How reliable is the Nissan Qashqai Mk2?
Unfortunately, not very, would be the answer to this particular query. It might be due to its immense popularity that a greater number of problems are reported by the general public, but there are lots of owners who have recorded issues with the car - to the degree that many wouldn't recommend the Qashqai to other people. One early problem with the Nissan was a spate of faulty batteries, which required owners to replace them on an all-too-frequent basis. Nissan moved to remedy this by switching its battery supplier, but if you're looking at an earlier 2014-2016 car, consider searching its history to see how often it has had a new battery fitted (it should be in the service records or receipts with the car, if it's a cared-for example).
There are more issues than that. On models with a tow bar fitted, the bolted joints fixing the item to the chassis are known to loosen and can, in extreme cases, detach the entire tow bar from the vehicle. This mainly affects the very earliest 2014 models fitted with the tow-bar kit.
On cars built between April 10, 2014, and May 7, 2016, an electrical short can result in a failure of the exhaust's rear oxygen sensor. It's not a given that the ECU will warn the driver of this problem if it occurs, so check that the Qashqai in question has had its reprogramming to fix this fault/lack of error warning (the recode included getting the dashboard to flash up a notification in the event of sensor failure).
A batch of cars built in June 2017 were prone to their door-mirror-mounted indicators not working if the heated rear windscreen was active. This should have been remedied by a dealer, but it's an easy one to check in the showroom or on a forecourt, without the car's engine even needing to be running. Incorrect VIN plates were fitted to some Qashqais, labelled with the wrong towing information for various gearboxes; again, these should have been replaced with the correct items.
Engine-specific maladies relate to the 1.2-litre DIG-T petrol unit, which can either use an excessive amount of oil or which can have a rattling timing chain. On a broader remit, parking sensors might fail due to water ingress (so check they work on vehicles with them fitted) and the auto stop-start system for the engine can play up intermittently. Regular re-gassing of the air conditioning system is also a concern and it's not a cheap fix, as Nissan uses a special eco-friendly refrigerant; also, the compressor for the air conditioning can fail and that'll be quite a few hundred Euro to fix. Models with four-wheel drive are also known to slip out of reverse gear, so watch for this if you're buying one.
If there are any silver linings here, it's that the Qashqai is (largely) not an expensive car to fix, with surveys showing it has some of the lowest annual maintenance costs going. It has also only been subject to one official recall during its lifespan so far, which came to light in July 2017 - relating to cars built between September 23, 2013, and May 26, 2016, there was a risk that the rear-right (offside) wheel-arch protection could scuff the brake hose, leading to a leak of brake fluid and impaired stopping power as a result. This affected 11,495 vehicles in Ireland, but the rectifying work should have long since been carried out by a Nissan main dealer and this recall should be logged in the service records of the affected models.