Nissan Motor Company’s global press office in Yokohama put out a very short press release to announce that its longtime head of design, Alfonso Albaisa, was retiring, and in his place was Matthew Weaver, a designer who had been with the company for nearly a quarter century.
This press release made a passing reference to Weaver having contributed to “the development of the Qashqai, Juke and other key models” and pretty much left it at that. Excuse me?
While the Qashqai (typically, the Nissan Rogue here) is a popular vehicle, it’s not a car that should even be mentioned in the same breath as the bulbous, shocking, and extremely influential Nissan Juke. For all the strange looks it got at the time, the Juke is one of the most important designs of the last two decades.
Where The Juke Came From
Nissan design in the late 2000s had grown rather stale. The Pathfinder and Frontier looked older than their platforms. The 350Z, though an exciting reinterpretation of the original Datsun, had gone too long without a serious upgrade. The Maxima and Altima were redesigned into softer, beiger facsimiles of their more popular predecessors.
The company needed a shot in the arm. Something that would say to the world that it meant to create cars truly unique and different. In this, the company succeeded, though it wasn’t obvious at first. The original concept, the Qazana, was shown to journalists at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show and when they were told it was a glimpse into the future, Weaver said “they didn’t believe us.”
A lot of what would become the Juke was there, including the Coke bottle-on-acid curves, massive fenders, helmet visor windscreen, and split headlights.
While many concessions were made to create a car people could actually buy, the general design is there.
“There were jaws all over the floor,” said Weaver, recalling the moment it debuted. “The [Juke] had arrived, and it had made quite a statement.”
That’s maybe an understatement. I’m fairly certain I was at the 2010 New York Auto Show when this debuted, and the general vibe was “are they serious?” I have a sense that I didn’t initially get it. The small subcompact crossover space was new and I didn’t quite know what to make of it.
Over time, I’d be more and more impressed by the little car that started at around $22,000. All the little details were strange and also inviting.
Explaining the original thought, Weaver said he was inspired by London street fashion:
“I was on the train one day and remembered seeing a young man in a flat cap with a diamond skull on it, a bright t-shirt, a pinstripe jacket and trainers. It was an eclectic mix, but I thought: if people don’t have to conform, why should cars? Different is good, it stands out. That is exactly what we wanted to achieve with JUKE.”
It definitely didn’t conform. There are a lot of standout features that would later become more common, including the use of the door handles in the c-pillar to give a more coupe-like appearance.
It’s All About Those Headlights
While this is common these days, the Juke is one of the earliest cars I remember that did the trick of separating out the turn signals and running lights from the main headlights. If we see a car like a face, the turn signals are now the eyes.
A good example is the Kona, which has a thin strip of DRLs where you’d expect the headlights to be, and then the actual headlights built into the bumper. With the Cybertruck you can barely tell that the headlights are actually integrated into the front bumper.
In the United States, we only got one generation of Nissan Juke, as we were too stubborn to realize when we had it good. America even got a NISMO version with a stick and over 200 horsepower. In Europe and other markets there was a second generation car that sharpened some of the Juke’s features.
The Guy Who Did This Is Now In Charge Of All Of Nissan’s Designs
I’m being a little funny by picking this photo, but here’s Matthew Weaver, who is the incoming Corporate Executive, Global Design, succeeding Albaisa. Per the press release, Albaisa and Weaver will be working together through the end of the year.
Nissan has a lot to do in terms of design. The vehicles don’t look bad, though I do think that, other than large grilles, there’s not a lot that’s coherent across the lineup. What the company needs is more big swings, and the biggest swing of all is a new Xterra.
Here’s hoping that Weaver keeps that commitment to non-conformity and brings us something as dramatic as the original Juke.
Top photo: Nissan
I have one. We were in a pinch when we brought it with in-law money. My wife loved it at first sight, I was like hell no. We made fun of these where I’m. The face has grown on me and every other angle is actually cool and interesting. There common enough that I like to spot them in movies, but not so rare that a regular mechanic can’t fix.
The best part though is how it drives. It drives like the car version of its British inspiration. It’s actually made me start driving more like an asshole and I’m just making up from a fight about it.
