2011 Nissan Leaf SL – Long-Term Road Test Intro

May 19, 2011 at 6:20pm by David Gluckman

We embark on three months of short trips in Nissan’s electric car.

Welcome to an exceptional long-term road test, and our first all-electric experience. It’s also an exception to our normal long-term program. Nissan agreed to give us a Leaf for an extended, three-month loan, but we’re not going to cram our normal 40,000-mile regimen into that timeframe. The reason is obvious: With the Leaf’s maximum range of around 100 miles (on a good day, with the wind at your back, and the moon in the seventh house—more on this later) and long recharge times, it would take quite a while to reach the prescribed C/D long-term mileage. And as we’ve found from our brief encounter so far, we’re an impatient lot.

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Tags: electric, hatchback, Japanese, long-term, Nissan, Nissan Leaf |

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2011 Mini Cooper S Countryman ALL4 – Long-Term Road Test Intro

May 4, 2011 at 11:23am by Jared Gall

The big Mini with four doors and four driven wheels joins our fleet for 40,000 miles.

While the Mini family has grown quite a bit since the brand’s resurrection, the drivetrain portfolio remained a one-man band. The hardtop, convertible, elongated Clubman, and upcoming coupe and roadster all are limited to front-wheel drive. Introduced for 2011, the Countryman finally changed that, offering all-wheel drive for the first time in the reborn brand’s history.

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Tags: British, hatchback, long-term, Mini, Mini Cooper S Countryman ALL4, Mini Countryman, performance testing, turbocharged |

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2011 Nissan Juke SL – Long-Term Road Test Intro

April 28, 2011 at 6:49pm by Mike Dushane

To lower cost and consumption, Nissan shrinks the crossover.

Months in Fleet: 2 months
Current Mileage: 3116 miles
Average Fuel Economy: 23 mpg
Average Range: 304 miles
Service: $0
Normal Wear: $0
Repair: $0

The 2011 Nissan Juke defines a new micro-niche: the sporty B-segment (subcompact) economy crossover. It has more ground clearance than mainstream subcompacts like the Honda Fit, Ford Fiesta, and Nissan Versa (on whose platform the Juke is based), and it’s cheaper than the Mini Countryman, which is comparable in size—and which wears similarly polarizing sheetmetal. The Juke looks good from the side and back, but the front resembles a wide-eyed cartoon bullfrog. We can overlook a butter face for overall agreeability, though, so we ordered a Juke for a 40,000-mile test.

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Tags: hatchback, Japanese, long-term, Nissan, Nissan Juke, Nissan Juke SL, performance testing, turbocharged |

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