2020 Nissan Qashqai vs Renault Kadjar

What's the difference?

The Qashqai is a very solid small SUV, and one of the better ones, if not the best, when it comes to city friendliness.

As its name suggests, the N-Sport is the sportiest version of the Qashqai, but just keep in mind it’s 'sporty' in looks alone.

That said, we’d save $1000 and go for the Qashqai’s mid-range ST-L instead. It also has all of the right bits.

The Kadjar is an interesting entrant in the SUV world, with ideal dimensions and plenty of Euro-tinged style, cabin ambiance, and impressive multimedia to make up for its slight jump in price over some rivals.

It certainly prioritises comfort and refinement over a sporty or engaging drive, but we think it will also prove a capable city-slicker for those who spend most of their time in a capital city.

Our pick of the range is the Zen. It offers the extra safety and most important spec items at a great price.

The Intens has the most pizzazz, but a big jump in price, while the Life misses out on those extra safety bits and smart spec items.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer with travel and meals provided.

The Qashqai is one of the better-looking small SUVs, and the N-Sport ups the visual ante in just the right places.

Up front, it is disappointingly equipped with halogen headlights, but at least they’re capped off by arrow-shaped LED daytime running lights (DRLs). The fog lights also use cheaper bulbs, which don’t make for great night-time visibility.

Anyway, the design itself is attractive, with Nissan’s signature 'V-Motion' grille large and in charge, featuring a mesh insert and a combination of gloss-black and chrome trim.

The N-Sport stands out from the Qashqai crowd with its body-colour front bumper, which features matte-silver inserts across the side air intakes.

Around the side, the wheelarches are also body-colour, with unique 19-inch 'Wind' alloy wheels positioned below. Their multi-spoke design certainly spices things up.

Again, the N-Sport turns to a matte-silver finish, this time for the Qashqai’s side-mirror caps, roof rails and skirts. It’s all subtle but effective.

At the rear, the N-Sport’s tailgate spoiler and arrow-shaped LED tail-lights are lifted from other members of the Qashqai family, so no surprises there.

But look lower and another body-colour bumper with matte-silver inserts comes into view. And if you’re still having a hard time picking the difference, there’s also the obligatory ‘N-Sport’ badge to really spell things out.

Inside, the N-Sport looks like any other Qashqai, save for its black cloth/leather-accented seat upholstery and black headliner.

So, there’s not much in the way of ‘innovation that excites’, especially where the 7.0-inch touchscreen is concerned. A recent update introduced a new multimedia system, which goes some way in making up for the sins of its predecessor.

That said, it’s still one of the worst out there due to its lack of functionality, low resolution and puzzling widescreen format. Thankfully, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support is now on hand, so make the most of it.

The multi-function display wedged in between the traditional tachometer and speedometer is good, though, serving up all the right information to the driver.

And then there's the interior’s seriously premium quality. While the leather-accented steering wheel and gear selector are to be expected, the soft-touch upper and passenger-side middle dashboard, and front door shoulders are not.

So too are the leather-accented armrests, door inserts, door handles and knee rests. It’s all very nice. The same can’t be said, though, for the centre stack’s gloss-black trim, which is prone to annoying fingerprints. The titanium accents used elsewhere are less troublesome.

One of Renault’s points of difference is its design, and the Kadjar delivers with some definite Euro flair over rivals.

It has presence in real life, especially wearing the premium paints, and I’m a fan of its big, curvaceous wheelarches and well-appointed chrome trimmings.

The sculpted light fittings, front and rear, are Renault signatures, although the best effect is with the blue-tinged LEDs only available on the top-spec Intens.

When lined up against some of the competition you could argue the Kadjar isn’t exciting to look at, but at least it doesn’t border on controversial like Mitsubishi’s Eclipse Cross.

The Kadjar’s interior is where it really shines. It’s certainly a step above the Qashqai when it comes to trim, and has plenty of nice, well thought out touches.

The raised console and dash are finished in an array of tasteful chromes and greys, although there’s not much difference aside from the seats between each variant – again this is a good thing for base car buyers.

The digital dash is neat, and combined with the ambient lighting across the range makes for a more upmarket cabin ambiance than the Eclipse Cross or Qashqai, while not being quite as zany as the 2008. With a few options fitted, the Karoq perhaps gives the Renault a run for its money.

Other touches to be appreciated are the flush touchscreen and climate controls with dot-matrix displays inside the dials.