Don’t get this car if you have good driving habits and a family.
Hell yea. I love the look of the Juke and would have considered one if they offered a manual.
They did offer a manual!
No shit. I live in “everything must have AWD” country which is CVT only so perhaps that’s why it’s impossible to find a manual locally.
Naw I didn’t buy it because the manual was only available with fwd. same with the original us hrv.
I mean knowing what I know now I should have bought both of those….cheaper to keep running without the awd.
All those disappointing cars would feel like blessing if they were available now…
Have a good look at the upcoming Juke – origami on wheels.
The Juke was cool. It looked really good with the 06-08 350Z wheels.
Rag on the looks of the Aztec all you want, just remember we have the Juke as well.
So the guy that designed the Nissan Joke is the head of their design now? Nissan, we hardly knew ye.
Hoping Nissan will be exciting again and they’re surely in need of some good design leadership. They’ve gradually turned dull, I mean is there a more boring and mainstream car on the market than new Leaf? Nissan today reminds me of the mid-late 80’s dull-as-dishwater version of Nissan before the bubble economy influx of the Pike cars, 300ZX, Primera and Infiniti. I want to see a return to form like under the leadership of Shiro Nakamura like the Cube, 300Z, GT-R, Juke and Infiniti FX, making brave and exciting cars again.
I know Nissan needs to do… anything if it hopes to continue existing. This would not have been my first choice.
Good for Nissan. I always liked the Juke.
Weird is good. I’m pretty sure I have a t-shirt that says that.
It was different for sure, but it was bad functional design. The interior was cramped and badly packaged, and it just felt like an exercise in being obtuse for the sake of it.
Yeah, my wife and I test drove one when they were new. I wasn’t enamored with the design, but it was interesting. We had 2 young kids, and the back seat was so cramped that you couldn’t really fit car seats back there. The roof sloped down enough that there was noticeably less head room in the rear. Just too cramped for a 4 door.
I am NOT anti-Juke, so I approve. Plus, the one thing that Nissan definitely needs is CHANGE. So, there’s that.
well, this came before the toyota ch-r, so at least there’s that.
I always thought the Juke could have been called the Bubo. The whole thing looks like a pustule, something to be lanced and then covered with icthammol and a Band-Aid.
Should’ve been the Nissan Bouba, paired with a reissue of the 240SX called the Kiki.
The Bouba Kiki effect is everywhere. Xkcd was right.
I’d agree that in retrospect, the Juke was fun and different.
Looking back over the last quarter century, it’s design that differentiated Nissan where they couldn’t fully compete on the rest. Some pretty, some ugly, but they all stood out and helped the brand carve an image.
The 350Z was fresh and still looks great today. The Infiniti FX was genius. The first gen Murano was weird but funky and popular. The 3rd generation Quest was all kinds of strange but stood out among other minivans. The original Leaf was ugly but instantly recognizable and sold a ton. The GT-R is 20 years old and still looks special.
Hell, even the early 2000s Altima that became such a meme was different and futuristic when it launched.
Let’s see what this guy cooks up.
“I was on the train one day and remembered seeing a young man in a flat cap with a diamond skull on it, a bright t-shirt, a pinstripe jacket and trainers.”
…and no pants? What about the pants?!?
Maybe that’s why he was so memorable?
At least you knew it was a Juke. Nowadays, if I can’t see a badge, I can’t tell a Hyundai from a Buick.
Sadly, absolutely true.
Still apparently a fiery take after all these years:
The Juke is fuck ugly. Always has been, always will be. Whenever I want to illustrate how ridiculous car designers – no, just human beings – can be, I dig up that video of Alfonso Albaisa describing an active 30-something man in a wetsuit as an image he wanted to capture, a source of inspiration.
https://youtu.be/DoLvjj7WJ0M?is=TNuZ17zj_Dzr4VaG
Counterpoint: the Juke is fucking awesome because it was absolutely meant to be fun and not take itself so seriously. If I didn’t have a new first gen Fit that was paid off I would’ve had one.
