Keep the screen clean and our Nissan’s panoramic benefits are clear…
Main Report – 5 March 2008
Who doesn’t love a car with a sporty and sloping roofline? Even tall people do as long as they can shoehorn themselves in.
Trouble is, swoopy exterior roofs can make for cramped and claustrophobic interior cabins – which is why the panoramic roof on the Qashqai is a must-have option.
Hand over the £700 for the massive single expanse of glass and you’ll see why. The Qashqai may be 4×4 in looks but its roofline is ‘compact sporty hatchback’, so the panoramic roof is important in adding a good feeling of space to the still decent actual space.
From the inside, passengers see the world go by with ease, without obstruction from twin or even quadruple sunroof frames [1] as on most other cars. It’s a great view, as long as you keep the car fairly clean, and without any goldfish bowl side effects. And occupants of passing double-decker buses or high-up truck drivers don’t get to peek in, due to heavily tinted glass that stretches pleasingly in an almost seamless curved line – from the windscreen to above the second row of seats [2].
Best of all – from a fleet manager perspective – RV guys like panoramic roofs. Jason King, Glass’s head of market intelligence, reckons the Qashqai’s should be worth 50% of its option cost in three years, adding: “Everybody likes them, they really open things up for rear-seat passengers and they probably even reduce car sickness too.” What’s not to like?
