2025 Nissan Kicks First Drive: Sneaker-Inspired Crossover Packs A Lot For The Price

Around six years ago, Nissan replaced its fairly funky subcompact crossover offering, the Juke, with a more conventional successor (for most of the world, anyway) in the Kicks. Originating in Brazil as a concept car in 2014, the V-platform Kicks arrived in Brazilian showrooms during the 2016 Summer Olympics before spreading its style to Latin America and China in the following months. North American drivers got their Kicks from the 2018 model year, providing first-time car buyers an affordable entry into the new-car lifestyle with all the modern comforts, tech and safety features found in pricier offerings across the board. By the 2021 model year, sales of the first-gen Kicks peaked at nearly 83,000 units, proving this subcompact crossover's formula was the one to continue into the 2020s.

And continue it would. In March of 2024, the second-generation Nissan Kicks debuted in the United States for the 2025 model year. The new crossover is now available for sale in showrooms across the country, but that didn't stop Nissan from inviting a few journalists — including yours truly — to get a chance to drive the all-new Kicks before the first copies leave the dealership. Thus, I flew all the way from my Old Dominion home in southwestern Virginia to the sunny beaches and stunning mountains of Santa Barbara, California to get a feel for what this subcompact has to offer to not only those first-time car buyers, but to newly minted drivers beginning their motoring lives.

"When you look at sneaker culture, there's a lot of vibrancy, energy and new ideas," said Ken Lee, Nissan's senior design director. "Sneakers are something a lot of car designers naturally gravitate towards. They're something that's for the road and something that moves. They also imply speed or some kind of utility. So there are a lot of parallels between the two worlds."

Amid shelves of customized sneakers and replicas of the 2025 Kicks at the press lounge in Santa Barbara, the connection between the worlds of sneakerheads and car enthusiasts was the main driver in the all-new subcompact crossover's redesign. Lee had taken notice of the sneakerhead culture during its explosion during the darkest days of the early 2020s pandemic, bringing the culture's influence and style to his team in remaking the Kicks for the middle of this decade. As seen with the top-level SR trim above, the two-toned, red-roof design was meant to specifcially invoke the colorways of sneakers. 

The body cladding and wheels further add to the sneaker theme, reminding anyone looking closely enough of the stylized soles found on any given pair of shoes. To that end, all three trims of the 2025 Kicks — S, SV and SR — can be had in quite a few colors, from the base Canyon Bronze Metallic (think suede sneakers for the trek up to the high-end restaurant) to the two-tone Arctic Ice Blue/Super Black and Yuzu Yellow Metallic/Super Black combos (think the wildest sneakers worn by hip hop performers on stage).

The original Kicks planted its power upon the streets via the front wheels with help from a 1.6-liter inline-four producing 125 horsepower and 114 lb-ft of torque, and either a five-speed manual or Nissan's Xtronic CVT. The all-new second-gen subcompact crossover gets a boost in power from a 2-liter inline-four pumping up the jam to the tune of 141 horses and 140 lb-ft of torque, which goes through an all-new variant of the Xtronic CVT with twin oil pumps to keep things cool at any speed. 

Once again, the power meets the road via the front pair of 16- through to 19-inch alloy wheels standard, but for the first time ever for the Kicks, all-wheel drive is an option via Nissan's I-AWD system. This system operates in front-wheel drive in most environments and situations for maximum fuel economy, but automatically switches to all-wheel-drive when snowy roads or rougher terrain mandate the need for maximum surefootedness.

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Of course, all-wheel drive is but only one way to improve traction and stability. That same system comes with rear multi-link suspension plus improvements all around for better shock impact reduction. However, increasing the width and length is always the way to leave a bigger footprint on the weather-beaten path. Compared to the old pair of sneakers, the new Kicks is 2.8 inches longer and 1.6 inches wider for greater stability on the road. It also has a class-leading ground clearance of 8.4 inches for overcoming obstacles that may otherwise ruin a good drive.

Of course, sneakers and tech go together like peanut butter and jelly, and it's no exception with the 2025 Kicks. Across the board, the driver gauges and infotainment are housed in a dual-screen setup, with the standard size for the instrument cluster coming in at seven inches. The SR trim level bumps up said-cluster to 12.3-inches with two display modes: traditional and a feature-rich Enhanced mode. 

