Why have a normal knife when you can have a Swiss Army knife? That is the question asked by the growing number of people abandoning 'conventional' cars for crossovers, the hottest new breed on the block.
Crossovers are two — or more — cars in one. They can be part SUV and part estate (Volvo XC60), part SUV, hatch and MPV (Peugeot 3008), half sports car and half SUV (BMW X6), part family hatch and SUV (Nissan Qashqai, the UK's most popular crossover), part small car and part SUV (Mini Countryman) and just about any other combination you can dream of.
Not all are successes. In the US, there was a particularly gruesome crossover called the Pontiac Aztek, which was half SUV and half camper van (it had an extendable tent at the rear). Another duffer was the Ssangyong Rodius, which looks like a large MPV with a conservatory on the back. It is probably the ugliest car of the past decade.
Strictly speaking, crossovers are not new, although the terminology may be. After all, what else is an estate car but a cross between a saloon and a van? Equally, are hatchbacks any more than a cross between a wagon and a saloon?
Nonetheless, since crossover parlance became an identifiable market trend, and the sales boys could sniff the profit potential, carmakers have gone into imagination overdrive to mix and match. Porsche's latest Panamera mingles a sports car and a four-door saloon. Mercedes' R-class is part SUV, part estate and part bus. Even those blue-bloods at Ferrari — a pedigree car maker if ever there was one — have just launched the new Ferrari FF, a cross between a proper Ferrari sports car and a 4x4 estate.
Yet, in the UK at any rate, the crossover king is Nissan. Take the Qashqai. This part SUV part mid-sized hatch, engineered at Nissan's UK research centre in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, designed in Paddington and built in Sunderland — so it's more British than most Fords or Vauxhalls — replaced the humdrum Golf-sized Almera hatch. Its stand-alone looks and useful utility have made the Qashqai the UK's best-selling crossover. It is a regular in the UK Top 10 sales chart and is now the best-selling Nissan ever in the UK.
Emboldened by its success with the Qashqai, Nissan is trying a similar strategy in the smaller Fiesta-sized class. Instead of fighting with another me-too baby hatch, it has launched the Juke, which supersedes the Micra — sort of. It replaces the little Nissan hatch on the Sunderland production line but, to hedge bets, a new version of the Micra - as bland as the Juke is bold — will be imported from India.
The Juke is an appealing looking car. Its style is a mix of sports car (the upper half is coupé like) and SUV (lower half). It rides high, like an SUV — Nissan research shows that customers like the elevated driving position — yet steers and drives more like a normal hatchback.
As with all motoring amalgams, there are compromises. It may be half sports car and half SUV, but the Juke is not particularly sporty to drive and it certainly wouldn't be much good on an off-road safari (only three per cent of customers are likely to tick the 4x4 option). Instead, it is dynamically competitive with most small hatches, loses nothing in versatility, looks distinctive and is competitive in price with the hatchback herd.
It is likely to be another crossover sales success. Just as punters want knives that can also act as screwdrivers and phones that can take photos, so they increasingly want cars that appear to be more than just normal cars.
Gavin Green is a motoring journalist and consultant
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