James Ruppert
KICKING TYRES
Petrol, diesel, 2WD, 4WD, five seats,
seven seats (as here): Mk1 Qashqai does it all
It’s hard to overstate just how effective invisible used cars are. Invisibles are the ones that get on with the job of doing the family errands completely unnoticed. Just recently, I was in the company of a couple who had a thoroughly unremarkable 2009 1.6-litre petrol Nissan Qashqai with faded red paint that was ULEZ-compliant and worth a marginal £2000. They didn’t love their Qashqai; it just did a job.
All you need to join the Qashqai club, ignoring the expired-MOT, engine-light-on and sub-£1000 examples is this 2008 1.6 Visia, which is indeed ULEZ-compliant (if this doesn’t affect you now, it might one day in the future), like the one that started all this. Best of all, it has just two previous owners and a pretty modest mileage for its age, at 75,000. Two grand is a small price to pay for invisibility and the simplicity of a two-wheel-drive, high-rise family hatchback.