There's no cable clutter to worry about either, as there is wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus wireless charging for the SV and SR trims. The aforementioned trims also come with a 12.3-inch infotainment screen above the center console, while the S trim has a matching 7-inch screen to go with the 7-inch instrument cluster.

Nissan

Aimed at first-time drivers, the 2025 Nissan Kicks comes with Nissan Safety Shield 360 (as on the 2024 Rogue) across all trim levels. The suite includes auto emergency braking with pedestrian detection, rear auto braking, blind-spot monitoring, and high-beam assist. However, arguably the biggest feature for these drivers is Nissan's Intelligent Cruise Control on all trim levels, with ProPILOT Assist on the SR trim. Combined, the two systems provide steering and speed management assistance. Other features like the 360-degree rear-backup camera system, Easy-Fill Tire Alert for simplified tire-pressure monitoring, and driver-alertness detection all help the new driver navigate through the wild and wooly world of driving.

Though the outside will draw many, what's inside determines if they'll stick around. Continuing the sneaker theme, the interior features stylish seating for five, like the SR's leatherette seating with red and black textured cloth inserts trimmed in red and white stitching (which carries on to the dash, center console and door panels). Those seats make use of Nissan's Zero Gravity seating design for improved comfort; upgrading the four-speaker system with the 10-speaker option adds dedicated speakers to the front headrests. A panoramic sunroof can welcome in the blue skies, and there's dual-zone climate control.

Nissan

The increased exterior dimensions mean more roominess for people, pets and groceries. Front shoulder room is up by 1.7 inches over the first-generation Kicks, there's 1.5 inches more rear shoulder room, and 0.9 inches more knee room for the rear passengers on the 60/40-split bench. With the bench fully up, there's 30 cubic feet of trunk space; bench down, cargo room doubles to 60 cubic feet. The 40.3-inch trunk opening is actually the widest in its class, while the 28-inch low liftover height should make lugging heavy luggage around all that easier to do.

While most sneakerheads display their shoes more often than wear them, even they know the best way to get a feel for any given pair is to take them for a test drive. With that in mind, Nissan prescribed two routes designed to make the most of the all-new Kicks. The morning route took me out of Santa Barbara onto U.S. 101 and California State Route 154 towards Los Olivos for some olive oil tasting. Construction on California 154 added to the adventurous drive up from and back to the city, one my pre-production Kicks SR with all-wheel drive handled quite well, thanks to all of the improvements to the suspension and power, plus the overall increased footprint compared to the old Kicks.

Meanwhile, the early afternoon drive took me through 101 and more than a few city streets in a loop going to an overlook not far from the Pacific Ocean, then back down along the many beaches in the Santa Barbara area. On the highway with the adaptive cruise control active, all I needed to worry about was merging traffic or passing whatever big rig was in front of me. The bump in power made such maneuvers easy.

Alas, if there was one issue from the trip, it was linked to my iPhone and the infotainment center. On the morning drive back to the hotel, Apple CarPlay stopped working entirely at one point, dipping out of the conversation with the 12.3-inch screen. I had to park at a grocery store to shut the Kicks off, then start only the electrical part to "reboot" the system before starting the rest of the vehicle to go back out. As for the afternoon drive back to the hotel, I had to stop three times to get Google Maps to work again, as it had frozen somewhere along the way. Granted, it was a pre-production model, so let's hope those bugs were sorted out at the factory for the showroom copies.

Nissan's mission with the Kicks has been — and, with this generation, continues to be — drawing in new drivers and first-time new-car buyers alike to an affordable, attractive way of motoring with the latest tech. Base MSRP for the 2025 Kicks starts at $21,830 for the front-wheel-drive S trim, rising to $23,680 for the all-wheel-drive version; the top-tier SR trim with AWD I drove begins at $27,680. And, as with sneakers, there are plenty of ways to customize your Kicks, from two-tone paint to splash guards, illumination packages, and various styles of alloy wheel.

Cameron Aubernon/SlashGear

The all-new Kicks has some competition, of course, including the newly upsized Chevrolet Trax, the endearingly boxy Kia Soul, and the EV-first Hyundai Kona. Some of the competition might best the 2025 Kicks on price, but for those buying the all-new subcompact crossover for themselves or the new driver in the family, this Nissan with its available all-wheel drive may well be one of the best bang-for-the-buck options out there.