I had a buddy who went through two Amigos; we were in the unique position of pitching a Vehicross ad to Isuzu in 1999 and came up with an idea blending a bunch of Road Warrior mofos and Joe Isuzu with the tagline "what's your Y2K solution?" They passed. Ever driven a Vehicross? They were sloppy like a truck but cramped like a sports car. I made a serious run at buying one in '02 but it doesn't take long to recognize that they've got the brakes and rolling stock from an Amigo with a really big turbo. They also have a lot of tupperware that bleaches real nice to the point where it looks like a car wearing an apron. It also doesn't take long to realize why the Japanese put a rear-view camera in it (which wasn't DOT legal); the rear-view mirror gives you a great view of the sky overhead and absolutely nothing shorter than an 18-wheeler. Still, I run past one two or three times a week. They're... interesting. It was designed by Shiro Nakamura, who went on to make pretty much everything at Nissan from '05 to now, including the Juke.
I almost wrapped my head around one. There were two problems for me: 1) Between the turbo and the CVT, it feels like a driving simulation, not a car. The connection between inputs and vehicular responses feels a lot like flying a Predator UAV over satellite link. 2) The fact that it's a Versa with a tall body means that it isn't particularly off-road-able, which, for a car that's gonna front like that, is a damn shame. I recognize that 99% of all things with AWD will never so much as see dirt but I really think that if Nissan did a version of the Juke that had some modifiable suspension bits they would have captured a whole bunch of the PunisherPants market. Examples exist but they're so much work.
No. But I can imagine, even with sportier suspension, it would still drive like a truck. I think I'll always be more inclined to like cars, especially performance cars, but I gotta say, there are some compact SUVs that I like, at least visually. The Kia Niro and Toyota CHR come to mind, but I think if I went from driving the FR-S daily to one of those daily, I'd be pretty disappointed in the handling.Ever driven a Vehicross? They were sloppy like a truck but cramped like a sports car.
The CH-R with 6 cylinders and AWD would have been a car. I guess it makes sense that the highest-performance vehicles available are all electric; after all, you get that kick off the line for free. But I really wish the rest of the market hadn't capitulated so heavily.
I remember the day Toyota released the specs for the car and feeling really let down. To give something as aggressively styled as that car such weak engine options, I kind of felt like what some people probably felt like during the malaise era.