It's fair to say that the Qashqai's success took Nissan by surprise when the car was launched in 2007. The crossover was the first of its kind; blending SUV styling and practicality with the size and handling of a medium sized hatchback. It may have been an innovator, but the buying public, many young families amongst them, devoured the new concept with unexpected relish. Nissan has been struggling to keep up with demand ever since.

A few years on and the Qashqai's competitors are multiplying. Nissan's rivals may not have invented the crossover, but they have busied themselves with refining the idea and the year or so has seen the introduction of a number of arguably superior cars in the segment, including the Skoda Yeti and the Peugeot 3008.

This mid-life facelift is timely then, but Nissan has u+D174ndertaken the job with understandable caution. The car may have just begun to show its age, but its immense popularity means the company was not about to ruin its golden goose by introducing drastic changes.

So the latest model gets a sharp new nose to replace the humdrum front end of the original car, but it's very much in keeping with the Qashqai DNA. The new bonnet and grille give the crossover a hawkish stare, but the essential profile of the car remains unchanged.

Even less has occurred inside. Nissan has replaced the instruments and played around with some materials, but the interior will be familiar to anyone trading in the old model.

This is not necessarily a bad thing; the Qashqai's cabin is reasonably well laid out, everything feels rugged enough and the seats are soothing in a soft, shapeless kind of way.

However, while the visual differences inside the crossover may be slight, it doesn't take long out on the road to realise that the Qashqai has become a more comfortable place to sit by virtue of Nissan's efforts elsewhere.

Conscious that the original car had begun to seem a little brittle next to its latest rivals, the manufacturer focused much of its attention on improving refinement levels on the new model. The previous Qashqai wasn't actually bad at levelling out the irregularities of the average British A-road, but uprated dampers and bushes means the car delivers a quieter, softer ride without adversely affecting its crisp handling.

As the Qashqai's engine line-up remains the same, Nissan has reduced noise and vibration in the cabin by upgrading the car's sound deadening. The result for the entry-level diesel is a little like moving a washing machine into the adjacent room; the volume of the 1.5dCI is lowered without being completely subdued.

Nissan has also introduced its low emission Pure Drive badge to the Qashqai range. Based on the 1.5dCI, the Pure Drive version gets aerodynamic tweaks, low rolling resistance tyres and a longer final gear ratio to help lower its emissions to 129g/km .

Whether buyers opt for the long-term savings of the Pure Drive badge or not, the 105bhp 1.5dCI will almost certainly continue to be the deserving bestseller. The bigger 150bhp 2.0-litre diesel above it delivers more punch, but not the economy. The 1.6 and 2.0-litre petrol engines have to be worked too hard to access their performance.

The Qashqai is available in four trim levels; Visia, Acenta, n-tec and Tekna. All are reasonably well-equipped; even the entry-level Visia receives aircon, Bluetooth and MP3 connectivity, six airbags and Isofix baby seat anchors. The n-tec is probably the one to go for though, as it adds satellite navigation, a rear-view camera and the desirable panoramic glass roof.

Nissan claims to have filled 11,000 orders for the new Qashqai not long after it began taking deposits, and given the success of the original car we can easily believe that. Those part-exchanging their old crossover are unlikely to be disappointed; the latest Qashqai is not a dramatic stride forward by any means, but by lightly breathing on its trendsetter Nissan has managed to polish it just enough to garner several more years of desirability.