Faults:

The handbrake cables failed - one side at a time. Note that aftermarket ones do not work well at the current time; genuine Nissan are the way to go.

The air conditioning unit began to make strange noises. This was traced to a leaking condenser. Once replaced, with a new receiver/dryer, we have had no further problems.

General Comments:

After 80,000 miles in four years (taking the mileage to over 200,000), our 2002 Toyota Avensis was getting tired and in need of expenditure in excess of its value, so it was time for a replacement.

My wife wanted a dark-coloured Qashqai with the reversing camera and sat-nav, so that narrowed it down to a Tekna or N-Tec. I preferred the look of the facelifted 2010-on model and did not want a diesel nor an automatic. The 2-litre petrol seems quite rare, so a 1.6 petrol was the optimum choice. I found this car and paid £8000. The price was affected by the high mileage, but this does not put me off and as it was ex-lease, it had a full service history.

After a year and putting nearly 20k on it, we remain very pleased. Aside from the issues noted above, it has had 4 oil changes, two air filter changes, two pollen filter changes and a new set of spark plugs. I have done all of this myself. It is fairly easy to work on, although you need to take the undertray off to get at the sump plug, and the spark plugs require the inlet manifold to come off, which is a bit of a pain (but prevalent on a lot of modern cars).

There is quite a lot of surface rust on the front crossmember, which will be sorted out in due course - but I would have expected Nissan to learn their lesson in this regard with the Micra and Almera.

The car drives very well and is practical and spacious for our family of three. I removed the 18" wheels with their 55-profile tyres and fitted 16" wheels with 65-profile tyres - much better ride quality (so useful on our potholed roads) and cheaper replacement costs with little loss of ultimate grip.

The 1.6 engine is a little undergeared (3500 RPM = 70mph) and could do with a sixth gear. Economy is pretty good - we have averaged 38 MPG over the last 20,000 miles, with two-thirds of the driving being in town.

The top-line Tekna specification has all the fruit - leather seats (heated in front), a Bose stereo, Xenon headlights, cruise control, a full-colour satnav (the 2010 maps are fine) and reversing camera, plus a glass panoramic roof.

We aim to keep the car as long as possible, at least until 200,000 miles ideally.