Europe’s best-selling crossover gets premium upgrades as the new model starts production.

• Europe’s best-selling crossover gets premium upgrades

Production of the new Nissan Qashqai has begun, introducing a raft of premium design, technology and performance improvements to Europe’s best-selling crossover.

Made at Nissan’s plant in Sunderland, UK, upgrades to the new model focus on four areas – a contemporary new exterior design; higher levels of interior quality; improved driving performance; and the addition of new Nissan Intelligent Mobility technologies.

The new Qashqai will also be available with ProPILOT autonomous driving capability, which controls the steering, acceleration and braking in a single lane on highways during heavy traffic congestion and high-speed cruising, from Spring next year.

These significant new enhancements will underpin and strengthen the Qashqai’s position as Europe’s number one crossover, and follow a £53m investment in Nissan’s UK facilities, which includes extra production capacity introduced last year to enable Qashqai to be built on both lines in Sunderland.

Made round the clock in Sunderland, the Qashqai is currently the best-selling vehicle built in Britain, and is exported to around 100 European and global markets. It represents almost one in five of all British-made cars, and is Nissan’s most successful model ever in Europe.

Colin Lawther, Nissan’s Senior Vice President for Manufacturing, Purchasing and Supply Chain Management in Europe, said: “The Nissan Qashqai is the original urban crossover and remains the undisputed leader in the segment.

“In the decade since Qashqai launched we have built more than 2.8m in Sunderland, taking plant output to record levels. Offering new premium design features and Nissan Intelligent Mobility technologies, this new model marks a new chapter for Qashqai and for our manufacturing operations.”

Employment supported by Nissan’s UK design studio (Paddington, London), technical centre (Cranfield Bedfordshire), manufacturing plant (Sunderland, Tyne and Wear) and sales and marketing operations (Maple Cross, Hertfordshire) now totals more than 40,000. Nissan has made more than £4bn capital investment in these facilities, and additionally spends £3bn annually in the British economy through suppliers, services and wages.

In addition to the Qashqai, Nissan also manufactures the all-electric LEAF, Juke crossover and Infiniti Q30 and QX30 premium models in Sunderland. With total production last year at 507,436 vehicles, and with more than 30 years of success behind it, Sunderland is the biggest UK car plant of all time.

Following the start of production in Sunderland, Qashqai reached the milestones of 1m and 2m units faster than any vehicle in the history of the UK automotive industry, and is well on the way to reaching 3m units in record time.

The first-generation Nissan Qashqai went on sale in 2007. This new version represents a major refresh for the second-generation model, launched in 2014. It goes on sale across Europe from next month. In October 2016 Nissan announced that production of an all-new, third-generation Qashqai would also be at Sunderland.

And Europes most reliable car is...... WHAT !!!!!!!! REALLY !!!!!!!!!!

British and French brands produce Europe’s most reliable cars, according to the latest research by Warranty Direct’s Reliability Index.

With the 85^th Geneva Motor Show displaying the latest automotive technology closing its doors at the end of last week, Warranty Direct has revealed which are Europe’s most reliable models. The vehicles analysed were an average of five years old with mileages of around 50,000.

British brand, Vauxhall, topped the table with its diminutive Agila model the most reliable European-badged car on the road.

French manufacturers, Peugeot and Citroen completed the top three, with their similarly small 107 and C1 superminis.

Swedish, Spanish, German and Czech brands also won places in the top 10 reliability rankings with Volvo, SEAT, Volkswagen, Smart and Skoda.

Vauxhall’s Agila is most likely to incur issues with its axle and suspension, accounting for an average of 30% of its faults. The cooling and heating system is responsible for 44% of the Peugeot 107’s downtime; with fellow French carmaker Citroen finding most of the issues in its C1 derive from the electrics.

TEN MOST RELIABLE EUROPEAN CARS

Car	Rank	Warranty Direct Average Reliability Index	Most Common Faults (Average % of faults)
Vauxhall Agila	1	9	Axle & Suspension (30%)
Peugeot 107	2	18	Cooling & Heating System (43.75%)
Citroen C1	3	20	Electrical (44.44%)
Volvo S40	4	25	Axle & Suspension (33.33%)
Peugeot 3008	5	29	Electrical (40%)
SEAT Ibiza	6	30	Axle & Suspension (25%)
Volkswagen Lupo	7	30	Electrical (57.14%)
Skoda Fabia	8	32	Electrical (34.62%)
Citroen Berlingo Multispace	9	38	Electrical (45%)
Smart Fortwo	10	50	Engine (31.37%)

Volvo S40 drivers report more axle and suspension faults, with a third suffering complications. Warranty Direct’s data reveals Smart’s Fortwo most frequently faces engine issues, accounting for more than one in three of its breakdowns.

Warranty Direct managing director, David Gerrans, said: “It’s good to see a British manufacturer at the top of the table, especially at a time when Britain’s automotive industry is flying high. Our data also highlights that Swedish, Czech, Spanish and French carmakers are all more reliable than their often celebrated German counterparts, which will surprise some consumers, who may still assume that German cars are the most durable.”

At the other end of the scale, the Audi RS6 is Europe’s most unreliable vehicle, with data indicating it’ll break down at least once a year. Four out of the five most unreliable models are produced by German manufacturers.

FIVE LEAST RELIABLE CARS

Car	Rank	Warranty Direct Average Reliability Index	Most Common Faults (Average % of faults)
Audi RS6	1	1123	Axle & Suspension (34.43%)
BMW M5	2	766	Electrical (29.47%)
Porsche 911 (996)	3	652	Electrical (26.27%)
Bentley Continental GT	4	593	Electrical (31.73%)
Mercedes-Benz CL	5	582	Axle & Suspension (32.39%)

Warranty Direct’s Reliability Index score is calculated on a combination of vehicle criteria from a database of more than 50,000 live policies:

• Frequency of failure
• Cost of repair
• Duration of repairs
• Average age and mileage

The higher the Reliability Index score, the worse the car is – the lower the score, the better and the average RI number is 100.