• Good interior space for four – cramped for five
• Boot space is adequate by class standards
• Wide-opening doors are great for access

How much space is there?

Up front in the Qashqai, there’s enough head and legroom for six-footers, as you’d expect for a car with a high roofline like this. There’s now 28mm more shoulder space between the front passengers, 20mm more kneeroom for rear seat passengers, bigger cupholders, and larger storage space for phones compared with the old model.

In the back, there’s an acceptable amount of room for a car in this class, but we’d feel happier with two, rather than three, people back there. There’s a wide but not particularly tall hump in the middle of the rear floor, and the centre seat is domed which reduces headroom. You will get more space with a Skoda Karoq, SEAT Ateca and Volkswagen Tiguan, though.

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Those with rear-facing Isofix child seats should certainly try before buying. With one fitted behind the front passenger there wasn’t a great deal of legroom, and there’s no Isofix mounts up front, either. It’s worth pointing out the rear doors open to 85 degrees, making getting children or child seats out easier.

Boot space and storage

The Qashqai’s boot has up to 504 litres worth of space, depending on which trim level you go for, as the Bose sound system on higher-spec versions takes up a small section of the boot. It also comes with the highly configurable Flexible Luggage Board System, which offers a variety of depths as well as an in-built divider. It’s good for fitting in tall objects, while the parcel shelf can fit underneath the boot floor.

Despite this, the overall volume and shape of the boot isn’t as useful or as vast as a Skoda Karoq and Hyundai Tucson. Rear seat flexibility also lags behind the best in class. There’s a 60/40 split fold on the rear backrest with no load-through facility, and you can’t slide or recline the rear seats.

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A powered tailgate is available, with the increasingly common option of being able to ‘kick’ it open, hands-free, with a wave of your foot under the rear bumper. In the cabin, you get a generously-sized glovebox, a spacious cubbyhole under the armrest in the centre console between the seats and the obligatory pair of cupholders.

Rear passengers get a couple of deep door pockets, cupholders in the central armrest, map pockets on the backs of the front seats, and two USB-C sockets. The good news is the E-Power hybrid model loses none of this practicality, maintaining the same capacity as the standard mild-hybrid versions.

Is it easy to park?

The Qashqai isn’t much longer and wider than a typical hatchback such as a Volkswagen Golf, so that makes it easier to park than you might imagine. It’s easy to manoeuvre in and out of parking spaces thanks to a tight turning circle and ample visibility.

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All models but the entry-level Visia trim also come with parking cameras, with anything from N-Connecta trim upwards featuring a useful around-view camera monitor.

Safety

• Five-star rating from Euro NCAP
• Scores particularly well in safety tech
• Easy driver assistance technology

The Nissan Qashqai is one of the safest cars in its class, and scored a full five out of five from Euro NCAP. The test organisation said it performed particularly well in its safety assist tests when it was assessed in 2021. 

A key part of this is down to the generous driver assistance features fitted to all models, with automatic emergency braking (AEB), blind spot monitoring and traffic sign recognition all included. You also get a driver attention alert system that reminds you to take a break if the car detects the driver is losing concentration, or you’ve been driving too long, as well as adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist and rear cross traffic alert. Unlike many similar features fitted to other cars, the Qashqai’s driver aids are brilliantly moderated – they’re present if you need them, but never annoying. 

All but entry-level Acenta Premium get assisted driving to help on the motorway. Manual models get a slightly less comprehensive system, with autos and E-Powers getting the impressive ProPilot+ system. This helps with motorway driving byhelping you steer, as long as you keep your hands on the wheel. It can take the strain out of longer journeys. It’s by no means fully self-driving, though, so you must always pay attention.  

Watch the Watch the Euro NCAP Nissan Qashqai crash test video