Cash & carry

“A new shape Qashqai? Isn’t that a bit new?” was my first reaction to the choice of CM’s latest project car. You might think that as well, but bear in mind that the first-gen Qashqai was still being sold eight years ago and our second-gen has just turned seven. Long-term readers will recall my first project car from nine years ago – a seven-year-old Renault Laguna 1.9 dCi Sports Tourer – that confounded the naysayers by proving utterly reliable.

The second-generation Qashqai arrived here in February 2014 following its international launch in late 2013 and it was the first of several cars based on the joint Renault Nissan CMF C-D platform, later used for cars such as the 2015-onwards Renault Megane, Kadjar, Espace and Scenic. Sharing very little with the highly-successful first-generation Qashqai launched in 2006, the new car