JAPANESE manufacturers are renowned for bringing reliability to the streets in the dark days when a family smoker which started seven days on the trot was in line for beatification. They also cornered the market in silly names.

Cedrics and Starions were about as daft as it got in Europe but in the home market a Happy Island Stargazer or Randy Rabbit Urban would hardly raise an eyebrow.

They were also very good at misreading just what the British public would be seen driving without an SAS balaclava to preserve anonymity. What excites the young people of Tokyo is likely to start a fight in an empty bus shelter here.

A quick glance at my watch shows the year to be 2015 yet it was only in 2009 Nissan introduced the final UK Cube. And if that name was meant to signify it was cool, it wasn't. Somebody even had the idea of a Space Invaders special edition. That wasn't niche marketing. It was a crevasse on the M6. And the Cube fell into it.

Strange, because alongside such excesses Nissan was producing lovely looking cars from butch pick-ups to the 350Z via the benchmark crossover, the Qashqai. Then just when you thought it was safe to go back in the showroom opinion was to be divided again, by the Juke.

Essentially a car the size of a Fiesta but with pumped up muscles, the Juke may seem inspired by a Star Wars trooper mask, you can even get one in storm white, but it sells like hot doughnuts on cold morning.

It is youth personified, from radical looks to an inspired interior which fits like a glove and comes equipped with every connection and toy a hipster could wish for. There's even a measuring device for G Forces.

No, I don't know what for either. Well, not until I drove the Juke Nismo RS.

The product of collaboration with Nissan's Nismo motorsport arm, the RS takes the Juke out of the let's go shopping and look so cool niche into let's go find a deserted mountain road territory.

So I did and can I tell you the two-wheel drive, seven seconds to 62mph, 1.6 turbo petrol is as good a way to visit parts of Wales and see nothing as any hot hatch.

The Nismo is genuinely fast, 215bhp is clear and evident after 3,000rpm. There is a four-wheel-drive option which may calm the inclination to throw a little tantrum in some corners. Yes it has traction control and a limited-slip diff but I would prefer the four-feet on the floor option.

That, however, brings with it more compromise in that you must forgo the excellent six-speed manual gearbox.

This really is an enthusiastic drive hidden under the bushel of about town style appeal. And in a niche few would have ever expected to see; a high standing hot-hatch crossover. That is more left of centre than thumbing you nose at the Privy Council.

Inside the bucket seats by our old friend Recaro are trimmed in red leather, there is more dead animal on the steering wheel and door trim. Overall a quality finish. Plenty of branding makes it clear you are in something a bit different.

For your comfort and convenience there is an extensive equipment manifest, all available and previously reviewed on the standard models. Exterior styling for Nismo includes 18 inch alloys, colour coding and badges.

Yes it is fun to drive but do not expect low-volume cruising. Why would you? However if you do have to justify a level of practicality the rear seats split and there is a two-tier boot as well as a tech pack with around view monitor and blind spot warning.

You can shove it on the road for £22,000 and given that the car was telling me it was doing 35mpg and that tax is a middling £189 there is a lot of motoring fun to be had here at reasonable cost.

Better still it comes without a silly name. Except, that is, for the one I spotted with Daisy stencilled over the Juke badge. It's just so wrong, whoever you were.