The lighting theme can be changed to whatever colour suits owners, as can the digital dash, which is available in four layouts ranging from minimalist to sporty. Annoyingly, both require intimate knowledge of several settings screens to alter.

Measuring 4394mm long, 1806mm wide and 1595mm tall, the N-Sport is on the larger side for a small SUV, which means good things for practicality.

Cargo capacity is generous, at 430L, but can be increased to a massive 1598L with the 60/40 split-fold rear bench stowed, an action that can only be performed via manual release in the second row.

The boot itself has a wide aperture, which is makes loading bulkier items easier. What doesn’t, though, is the tall load lip. And a hump in the middle of the floor also has to be contended with when using the maximum storage space.

That said, two bag hooks, four tie-down points and a couple of side bins are on hand to more than claw back respectability.

In-cabin storage options are numerous, with the tall central bin proving rather useful, despite featuring a removable tray, a USB-A port, a 12V power outlet, an auxiliary input and a very shallow cupholder.

The latter is at odds with the two cupholders behind the gear selector, which are too tall for coffee cups. For the record, the front and rear door bins can only accommodate one regular drink bottle each. But we digress…

Other in-cabin storage options include a small cubby in between the central bin and the two cupholders, and a larger one in front of the gear selector, which also houses another 12V power outlet.

The glove box is average size, while there’s no sunglasses holder despite the absence of a panoramic sunroof that would normally eat into the space used by one.

In the second row, a pair of map pockets sit on the front seat backrests, while a cubby is found in the rear of the centre console, where air vents and/or USB ports would usually be found. Yep, rear occupants won’t be pleased.

That said, they'll be elated with the spaciousness. Behind my 184cm (6.0ft) driving position, around 6.0cm of legroom is on offer alongside plenty of toe-room. Headroom is also great, at roughly 4.0cm.

Thankfully, the transmission tunnel is relatively small, so there’s more than enough footwell space for two adults or three children, who will be disappointed by the small size of the fold-down armrest’s two cupholders.

Speaking of the kids, the outboard seats are equipped with top-tether and ISOFIX anchorage points for child seats, although the awkward aperture of the rear doors makes fitting them a touch tricky.

The Kadjar is brilliantly sized if you count it as a small SUV. It has legroom, amenities and boot space that easily rival SUVs in the size bracket above.

In the front there’s a surprising amount of headroom, despite an upright driving position, and this isn’t affected by the sunroof available on the top-spec Intens.

The ease-of-use for the media screen is at least a league above its Nissan cousin, with relatively decent software. The major let-down here is the lack of a volume knob for quick adjustment on the fly.

Instead you’re made to use a touch panel running down the side of the screen. Thankfully the climate controls are comprised of a sensible tri-dial layout with cool digital displays inside them.

Oddly, there’s no larger screen available on higher grades, nor does the impressive portrait screen available on the larger Koleos.

In terms of front seat amenities there’s a massive centre console box with a split top, trenches in the doors and a large storage area underneath the climate controls which also hosts two USB ports, an aux port, and a 12-volt power outlet.

There are four bottle holders, two in the centre console, and two in the doors, but in typical French fashion they are small. Expect to be able to store 300ml containers or less.

The back seat is almost the star of the show. The seat trim is fantastic, at least in the top two grades we were able to sample, and I had heaps of airspace for my knees behind my own driving position.

Headroom is fantastic, and so is the presence of rear air vents, two more USB ports and a 12-volt outlet. There’s even a leather-trimmed drop down armrest with dual bottle holders, small bottle holders in the doors and rubber padded trim for your elbows.

Then there’s the boot. The Kadjar offers 408 litres (VDA) which is slightly smaller than the Qashqai (430L), much smaller than the Skoda Karoq (479L), yet bigger than the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (371L) and about on-par with the Peugeot 2008 (410L).

It’s still on-par and even bigger than some proper mid-size rivals, so a big win there.

The Kadjar launches in Australia in three variants, the base Life, mid-spec Zen and top-spec Intens.

It’s genuinely hard to tell each specification apart from the outside, with the biggest tell being the alloy wheels.

The entry-level Life starts from $29,990 – a smidge more than its Qashqai cousin, but justifies it with a fairly impressive set of kit from the get-go.

Included are 17-inch alloy wheels (no steelies for the Kadjar range), 7.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, 7.0-inch digital dashboard with dot-matrix gauges, seven-speaker audio system, dual-zone climate control with dot-matrix displays in the dials, cloth seat trim with manual adjust, ambient cabin lighting, turn-key ignition, front and rear parking sensors with reversing camera, tyre pressure monitoring, auto rain-sensing wipers, and auto halogen headlights.

