By no means a bad car, the X-Trail struggles to really shine in this company.
Pulling a caravan weighing 85% of its kerbweight, the Nissan pulled from 30-60mph in 13.7 seconds. That’s pretty steady performance – adequate, but no more than that.
The fidgety ride is short of control, allowing too much movement at speed. At 60mph it feels reasonably secure unless the wind picks up, but there’s more movement at speeds which would be legal on a French autoroute.
This didn’t bode well for the lane-change test, but the X-Trail completed the manoeuvre at all three speeds. That said, there was a lot of sliding from the caravan on the fastest attempt.
In everyday driving, the X-Trail isn’t as enjoyable to drive as a Mazda CX-5.
But on the 19-inch alloys fitted to our test car, there isn’t a big comfort benefit to make up for the uninspiring handling.
Inside, there’s plenty of room in the first two rows, but seats six and seven are cramped. If you want a seven-seat SUV for this kind of money with more useful rear seats you’d be better off with the Kia Sorento.
With the third row folded the boot is a reasonable size, but not big enough for all our holiday luggage. It’s a shame there’s no 12V socket in the boot, but at least the rear-view camera gives a good view of the tow ball.
The X-Trail isn’t cheap to buy in this high specification, and fuel economy of 46.3mpg on the combined cycle is unexceptional. However, What Car?‘s research suggests big discounts are available.
