EVERYDAY FAMILY LIFE WITH THE NISSAN QASHQAI TEKNA

During the cold bout of weather we had last month, the lovely people over at Nissan reached out and asked if we'd like to try out their Qashqai, and of course I jumped at the chance. I'm not normally someone who takes much interest in cars if I'm totally honest, I'd be lying if I said I could recognise most car makes and models, that is definitely more my other halves forte. But the Nissan is an exception, their Juke and Qashqai have always caught my eye and since lockdown I have mulled over getting a new car which I think testing out the Qashqai has definitely given me that little extra push to do so. That and the fact after a week of driving the Nissan in the cold, my poor little Peugeot did not like restarting and took some persuasion, something I never had to worry about when getting in the Qashqai.

Finding the perfect family car is never easy, it needs to meet the needs for everyone and for me I felt as though I had a few quite staple wants that I had to find in the ideal car for us. First up was the size, it needed to be roomy enough for both of my boys, as well as me and Corey, we don't know if we'll expand on our family in the future so the possibility to allow that must be there. After all, who wants to be welcoming a new baby and then trying to find a new car at the same time, I can almost feel the stress from just writing that statement alone. The Nissan Qashqai was incredible in terms of size, it fit us all in with masses of room to spare, the boys loved it but I loved it too because it meant I could sit them far enough apart so they couldn't wind each other up whilst I was driving, something I think every parent will relate too. Nothing is more exasperating than hearing 'Mum, muuum, he's touching me' as you're trying to merge on a busy motorway - thankfully the Qashqai eliminated that for me. Because I'm a bit of a fuss pot however, although I like a car to be roomy, parking well isn't a skill I possess, so if a car is too bulky then I know it's going to be problematic for me. The Nissan Qashqai didn't present that issue, I could still tuck it away nicely in a bay as well as parallel park with some ease, this was obviously massively helped with the parking sensors and rear view camera. But I think that means I can hold Nissan responsible for giving the illusion that I'm suddenly a parking whizz when in reality it's just the amazing extras in the Qashqai that helped me out.

The audio system is surprisingly quite high up in my priority list when I'm looking at a car. Having two kids and being able to link my phone remotely to access my own music is pretty invaluable, as is the ability to change the song with the controls on the steering wheel, meaning I'm in full control at all times. We know how fickle children are with songs, so this is a feature we tested out rigorously. Their seven inch touchscreen system is also installed with satnav, and this then appears on the dashboard screen in a more simplified form - I found this wonderful and much easier to glance at whilst I was driving. I loved not having to think about the speed of the road too much as it was right there on the screen in front of me. Apple car play is an additional feature and you can also connect your phone via a usb port which allows for charging too. 

As we're during lockdown, we didn't get to venture further afield but I think it's very clear that the Qashqai has your back when it comes to longer journeys. My two loved the panoramic roof, it's something they hadn't had in a car before and I can't help but think how wonderful that would be during the summer months. Whilst we took it on an evening whizz, Noah spent the whole journey telling me how many different stars he could see and how bright they where, this definitely beat hearing 'are we nearly there yet?'. That being said we did get to test out the boot space with a big food shop after the school run and you could easily fit so much more in, than we did. It brought me back to trying to fit even a couple of shopping bags into my first car, a Peugeot 108, along with a pram - it was a nightmare. Something you really wouldn't have to think twice about with the Qashqai was space, which in my eyes makes it perfect for a family. 

Overall I think it's quite obvious we loved the Qashqai, even my other half who definitely could be considered a car snob. Everything from the led lights, to the stop start and push to start functions was fantastic and sleek, I was sad to hand it back at the end of the week and when lockdown finally ends we'll absolutely be heading to a showroom in the hopes of upgrading my car.

*This was a collaboration with Nissan, however I have complete creative control and all opinions are entirely my own.