Stock active safety includes auto emergency braking (AEB – works only at city speed with no pedestrian or cyclist detection).

Next up in the range is the Zen. Starting from $32,990, the Zen includes all of the above, plus an upgraded cloth seat trim with additional lumbar support, leather steering wheel, push-start ignition with keyless entry, puddle lights, front and rear fog lights with front cornering function, side parking sensors (for 360-degree sensor coverage), sun visors with mirrors and lights, roof rails, one-touch folding rear seats, rear armrest with two cupholders, rear air vents, false boot floor, as well as heated and auto-folding wing mirrors.

Active safety spec is increased to include blind spot monitoring (BSM), and lane departure warning (LDW).

The top-spec Intens ($37,990) gains massive 19-inch two-tone alloy wheels (wearing Continental ContiSportContact 4 rubber), a fixed panoramic sunroof, electro-chromatic rear-vision mirrors, Bose-branded premium audio, leather seat trim with electric adjust for the driver, heated front seats, LED headlights, LED interior lights, hands-free auto parking, auto high beams, ‘Kadjar’ branded door sills, and extra chrome trim elements throughout.

All cars are well specified, but very close together in terms of spec and looks. Good for entry-level buyers, but perhaps not so much for Intens buyers. The only option comes in the form of an auto-dimming rear vision mirror and sunroof pack ($1000) for the mid-spec, as well as premium paints across the range ($750 – get blue, it’s the best).

It’s a shame to see the top-spec Intens missing out on a larger multimedia touchscreen to add extra pizzazz to the cabin. Our main concern is the lack of a high-speed radar safety suite, which could really lift the Kadjar up.

Price-wise it’s probably fair to assume you’ll be cross-shopping the Kadjar against other niche European-size rivals like the Skoda Karoq (from $32,990), and Peugeot 2008 (from $25,990).

The N-Sport is motivated by a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder petrol engine that produces 106kW of power at 6000rpm and 200Nm of torque at 4400rpm. Both outputs are average for an entry-level powertrain option.

This particular unit is mated to a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT), which has six simulated ‘steps’ designed to mimic a traditional gear set.

For the sake of efficiency, drive is exclusively sent to the front wheels. Yep, no all-wheel drive to be had here.

The Kadjar is available with just one engine and transmission across the range in Australia.

It’s a 1.3-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, with competitive power outputs (117kW/260Nm).

This engine was developed alongside Daimler (hence, it appears in the Benz A- and B-Class ranges) but has slightly more power in Renault’s configuration.

The only transmission available is a seven-speed ‘EDC’ dual-clutch auto. It has familiar dual-clutch niggles at low-speeds, but is a smooth shifter once you’re on the go.

Kadjars delivered in Australia are petrol front-wheel drive only. There is a manual, diesel, all-wheel drive available in Europe, but Renault says it would have been too niche a product to offer in Australia.

The N-Sport’s fuel consumption on the combined-cycle test (ADR 81/02) is 6.9 litres per 100 kilometres, while its claimed carbon dioxide emissions are 159 grams of CO2 per kilometre. All things considered, both are decent.

In our real-world testing, we averaged 10.6L/100km over 175km of driving mostly in the city limits. A more than acceptable result.

An 'Eco' drive mode is on hand, too, reducing throttle response to improve efficiency, but we didn’t go there often.

For reference, the N-Sport’s 65L fuel tank takes 91 RON 'standard' petrol at minimum.

Using a dual-clutch auto and a stop-start system, Renault posts a claimed combined cycle fuel consumption figure of 6.3L/100km for all Kadjar variants available in Australia.

As our drive loops were not reflective of every-day real world driving, we won’t provide a real-world figure this time around. Stay tuned for our later week long road tests to see how we go with that.

As far as small urban runabouts go, the N-Sport more or less nails the brief.

In fact, it’s the kind of SUV that you’d much rather drive in traffic than on the open road.

The 2.0-litre engine isn’t exactly a powerhouse, requiring plenty of revs to flirt with maximum power, let alone peak torque.

It certainly helps then that the CVT is on hand. Like its contemporaries, this unit will jump up and down the rev range at a moment’s notice.

For this reason, it makes the 2.0-litre mid-range and upper reaches more accessible, making for decent acceleration when required.

At the same time, though, the CVT makes for a noisy cabin, even when accelerating without vigour. Needless to say, it’s not our favourite.

That said, this combination stacks up relatively well around town, where the pace is more leisurely. Yep, it’s not quick on a country road.

