When is a Nissan Qashqai not a Nissan Qashqai? When it has seven seats and a larger rear conclude. Then you’ve got got yourself the all-new 2014 Nissan X-Trail.
The X-Trail has gone from a enjoyable ‘adventure’ crossover to a completely-fledged loved ones trickster as it battles the likes of the Mazda CX-five and Honda CR-V. It truly is no lengthier to be the overlooked SUV, but now plays a critical role as the supporting act for Nissan’s star sales-sheet performers, the Qashqai and Juke. We’re driving the flagship X-Trail Tekna.
The new Nissan X-Trail looks like a Qashqai
The reality that the X-Trail’s exterior styling apes that of the new Qashqai is not due to the fact Nissan’s layout office took an early lunch, but alternatively to display that the X-Trail belongs with the Qashqai, and the new 2014 facelifted Juke.
All three of these goods have the pronounced chrome ‘V’ in their grille, which for the Qashqai and X-Path extends into the bonnet and flows alongside the muscular haunches. Exactly where the X-Path differs is at the rear: it is lengthier and roomier than the Qashqai, and you will find the 7-seat alternative.
Nissan suggests that any buyers of the Qashqai+two, which the X-Trail replaces, acquired the auto for its more substantial boot, not necessarily the extra seats. So the 5-seater is envisioned to make up 70% of British isles X-Trail revenue.
How considerably larger is it?
Based mostly on the same modular architecture as the most recent Qashqai, the X-Path is a mere 8mm for a longer time than the slab-sided design it replaces, but it is the 76mm longer wheelbase that gives the X-Path the room-race gain.
There’s a staggering 100mm more legroom than its predecessor, which in actual conditions means hundreds of legroom for six-feet-and-taller travellers. There’s also greater rear headroom, way too: the X-Trail’s roofline is flatter, supplying it a significantly higher rump. Of training course, individuals third-row seats usually are not for individuals with limbs
The 550-litre boot eclipses the Qashqai’s 410-litre cargo region, and there’s a hundred litres much more than the aged Qashqai+2, err, too. The X-Path also has a clever numerous top ground that can also section the boot vertically. The seats, way too, can be configured in nine ways, which contains an uninterrupted flat ground. It’s not just big, set cleverly packaged.
What does the Tekna-spec supply in phrases of kit?
The X-Trail’s price tag has jumped by about £570 on the prime-spec Tekna, which is envisioned to make up the majority of United kingdom sales, which is £29,995 in manual, or £31,345 for the ‘X-Tronic’ CVT transmission.
A set of 19in alloys, roof rails, and LED headlights say ‘Tekna’ on the outside, with leather-based, a set glass roof as nicely as a raft of safety gear within. There are also tips like Nissan’s 360-degreee round-check out camera for parking, with the 7in color show also offering downloadable applications, which includes Google and Facebook.
Is the cabin ‘off-road’ or much more ‘school-run’?
It truly is a competent faculty-run manage place. Climb into the X-Trail, and the room is enormous as you peer by way of the billboard front windscreen. Sadly, even with a concentrate on a ‘premium’ feel, the materials are far more ‘adequate’: you will find leather-based just about everywhere in our examination auto, with sparkly black-gloss trim on the centre console that wouldn’t be caught useless in an Audi. The steering wheel could be a little thicker, and some of the switchgear is average at best. It feels sturdy total, but not stunning.
What about engines?
You mean ‘engine’. There is only one appropriate now: a 121bhp one.6-litre turbodiesel, having more than from the old car’s turbocharged 148bhp two.-litre TDI. In spite of the downsizing, torque continues to be at 236lb ft. If you’re soon after a petrol model, you are going to have to wait around right up until 2016.
Even with the improve in proportions, the new X-Trail is 90kg lighter than its equal predecessor, but -62mph is nevertheless a marathon rather than a dash, protected in an egg-timed eleven.4sec with the CVT. Gas consumption’s greater, as well, with fifty five.4mpg towards the previous car’s very best of 44.1mpg, while C02 has nose-dived from 168g/km to 135g/km.
What is it like to generate?
It begins with a excellent driving place, and, bar the tremendous-thick A-pillars, obvious visibility. The flat seats are a tad organization, and regardless of the increase in overall performance, they are not up to the task of keeping you in all around corners. This is where the X-Path starts to beg for support: off the mark, it truly is lethargic and the CVT can not make the most of the torque.
The 6-pace handbook is much more participating and entertaining to push, as the CVT is a mess in the Sport mode, with its 6 stepped ‘gears’, keeping revs significantly way too extended nevertheless not making it possible for you to preserve a ‘gear’ when you truly want to. Place it in D, and it’s a lot better behaved, but there are even now holes in the electrical power shipping. The engine’s impressively easy, moderately silent and not severe, unless you might be wrapping its knuckles.
What’s it like around corners?
Evidently, cornering was lower on the X-Trail’s precedence record. It doesn’t really feel like a massive hatch, for instance, there’s lots of physique roll, and your passenger will be squashed against the door thanks once more to the flat seats. The steering is flimsy and vague, and you needs abnormal lock around modest turns.
The experience is quite excellent however: all X-Trails have multi-link rear suspension, in contrast to the Qashqai, which has a cost- and room-saving torsion-beam set-up on the decrease-spec types. Even on 19in alloys, the X-Trail dismisses bumps quickly, but it lacks composure total: you require to caress the wheel to hold it heading exactly in which you level it, specifically below difficult braking.
Verdict
The X-Path is greater, but it really is also duller. It really is missing its unique identity and character, but at the same time will attractiveness to a broader viewers. It expenses far more, but there is extra tools, it really is cheaper to run, matches a lot more in and is a lot more comfortable. It really is smoother and quieter to generate, nevertheless it feels like an possibility skipped: it handles like you would count on an SUV to, and that’s on the wallowy, benign facet. It will sell solidly, mostly since it really is handsome, sensible and loaded with equipment.
