Nissan has signed ranks of the hottest in the 2011 Nissan Juke. We’ve rung that alarm bell before, but here’s what we learned while putting the test equipment on a 6-speed manual version of Nissan’s new five-door compact crossover car. The New Juke is fun, it’s clever, it’s roomy for a small car, it’s not nearly as slow as we expected, and it feels more expensive than it is. If good product produces high sales (and it does, in a perfect world), then the Juke should make Nissan a mint.Even with a sunroof and leather seats, our loaded-up $23,300 Juke SL weighed only 2909 pounds, about the same as a Honda S2000. (Base prices range from $19,710 for the CVT-only S with front-wheel drive to $25,300 for the full-monty SL with AWD and a CVT.) Granted, the 6-speed manual only comes with front drive, not the optional torque-vectoring all-wheel drive that is available with the CVT. And with front drive, you get the simpler twist-beam rear axle, not the multilink rear end that comes on AWD models.

Driver cabin 2011 Nissan Juke SL

The cabin theme Nissan Juke SL is sporty and large which featured close-coupled gauges, in a center-console there is climate control and high-resolution color screenin center dashboard Juke SL which inform drive-mode information. In climate mode, the six buttons around the screen govern the cabin’s heating and cooling functions. Push the “d-mode” button and the labels on the six buttons magically switch to vehicle-dynamic controls.

2011 Nissan Juke SL Engine

The performance of 0.78 g on our 200-foot skidpad was held back because the2011 Nissan Juke lost traction from its inside wheel spinning. The Nissan might do better on a 300-footer—like the one at our Michigan testing location—as it wouldn’t be leaned over as far.

2011 Nissan Juke SL compact crossover car Pictures Gallery