Reports are emerging that the Nissan Juke R will cost $600,000 (about $450,000 euro) once Nissan starts selling their steroid-enhanced crossover.

The Juke R, which will be available in American and offered on a build-to-order basis, was always known to be expensive. The car requires the cannibalization of both a GT-R and a Juke for it to become a reality, plus a whole host of custom fabrication.

Now, Jalopnik is reporting that the final MSRP will be $600,000. With a limited run of 20-25 cars, it surely will be an exclusive collectors vehicle that promises to be unique. But it’s still a Juke with a GT-R powertrain, making it a Frankenstein of two mass-produced cars. Personally, the appeal is hard to grasp. Nevertheless, I’m sure Nissan will be able to find the requisite number of super-wealthy buyers.

Nissan sent a blow to the automotive press today, with the announcement that none of the upcoming limited production Juke-R crossovers would be allocated for long-term testing.

Tom Barnard of Nissan GB made a brief announcement via Twitter stating

“Just announced that we’re going to put the Juke R into limited production. No, we won’t be doing long termers. Or company cars.”

The announcement was felt across the automotive media industry, with journalists issuing last-ditch attempts at persuading Nissan to lend them a Juke-R. Some even resorted to effusive, sycophantic praise in a desperate attempt to establish enthusiast credibility by professing undying love for the pointless engineering exercise.

An anonymous observer noted that producing the Juke-R isn’t particularly “courageous”, since it counts as a mere marketing exercise using existing components to create a halo vehicle. The same observer also noted the vitriolic hate for the car’s design and packaging when it first debuted in 2010, despite the fact that it’s a great vehicle. Auto journalists have strangely suspended their irrational group-think hatred of crossovers when reporting on the Juke-R, despite the fact that it looks sillier than the standard Juke and may in fact be more of a rolling nerd magnet than Nissan’s GT-R sports coupe.

With files from Frank Bacon