Qashqai stretched!

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), April 11, 2008

NISSAN is to produce a stretched version of its Qashqai to compete against seven-seat rival crossovers.

The five-seat Qashqai is proving hugely popular but does not offer the seven-seat flexibility of the Citroen C-Crosser and Peugeot 4007.

Now Nissan has confirmed that it is to display its new Quashqai 2 at the London Motor Show in July, which will then go on sale here in October.

To be built at the company's Sunderland plant, it gains two extra individual seats in the rear that are described as suitable for children.

The body is 211mm longer and gets bigger rear doors, a more flexible middle bench seat that now slides fore and aft plus a panoramic fixed sunroof.

In terms of engines, equipment and the choice of two or four wheel drive, the seven-seat version matches the existing five-seat range. As the middle row of seats is now on a sliding rail there is an additional 23mm of leg room available when the rearmost seats are not in use.

Other changes include larger side windows at the rear, a new tailgate with a deeper rear window, a revised bumper and a redesigned front grille.

The prices will be announced in July.