestrian protection was rated acceptable. That is a very impressive score!

As standard the Qashqai also comes with autonomous emergency braking (AEB), electronic brake force distribution (EBD), electronic stability control (ESC), emergency brake assist (EBA), daytime running lights (DRL), hill launch assist and reversing collision avoidance. Some models come with adaptive cruise control, lane support systems (LSS), automatic headlights, automatic high beam, adaptive front lighting system, attention assist and blind spot monitoring (BSM).