The Nissan Puke... I mean "Joke..." oh, wait... it's "Juke..." shares the same platform as Nissan's other polarizing-ly styled vehicle, the Cube. It's also the same platform as the low-buck Versa. It's also just as ugly, if not worse, than its platform mates. I have no idea why Nissan let this design past the sketching phase. When parked outside a local shopping center, 200 shoppers were asked to grade the little CUV's exterior design. The results were as follows:

A: 0
B: 0
C: 4
D: 87
F: 109

The interior fared better, with people giving special notice to the trick center console design. But other than that, there was nothing special to most. Backseat and cargo space are also under par, but if you wanted that stuff, you'dve gone with the Cube or Versa. The Juke is the sports car of the platform triplets, and sports cars aren't about practicality, they're about the drive.

And the Juke does drive well. The 1.6L, 188 HP, 177 TQ engine doesn't have too much mass to move around with the Juke only weighing a bit more than 3,000 lbs. To those that think that's heavy for a compact car, keep in mind this is the age of stronger and safer frames, reinforced side impact door beams, and airbags all over the place. The tested Juke also has four doors, AWD, leather, sunroof, and more cargo space than your coupes of yesteryear. Its straight line performance was on par with a MINI Cooper S Clubman.

The CVT has an option for it to mimic the "gears" of a normal transmission, but I don't understand the reason why anyone would want to do it. Sure staying constant at the engine's peak output RPM doesn't sound as it going through the revs over several gears, but the heavier AWD with CVT version outpaced the lighter FWD with a standard manual.

Handling aspects of the Juke were good. It responded well to steering input and was stable throughout a long sweeper as well as a hairpin turn. It felt much like driving a smaller, lighter version of Andie, which isn't a surprise since they both have similar torque vectoring AWD systems. When driven along the backroads with a Honda Civic Si Sedan, the Juke was able to out-handle, and even lose, the Civic in sections with transitions and multiple back to back curves.

In the end, the Juke is an entertaining drive. Not a sports car, obviously, but fun, lively, and sporty. If it wasn't so ******** ugly, Nissan would have a hit on its hands. Actually, it still might have a hit, since import fanboys will eat up anything with a Nissan logo.