But they weren’t fun. I had one for two weeks as a rental when they were brand new, and I hated it. All I wanted was for my Xterra to be fixed so I could get out of the damn thing.
Before that experience, I thought they were unique (and a bit ugly) after that, I hated them.
I test drove a Juke Nismo with a manual and that was a good time. I’m sure the base model was dull as rocks though.
Oh come on it definitely was more fun than an Xterra on paved roads, which is the majority of people’s driving.
It’s one of the ugliest cars ever made, and it’s certainly the ugliest car of the 2010s. Putting that moron in charge of design is an absolute dipshit move.
i will die alongside you on this hill.
Sign me up as well. The Juke is an aesthetic disaster. Calling it one of the most important designs of the last two decades is absurd, unless of course your criteria is what not to make a car look like – that it delivered in spades.
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
Well. There go my hopes for Nissan.
Jukes sold in spite of their looks, not because of them. Because Nissan dealers are the place you go when you are out of options. You are so hard up for financing that you are willing to buy a f’n Juke.
Must be a terrible situation to walk out of the job that doesn’t pay you enough to get anything better and then have to stare into the face of desperation when you see your Juke in the parking lot.
You may tell other people you bought it because it’s different, but you didn’t. You know it. They know it. Yet everyone has to uncomfortably pretend that the decision was yours and not Equifax’s.
Nissan had cheaper cars for sale and the Juke was pretty space inefficient, so they didn’t buy it for utility. It also wasn’t sporty, so there’s not much left but looks. Not everyone has the same opinions on aesthetics and some just value standing out, which it did.
A turd also stands out in a punch bowl.
The punch bowl was already filled with piss.
You saw that? I thought nobody was looking.
Spoiler alert: The turd was also me.
If the Juke was $22k, that’s probably two Versas at the time.
Of course, if you test drove a Versa you may stretch for that 14% apr 84 month loan on a Juke instead.
I have an extra level of dislike for the Juke as a long time Nissan fan. It was a very strong signal that the company was not swinging back in my direction any time soon. Although I like the styling of the new Leaf (mostly), the fact that they promoted Mr. Juke means I’m not likely to see any Nissan I want to own for a long time.
I’m sort of the opposite. I had already given up on Nissan, hated the GTR, the Z was bloated with an anti-sports car stance—one that made it look fixed in place rather than in motion while static—the Maxima was bloated and boring, their lower end cars were bland penalty boxes, glass CVTs were everywhere, and “Altima Man” was already building a meme. The Juke was at least the sign of something different that didn’t involve adding an extra ton of weight and I thought a refined second generation design might work, but as it stood, it’s the most successful design interpretation of a squatting cane toad the automotive industry has ever seen.
it’s the most successful design interpretation of a squatting cane toad the automotive industry has ever seen.
I can’t disagree with that.
I met Nissans when I bought an S12 200SX very cheaply after writing off a Firebird. It was amazing by comparison even on worn stock suspension and bad tires. I bought two more S12s and then an S13 that I made a project out of. By the time I sold it there wasn’t a bolt in that car that I hadn’t removed and re-installed.
Around the time I was finishing / selling my S13, Nissan came out with the 350Z. A re-bodied G35 that weighed 800 pounds more than it needed to so they could avoid actually developing a sports car. Yes, they sold a bunch of them (and G35s too), but I knew there wasn’t much mileage in that. Turns out there was more mileage than I though, but eventually it caught up with them.
Nissan is a joke brand and my local Infiniti dealer is a ghost town. They need a drastic turnaround. And yes they took styling risks on the Juke that maybe became less risky a decade later (if you really squint with rose-colored glasses), but being too early is the same as being too late.
Juke will get its day of weird ‘saved from the junkyard’ glory awaits it at a future radwood equivalent, but we’re giving it way too much credit by saying it started these styling trends. White LEDs made these headlight situations possible, not Nissan.
