The Nissan Qashqai crossover has been a great sales success for the Japanese manufacturer, with frugal families and company car drivers alike searching out the quirkily-styled mini SUV in large numbers. So, what's the Qashqai's trick behind its sales success? Here's a guide to the Qashqai's highlights.

Family friendly The Nissan Qashqai is a crossover-style car – one that's based on a regular-size hatchback chassis, but with a taller body for greater interior space – and with the Qashqai, Nissan pretty much cornered this part of the car market.

Families were looking for something with a bit more size and a touch more road presence, but without trading up to a full-size SUV with all the extra price and fuel costs that these much larger, usually four-wheel drive vehicles can attract. So, with the Qashqai, you get near to the size of an SUV, but with front-wheel drive fuel consumption that is as good, or nearly as good, as your average family hatchback. But with that welcome extra space for a travelling family's luggage.

Fuel friendly Nissan quickly saw that they were onto a winner with the Qashqai, so they have been focusing every revision of the car's specification to suit the core buyers. So, with every new Qashqai model, we see an improvement on the already impressive fuel economy, as well as options like two extra occasional seats in the boot area, for when there are extra kids to pick up from school, for example. These occasional seats can be quickly and easily stowed into the boot floor when not in use, to return the Qashqai's good-size boot to its original volume.

Road friendly The Nissan Qashqai is one of those cars that's just so easy to drive, and that appeals to families and company car drivers who cover a lot of road miles every year. It's relatively small – about as big as hatchback – but thanks to its taller roof and slightly raised suspension, Qashqai drivers get a better view of the road ahead, thanks to this raised driving position. This extra view of what's going on ahead can take some of the stress and hard work out of longer journeys, especially if there are traffic jams and incidents to deal with.

Pocket friendly Not only does the Qashqai come with Nissan's latest range of fuel efficient petrol and diesel engines – including stop and start functions to cut the engine when it's not needed; at traffic lights, for example, it's also holding its value quite well on the used car market. However, buying a nearly new used Qashqai is a great idea for families on a budget as they won't suffer the depreciation of a brand new car, and the general servicing costs are at the more affordable end of the pricing scale too. Why not take a look at used Nissan Qashqai prices to see if they fit your buying budget?

Environmentally friendly Good fuel consumption not only has a positive effect on the pocket, it also helps the environment by polluting less, and the Qashqai's more fuel efficiency focused engines are in there with the very best in terms of carbon dioxide output. Why not measure up the Qashqai's emissions with those of a similar-sized hatchback? You could be surprised to see that the Nissan does very well for a bigger car.