My beloved Nina likes nothing more than a warm wallow with a magazine and good music. She is usually much less keen on family gatherings.
But when she found herself heading to “Family Day” in the X-Trail, in the luxurious heated seat with great tunes on the quality DAB radio and reading her mags she was one happy bunny. Not once did I have to use the chloroform or cudgel. Shame.
She has a point though, those seats are sumptuous. We have been reviewing quite a few SUV’s of late and these seats are as nice a place to be as any of them. In fact the whole car has quite a focus on luxury compared to the older version (the one with corners).
It remains a tough and capable machine when the going gets a bit interesting though. Nissan have retained the X-Trail’s better-than-average off road ability, only hampered by the engine in this model lacking real bottom-end grunt. I guess that is the price of economy and one I would be happy to pay – driving up “The Wall” on our playground there was no hint of a struggle as long as you kept the revs near 2000.
Again, compared to the older model, this car has had rather more than just a facelift, it has had the full Harley Street works and is one good looking car, but also much more than just a pretty face. In Tekna specification it is very difficult to think of a feature that is missing, it even comes with a spare wheel – rather a rarity these days.
The gadget list includes –
- Power panoramic sunroof
- Front and rear parking sensors
- Rain sensing windscreen wipers
- Smart Vision Safety Pack
- Around View Monitor
- Leather Seats
- Blind Spot Warning
- Moving Object Detection
- One-touch automatic opening power tailgate
- NissanConnect Touchscreen Navigation and Entertainment System
And a host of other lovely toys to keep you entertained. Having said that though, the driving pleasure comes from its effortless comfort rather than its dynamism – for a rather large and tall car the road holding and feel is planted but somewhat muted. All controls felt nicely direct but it never felt like it wanted to hustle – doing so just pushed it wide on the corners and it all got a bit wallowy. There is also a bit more road-noise than in cars like the Sorento and Kuga, but not to a level that became a distraction.
More practicality is to be found in the boot. It has a 550 litre capacity with 5 seats which is only a little less than the Outlander and CRV, but it is a flexible space with shelving that can be set at 3 heights and 18 configurations. There is also a very large undertray and great flexibility meaning you can expand it to almost 2000 litres if required.
It is one of the few SUV’s that actually can do it all, and do it well, but I still can’t find out how to get Nina out of her seat. There must be an ejector in there somewhere…
Tech Spec
Price – £32,110
Power – 128hp
Torque – 320 Nm
CO2 g/km – 139
Top Speed – 117mph
0-60 – 11 Sec
Economy – 53 Mpg
words & pics – Mark Wolens