THE Qashqai has been named as ‘Used Car of the Year’ by used car pricing experts CAP.
A panel of judges comprising of used car market and vehicle valuation experts at CAP chose the British-built Qashqai from a shortlist of six models, and 2011 marks the second successive year the crossover has won the award.
Points were awarded by the judging panel based on CAP’s criteria of excellence in the following areas: Affordability and practicality of ownership; trusted reputation; retail popularity; and innovative impact on motor industry.
CAP’s Used Car of the Year is designed to acknowledge all-round excellence from the perspective of everyone touched by the vehicle, including private owners, company car drivers, fleet operators and even used car dealers themselves.
The Qashqai scored highly in every area of CAP’s judging criteria, delivering significant benefits to everyone in the chain of supply, from dealers to owners and drivers.
Judging panel chairman and editor of CAP Black Book, Mark Bulmer, said: ‘It is a great all-rounder that is perfect for its purpose, delivering on style as well as practicality for the motorist and providing a great retail proposition for used car dealers.’
The CAP panel noted that even on the question of depreciation, the Qashqai is a consistently strong proposition that tends to outperform the general market.
The used car pricing firm also noted: ‘In late 2010 a serious challenger to the 07 Qashqai entered the market. But this serious rival was simply the newer model and that is now becoming the dominant player in the market, despite the main changes being generally cosmetic.
‘The new buzz word in the auction is N-tec and this striking derivative ticks all the boxes for the wholesale buyer and retail customer alike. The Nissan Qashqai has created an entirely new ‘crossover’ sector and prompted other manufacturers to follow by marrying the practicality of a people carrier style car with the looks of a quality 4×4.
‘By achieving this in a package that also offers economy, handling, strong build quality and reliability the Qashqai has become the perfect used car for our time.’
The Qashqai was chosen from a strong shortlist of Citroen DS3, Nissan Qashqai, Vauxhall Zafira, Fiat 500, Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio.