Nissan offers a broad five-grade model range of recently-facelifted Qashqai models – but for more than nine in 10 of buyers, two of them may as well not exist. Although prices of the new Qashqai start from £19,295 for the 1.2-litre Visia, 88 percent of buyers go straight into N-Connecta grade and above: that model is priced from just under £24,000.
Indeed, Nissan says just 2 percent of Qashqai buyers will pick the entry-level, sub-£20k Visia model: demand is so low, it’s actually now only built to order, and is thus not part of the everyday production run. Even the next-up Acenta, priced from £21,680, only takes 10 percent of sales.
Around 48 percent of Qashqai buyers are expected to choose the N-Connecta, which costs over £25,500 in 1.5 dCi guise. That proportion has slipped compared to the pre-facelift Qashqai – but only because more people are expected to choose the top-line Tekna and new Tekna+ variants instead.
Previously, those range-topping Qashqai accounted for around a third of sales. With the launch of the facelifted model, Nissan expects that to rise to 40 percent, with around two in five buyers going straight into the range-topping Tekna+.
Nissan’s offers reflect this: for September, it is currently running a 3.99 percent APR PCP deal, with a £1500 deposit contribution – but base-spec Visia models are excluded from the offer. A representative Qashqai 1.5 dCi 110 N-Connecta costs £289 through the deal, making its £25,555 list price more manageable.
However, for real bargain-hunters, Nissan still has stocks of the pre-facelift Qashqai: to clear them from the network, there’s a heftier £2,500 deposit contribution on these cars, which takes the monthly cost down to £249. This September, take your pick…
Gallery: 2017 Nissan Qashqai
