Well gosh and golly, aren't there a lot of 4x4 choices out there? It's ridiculous, and I didn't know where to start when I decided I wanted an off-roader. There's a Nissan dealer just down the road from me so I decided to go in there and ended up leaving with an X-Trail.
Despite the impluse buy, I'm happy I did it. The Nissan X-Trail 2.0 DCi is a fabolous car this. It does what all the other big 4x4s do but without the high list price and running costs. Sure, it doesn't have the luxury that a Range Rover has, but it does have charm and appeal - what more do you want for £30k?
The boot will swallow all of your children, the engine is happy at 70mph and is ok on full throttle and the 4x4 equipment does work brilliantly. It's a swiss-army knife, and while you may get a few unwelcome looks on the school run, the Nissan X Trail is more than worth the stigmas attached.
Mr. Underwood.
The Nissan X-Trail is fantastic to drive. I've tried other 4x4s and found them... not necessarily cumbersome, but just you get the feeling they're obviously big and heavy. Not quite the way of things with the X-Trail, it's pretty light and even you might say nippy, for a 4x4, dead easy to ride around. But it is a 4x4, takes on the angles and mud/snow mostly with ease. I did get it stuck in a river once lol, and had to get a tractor to pull it out, but I was just being an idiot with that. Having said that, the X Trail is not the easiest thing to park. They've engineered it so it feels light for such a big car, but it is a big car, and there's no hiding that when you're trying to reverse in between two other cars. The visibility is pretty good and the driving position lets you see around well for parking and other moving, but it's still a huge beast and takes quite a bit of parking.
I got the Nissan X-Trail 2.0 S over a Land Rover after some good reviews at the time it came out. I bought it second hand with about 15k on the clock, and it had apparently had, er... something minor done within the warranty, something to do with the windows I think, wasn't anything serious. Since then I've put another 90k miles on it, usually on road but with quite a bit of off road too. The engine has behaved well but there have been a few other things need doing. The fuel pump was the most expensive thing, I tracked down a second hand one for just under a thousand, but still, pretty big job. Like I said though the engine seems fine, and shows no signs of decline.
Another good thing about the X Trail, as a 4x4, is that Nissan haven't scrimped on comfort inside. Seats are good and soft, but not puddings, plenty of space for five people inside. The middle seat in the back I've been told isn't as big as it could be, but then nor is it as small as it could be! I think it looks fine, and it's a big box at the end of the day, nobody banging their heads on the ceiling. The boot is massive too, me and three mates often go golfing in it and there's space for all our gear (trolleys and bags, although we've all got pretty compact trolleys).
These days the petrol usage is getting a bit much. I reckon I average in the low 30s mpg, which is starting to really hurt! That might be the deciding factor actually, in the end, but I wouldn't be selling it for any other reason than that and I expect to get a decent price for it. It's done well in MOTs until now and I'd get that done before selling it, not worried about it selling in good nick.