Is There Such A Thing As A Cool Crossover? In Europe, Yes – In The USA? We Get The Short End Of The Stick


Is There Such A Thing As A Cool Crossover? In Europe, Yes – In The USA? We Get The Short End Of The Stick

(Words by Tom Lohnes – Photos by the manufacturers) – America seems to get gypped when it comes to cool cars, sometimes. All of our wagons have been replaced with slow, numb crossovers and the option for a manual transmission is all but gone here in the states. But I recently found out that we don’t even get the good versions of crossovers! The Ford Puma, Volkswagen T-Cross, and Nissan Juke are the best examples. These CUVs don’t only look cool, they have some very interesting options and are dirt cheap compared to what we pay over here for the more boring, dulled down version of these kind of neat crossovers.

How about the Ford Puma which the least crossover-like of the bunch. The Puma is basically a raised Ford Fiesta with some more ground clearance. The Puma is the quickest of the bunch, with a 0-60 time of 9.0 seconds. None of these are too great in a straight line, but they’re individually cool. What makes the Puma the most interesting to me is that, unlike the other ones, a manual transmission is the only option. The base Puma which would start around $25,000 here and have a naturally aspirated 1.0 liter 3-cylinder engine which makes 95 horsepower. Options make up to 155 is available. The Puma is also the most exotic looking of the bunch but I personally think it went a little too far on the body sculpting.

The next up on the cool CUV front is the Volkswagen T-Cross. The T-Cross is the tamest of the bunch offering an optional 7-speed DSG transmission and up to 155 horsepower.  You can also “upgrade” to a TDI 4-cylinder that makes 95 horsepower and 150 lb.-ft of torque. Styling wise, the T-cross is a mini Tiguan that we see in the US. The T-cross would start here at around almost $30,000, making it expensive for a subcompact here.

My personal favorite of the group, the Nissan Juke starts at only $21,500. The Juke is a bargain, especially because the styling has been fixed and it looks good now. After moving the headlights into the actual front end and having them not bulge out of the hood as they did before the whole thing looks better. The Juke now uses Nissan’s new styling and Nissan did a good job on the back end as well, making the Juke look refined.

Let’s compare the new Juke to its US spec brother, the Kicks. The Juke has the same 125 horsepower 1.6 Liter inline-4, but the difference is that the Juke actually has a real transmission, actually two. Besides the 6-speed manual, the Juke offers a 7-speed DCT that has real gears, compared to the CVT in the Kicks.

My question is, why don’t give the Americans this much choice? People here love crossovers and you’d think the car buying population would gobble up all of these!


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5 thoughts on “Is There Such A Thing As A Cool Crossover? In Europe, Yes – In The USA? We Get The Short End Of The Stick

  1. Mike L

    We get slow crossovers you say, and then show us these? Just about everything in our market blows these turds out of the water. Not to mention that we get crossovers that blow away sports cars too. And they’re pretty damn fun to drive. Of course, a freelance writer such as yourself can’t afford the good ones, but we do get them.

    1. skeptical

      Agreed. Doesn’t matter if it has thousands of HP and shit money. They just aren’t cool.

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