I’m going to disagree with that. I don’t think this was quite as trend setting as mentioned (though it did seem to inspire the CHR, which was a similar concept, but I think it was more bland and worse for it) and being too early is definitely as bad as being late, worse maybe, but it was distinctive and intentionally so (as opposed to concepts that are far removed from their production versions) and that appeals to some people (if not enough for Nissan). I wonder if it was a kind of feeler to see about a possible corporate change in design direction. The Leaf certainly had some similarity, but it largely ended there because it didn’t work out. What I’d like to see, but won’t, is a return to stand out models. The damn Germans started this BS with matryoshka doll corporate design and everyone copied this stupid, bland mess because corporate morons saw “hur dur profit per unit” and made that connection as to why. The whole “corporate identity” over individual standout models (besides the rare halo models) has made for a bland landscape where even car people have trouble IDing models or even GAF about what they are in the first place. It used to be that models stood on their own and that became associated with the brand in turn and if you didn’t like that particular one, well, the brand had other distinctive models that might be more to your liking. Of course, with platform sharing and cost of certifying everything as well as customer demands for utility forms, it’s unlikely to make a return. This is the new malaise era. The cars aren’t underpowered junk like in the original era, but they are overweight, oversized, largely overstyled, and boring.
‘Juke Guy’ is Family Dollar Chris Bangle.
Maybe he has some good ideas, or maybe he’s just there to hammer the final nails in the coffin.
Nissan should be the new hatchback or wagon brand. There’s an open segment. Styles are cyclical, and they may be able to capitalize on that just by being willing to do it.
For F-sake, the current Accord looks like it’s a hatchback / fastback but Honda doesn’t have the stones to move the hinge. Move the hinge, Nissan! You have nothing to lose. Even the enthusiasts who may have bought your latest Z were chased away by your dealers. If every other brand is willing to write subprime 84 month loans then you can’t even count on the bottom of the barrel ending up at your door.
Yeah, they need to get people to want them again. I don’t know if a wagon and hatch niche is big enough even with vacancies as they have a lot of production overhead to fill, but something along those lines to set themselves apart—you can’t really get this anywhere else kind of thing. Maybe go simpler, more analog, make sure the damn drivetrains don’t suck (even if it means a little detuning) to appeal to people who just want a car and don’t want a bunch of unnecessary electric crap and computers tracking them. Advertise that!—”they capture and sell your data, we don’t. Hackers can shut down their cars remotely while our only remote is the keyfob starter—no apps to download, not subscriptions to pay, just an honest car that does what you need a car to do.” Last thing they should do is continue as they have, wasting money on trash tech like variable compression which, like the CVTs, anyone paying attention from the outside knew was going to be a disaster before they were released. “We have a bad reputation for reliability, so let’s try some new Mickey Mouse tech to add 2% better mileage on paper instead of re-upping the hybrid licensing from Toyota and increasing it 50% in the real world.”
“I don’t know, what about Jatco debacle? Nobody could get CVTs to work with anything over 2 liters and we went all in throwing them on 3.5 liter engines and the warranty costs were astronomical.”
“Negative thinking delivers negative results. Lighten up, Sato, or I’ll find someone who isn’t such a negative Nanami.”
Your opening paragraph is absolute gold.
It went pretty well for what it was. 188 hp was a lot for the era, even saddled with a CVT.
The power was fine, but it’s not a sporting car. I can’t imagine many buyers bought them as spirited drivers, choosing them over more driver oriented cars.
Your mention of coke bottle on acid reminds me of the art work where you melted a coke bottle in the oven and could shape it before it hardened again. Although you mentioned the Juke when it first came out as a new design and features I think the late 90s Isuzu Vehicross had the CUV Platform and the separation of the lights etc
More weird cars please!
Cue a flood of people complaining about the Juke being ugly, then turning around tomorrow and complaining that all cars look the same.
Abso-flipping-flopping-lutely.
Put the Jukes, Azteks, PT Cruisers and the like on the roads. Half the people will hate them. Others will defend them. And all the while we’ll all be a little less bored with the scenery on our daily drives.
While you’re at it, paint them bright colors and bring back factory graphics (good on you, Bronco!)
