The 2025 Nissan Kicks Has Grown Up and Glown Up: First Drive

Remember the Nissan Juke? The Kicks stepped in to replace it several years ago, promising to preserve the Juke’s youthful personality and low price point in a body that wasn’t quite so … quirky. Now there’s a new Kicks in the mix for 2025, and from the outside, it looks ready for client meetings instead of trips to the beach.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but how many times have we seen interesting vehicles turn bland in the name of maturity? The good news is, there’s still some charm and value in this grown-up Kicks, despite getting a haircut and promotion to account executive. Whether it’s ready for board presentations and fast-paced sessions of pickleball depends on your point of view.

There’s absolutely no way to mistake the new Kicks for an old one. Nissan completely redesigned its entry-level SUV, and the best way to describe the styling in person is: serious. Viewed head-on, only a vestige of Nissan’s V-Motion grille is discernable behind the horizontal bars and LED lights that define its new face. It’s an extremely clean, satisfying look that’s mirrored by a simple lower grille at the bottom of the fascia. The only angles you’ll find here are at the corners, and the result is a considerably larger presence without being a considerably larger SUV.

The clean, straight lines stretch along the side as well, notching upward only at the C-pillar where the floating roof motif lives on whether you choose a single or two-tone exterior finish. Speaking of which, Nissan offers seven multi-color options, all of which include a black roof save for Gun Metallic, which gets red up top.

Meanwhile down low, the gray plastic cladding isn’t just plain ol’ gray. It has a subtle checkered pattern that, like the two-tone roof, gives the Kicks a touch of character amid its otherwise conservative styling. And the 19-inch tri-spoke wheels on my SR test vehicle are pretty cool, too.

Nissan didn’t just make the Kicks look bigger. It’s physically larger overall, starting with 8.4 inches of ground clearance. Compared to the outgoing model, the 2025 Kicks is 3.0 inches longer, an inch higher, and almost 2 inches wider. That translates to more space inside, with an extra 3.0 cubic feet of passenger space and up to 30.0 cubic feet of cargo space. Sitting in either the front or the back, the Kicks doesn’t have endless space but average adults should be comfortable in either location. 

The interior receives as drastic a makeover as the outside. Regardless of trim level, the new Kicks goes entirely digital for driver and center infotainment screens. The only difference lies in the size, which starts as a pair of 7.0-inch displays for the Kicks S. Step up to the SV and you get a 12.3-inch center screen. The range-topping SR has dual 12.3-inch screens, effectively giving the Kicks a glass cockpit.

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Pros: Looks Great, Comfortable, AWD For Under $25,000

S and SV trims still have physical controls for climate settings, but Nissan adds small dimples to the haptic screen on the SR so you can easily adjust temperature and fan speeds purely by feel. Fighting heavy traffic on a 45-minute drive route near Nissan’s tech center north of Detroit, I was supremely grateful for this simple yet effective solution to navigating touch-sensitive controls. 

Speaking of Detroit traffic, the new Kicks has a bit more power to go with the flow. All trims now have a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 141 horsepower and 140 pound-feet of torque. Make no mistake—you won’t win any races unless your competition is plastic and has a Power Wheels sticker on the side. But, this is a noted improvement from the outgoing model, which only had 122 ponies from its 1.6-liter four-pot. 

Of greater significance here is the extra 26 lb-ft of twist over the old Kicks. There’s just enough to merge into heavy traffic without causing undo panic amongst your passengers or other motorists. An upgraded Xtronic CVT largely keeps the engine in its powerband as you tromp the accelerator, but curiously, it felt a bit quicker if I didn’t absolutely floor it. With simulated shift points programmed in, a flat-out acceleration run takes the engine past its peak. Going with around 80-90 percent throttle, the revs stayed a little lower on the faux shifts, thus keeping the acceleration more consistent. 

Christopher Smith / Motor1

Christopher Smith / Motor1

This is purely a seat-of-the-pants observation, though one that stuck with me as I turned onto a very busy stretch of 12 Mile Road. A Nissan representative explained the powertrain was tuned for mid-range performance, which is what most drivers need when tooling around town. Official acceleration times aren’t available, but I’d estimate a 60-mph run is still somewhere north of 9 seconds.

And yet, the little SUV feels borderline spritely on country roads. The excessive road and wind noise of the previous generation is largely gone, and despite the SR riding on 19-inch wheels (16-inch steelies are standard), the ride is reasonably comfortable without being floaty.

The accommodations are much improved, too, with Nissan’s Zero Gravity seats now in the front and rear. I couldn’t put the company’s claims of superior long-distance support to the test, but I had no complaints during an hour spent dancing around Detroit potholes. And the interior was surprisingly upscale in its appearance, too. Soft-touch surfaces fill the space, something I wasn’t expecting to find on the cheapest all-wheel-drive SUV in the country.

Christopher Smith / Motor1

Cons: Noisy Engine, Still Really Slow

Yes, the Kicks now has Intelligent All-Wheel Drive (I-AWD) available on every trim level. Under normal conditions, the SUV only turns its front wheels. But Nissan claims its system can sense when wheel slip is imminent and engage the rear axle instantaneously in any drive mode, save for Snow where it’s on full-time. With the very modest power output from the engine, snow and ice are really the only conditions I see AWD coming into play. I never felt it engage during my time behind the wheel, even on dirt surfaces.

But, all-paw isn’t something often found on small SUVs, and in fact, you won’t find it on anything under $25,000 except for the new Kicks. At $24,720—including Nissan’s $1,390 destination charge—it undercuts competitors like the Kia Seltos, Toyota Corolla Cross, and Chevrolet Trailblazer, all of which are at least $1,000 more. And things get only more expensive from there. I see potential buyers in snowy climates being very tempted by the AWD Kicks and its low price tag.

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However, there are tradeoffs for affordability. Nissan representatives explained that some “hard decisions” were made during the development process to ensure a lower price point was maintained. One of those decisions was nixing power seats, even on the range-topping SR. And frankly, the levers for raising and sliding aren’t the most ergonomically agreeable to use. There is no integrated navigation system or similar onboard tech, save for satellite radio. The upgraded 12.3-inch touchscreen relies on wireless Android Auto or Apple CarPlay to be of much use.

And yet, Nissan’s hands-free ProPilot system is available as an option, as is a 10-speaker Bose sound system and a panoramic sunroof. The dichotomy here is certainly interesting.

Will these oddly absent features deter buyers from buying the new Kicks? If anything sends people away, I suspect it will be the powertrain. The styling, the interior, the driver assist tech, everything comes together in a vehicle that can punch well above its weight class. Now, it just needs a smoother, more powerful engine for icing on the cake. Even if it means tacking another $1,000 to the price, the Kicks has the look and feel to make such an investment worthwhile. A hybrid or even a Nismo version (fingers crossed) would work well here, but alas, Nissan had no comment when I asked about both.

For now, the 2025 Kicks is the cheapest all-wheel-drive SUV on sale in the US and still among the cheapest new cars on sale, period. If you don’t mind a lackluster powertrain, its combination of good looks and standard-issue tech could be very hard to beat.

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