But despite the name, you weren’t expecting the N-Sport to be a sporty drive, were you?

We’re thankful it’s not, because it’s quite relaxing in the city, where commuting is often a stressful experience.

Key to this is the N-Sport’s independent suspension set-up, which consists of MacPherson-strut front and multi-link rear axles with passive dampers.

Simply put, it’s comfortable. Despite the threat of the 19-inch alloy wheels, the ride is quite good, with most road imperfections dealt with nicely.

Speed bumps and potholes aren’t an issue. Rockier surfaces can give the N-Sport the jitters, but when don’t they?

The electric power steering isn’t quite as good, but it does the job. It’s speed-sensitive, meaning the N-Sport is easy to manoeuvre at lower speeds but more stable at higher velocities.

This system isn’t the first word in feel, but it's pleasingly light, a great characteristic in the urban jungle.

Handling-wise, the N-Sport doesn't set the world on fire. As per the high-riding crossover brief, it exhibits plenty of body roll during hard cornering.

Arguably, though, this trait makes for sharper turn-in, so it’s not all bad. And the 1392kg kerb weight is never really an issue in tighter bends.

Thanks to its more interesting mechanicals, the Kadjar has quite a unique small SUV drive experience.

The seating position is generally very good. You sit high in this Renault, but that leads to great visibility, at least out the front and sides.

Round the back is a slightly different story, where the design has cropped in the boot window slightly, and made for chunky C-Pillars that create slight blind spots.

We were only able to sample the mid-spec Zen and top-spec Intens, and it was honestly hard to pick between them when it came to ride. Despite the Intens’ massive wheels, road noise was very low in the cabin.

The ride was soft and comfortable, even more so than the Qashqai, with the Kadjar sporting supple springs.

The steering is interesting. It’s somehow even lighter than the already featherweight steering that appears in the Qashqai. This is initially a good thing, as it makes the Kadjar super easy to point around and park at lower speeds, but that lightness leads to a lack of feeling at higher speeds.

It just feels overly (electrically) assisted. There’s very little feedback making its way into your hands, and this makes it much harder to be confident in the corners.

Handling is okay, but hampered a bit by the steering and naturally high centre of gravity.

The engine is a peppy little unit from the get-go, with peak torque available from just 1750rpm. There’s just a smidge of turbo lag and transmission catch-up under acceleration, but the whole package is surprisingly responsive.

While the transmission seems to be smarter at speed, switching ratios quickly, the limitations of the engine becomes apparent during highway maneuvers or higher-speed twisty stuff. There’s just not a whole lot of power after that intital peak surge.

One criticism you can’t level at the Kadjar is that it’s uncomfortable. The refinement in the cabin remains excellent at speed, and with the light steering there are few characteristics that will get on your nerves, even on long drives.

The Kadjar enters a market where active safety has a heavy focus, so it’s a shame to see it arrive with no radar-based high-speed active safety on any variant.

Present is city-speed auto emergency braking (AEB), and the higher spec Zen and Intens gain blind-spot monitoring and lane departure warning (LDW), which makes a strange rumble-strip sound-effect when you leave your lane.

Active cruise control, pedestrian and cyclist detection, driver attention alert, traffic sign recognition are not present on the Kadjar range.

Expected safety comes in the form of six airbags, stability, traction and brake controls, as well as hill start assist.

As with all Nissan Australia models, the N-Sport comes with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which is on par in the mainstream market. That said, Kia, MG, and SsangYong lead all others with a seven-year term.

The N-Sport also comes with five years of roadside assistance, while its service intervals are every 12 months or 10,000km, whichever comes first. The latter is on the shorter side.

A keenly priced six-year/60,000km capped-price servicing plan is available for $1785, or an average of $297.50 per visit.

Renault launches the Kadjar alongside a refreshed “555” ownership scheme, for five years of unlimited kilometer warranty, five years of roadside assist, and five years of capped price servicing.

This has upped Renault to compete strongly with even mainstream Japanese rivals.

Kia’s Seltos is the leader in this size-bracket with its seven-year/unlimited kilometer promise.

Service pricing for the Kadjar range comes in at $399 for the first three services, $789 for the fourth (due to the replacement of spark plugs and other essential items) and then $399 for the fourth.

It’s certainly not the cheapest service plan we’ve ever seen, but it’s improved over the previous four-year service plan. All Kadjars require servicing once every 12 months or 30,000km, whichever occurs first.

The Kadjar has a timing chain and is built in Spain.