Long-term report: Fighting the fuel drama in our Nissan Juke

We’ve got the builders in – and, with apologies to our neighbours, it’s pretty noisy at home at the moment.

So much so that I decided to decamp to my mum’s house, 120 or so miles away, to work for a few days while the ground floor of our place was being knocked about.

It sounded like a great idea until the great fuel drama of 2021 began just before I was due to head off. Fortunately, however, I had managed to fill our long-term Nissan Juke with unleaded shortly before news of the crisis broke and the queues had begun to form.

And so it was, I jumped into OU69XDF and fired it up to be greeted with the news on the dash that there was a ‘range’ of 500+ miles – welcome information indeed. That would be more than enough to make the journey and return home without any worries. And surely by then, the problems would be over, right?

Well, as I write this, no-one seems to know when the craziness will subside but what I can report is that our not-very-thirsty Nissan Juke is the ideal companion when forecourt fuel supplies are unreliable. (If you want total peace of mind, you can always go for an all-electric Leaf from the same manufacturer, of course.)

I don’t tend to pay a lot of attention to fuel economy stats but after the first leg of my 240-mile journey, the fuel level indicator had barely moved to the left and it seemed as though the car had more than matched its quoted consumption figure of 47.9mpg (combined). Positively parsimonious!

Aside from observing a few forecourt queues, my trip passed without incident, really, and gave me the chance to appreciate the environment provided for the driver within the current-generation Juke.

Nissan describes the cockpit-like surroundings as spacious, airy and offering great visibility – and it’s hard to disagree.

Whether cruising along a motorway, tackling a twisty B-road or negotiating tight city streets packed with traffic-calming measures, it copes admirably and with no issues whatsoever.

As I’ve noted before, it looks the part from the outside, too. The first-generation car, launched in 2010, caused waves in the automotive world with its beach-buggy appearance. Its quirkiness was toned down a bit when the updated version arrived but it still boasts bags of personality.

In other news, ‘our’ Juke is celebrating a birthday about now. Its 69 plate indicates it’s roughly two years old but you’d never know it judging by its appearance.

To be fair, whilst in our care, it has not really been put through its paces in terms of lugging kids, dogs or camping gear about… but I can confirm that it can swallow a week’s worth of supermarket shopping and a set of golf clubs without any fuss.

I don’t think I have mentioned in previous reports, but OU69XDF comes with a choice of standard, sport or eco drive modes.

Standard is recommended for normal driving and is activated by default, while sport is suggested for enhanced performance.

Needless to say, however, and returning to the subject of the UK’s current fuel crisis, eco would seem to be the most sensible option right now. Let’s hope things return to normal at the pumps before too long – for all our sakes.