Some low end cars have been available in bright colors, too, and I actually see them on the road. I frequently see the late Mitsubishi Mirage, some Hyu/KIA compact CUV, and the Trax in bright, often unusual, colors and I love them for it.
There’s a wide gulf between ugly and boring, attractive falls somewhere in there. Toyota seems to think its a binary choice, though
I feel really alone in thinking that the Juke was just ahead of its time, and the design has honestly held up REALLY well against the past 2 decade of aging.
I’m sorta meh about the front, but I’ve always thought the rear end styling looked esp good and still looks contemporary.
I’d even go a step further and say that if you kept everything on the juke the same except getting rid of the headlights and fender/hood lights, and just left that grille in there with backlighting, tossed on some new wheels, and made the headlights come out of the grille 60’s charger style, it would look killer and not-at-all out of place in 2026.
What IMO the Juke did was pretty innovative – it tried to crossover-ize basically a hatchback design, instead of rounding and shrinking a full-size SUV like everyone else did. Prety cool.
And also, look what came out not very long after-the CH-R and arguably the HR-V both basically shrunken compact crossovers with the same kind of lines.
And the Crosstrek as well. Ford seemed to try a similar idea with the C-Max, but ended up being so conservative that it mostly looked like a Focus at a distance.
Crosstrek wasn’t funky, it was just ugly because it’s a Subaru.
Disclaimer: I have owned three Subarus and own two right now. None were purchased for their styling. I look out at my Forester sometimes and wonder why anyone ever made it look that way. There are a lot of creases and stuff, so it’s obviously intentional… but why?
I like the look of the Crosstrek! So much of Japan, Inc. styling is more or less copying exisitng successful designs; I like it when they embrace their inner freakiness…the Crosstrek has always looked to me like some sort of post-apocalyptic anime vehicle.
I have to give you that.Those two were very juke-like.
I never noticed just how much it feels like the OG Leaf; I wonder if part of why the Juke doesn’t look so far out now is because of how we’ve grown accustomed to the Leaf.
BISHOP: how about one of those fun GIFs morphing a Leaf into a Juke?
Wanna know how I can tell your eyesight hasn’t held up over the last two decades?
As you should. It’s absolutely appalling.
I still see them (Jukes) around town from time to time.
And I still think they’re a bit weird looking, but in a very positive way given that it sometimes seems that 60% of all cars on the road are excrutiatingly similar small crossovers.
An excess of identical crossovers does not make the Juke any less ugly.
God help Nissan, hopefully this guy gets stuck doing paperwork all day and leaves the designing to others with more common sense and better taste.
You say potato. 😉
Exactly. The Nissan Juke is shaped like a lumpy potato.
😛
Well that is deeply unfortunate news.
I remember, barely, when Nissan didn’t suck.
I remember it well.
They didn’t suck for a very long time until they went full suck and never looked back.
In other words he saw a Pontiac Aztec drive by outside a pub in London and said hold my pint and watch this.
I think it means he intended it as the automotive equivalent of tucking tracksuit bottoms into socks
“I was on the train one day and remembered seeing a young man in a flat cap with a diamond skull on it, a bright t-shirt, a pinstripe jacket and trainers.”
^^ THAT person was his specific inspiration. That is the vibe he was trying to bring to Nissan with the Juke.
Gotta say, he nailed it. If there is a flat-brimmed diamond skull hat in vehicle form, it’s the Juke.
The Aztec show car vs production version was a lot farther apart than the Juke and its show car. He did a much better job coming up with something that could be translated into production (an underappreciated skill in design—what good is a designer if anything they come up with gets butchered during transition?). Though, I could be wrong about the Aztec designer as it might be that it wasn’t really intended for production and that came later, in which case, that wasn’t their fault it ended up so warped, but also, the show car wasn’t that good if it were a fantasy piece. I suppose I could research this, but it’s the Aztec and I can’t care that much.
https://www.theautopian.com/gm-sent-us-never-before-seen-sketches-of-the-pontiac-aztek-from-before-it-all-went-so-wrong/
Luckily, Adrian did the work for you two years ago.
I must have read that, which explains why I had it in my head that the designer might not have designed it for production as it had been drawn.