Nissan X-Trail long-term test
Promising to combine seven-seat practicality with the low running costs of a hybrid, the Nissan X-Trail sounds great on paper – but what's it like in reality?...
The Car Nissan X-Trail Tekna+ e-4ORCE Run by Jonty Renk, video production manager
Why it’s here To prove that you can still buy an SUV that is both sporty and utilitarian
Needs to Offer a versatile and practical space for camera gear and triathlon equipment, be more frugal than a petrol-engined SUV and carry up to seven people comfortably.
Mileage 4200 List price £48,095 Target Price £43,317 Price as tested £50,240 Official economy 42.8mpg Test economy 34.4mpg
13 January 2025 – On the continent
The main draw to my Nissan X-Trail has always been how versatile it is – its big, SUV practicality gives you the confidence to tackle near-enough any type of trip. And on a recent What Car? video shoot, my X-Trail got perhaps the ultimate call up, being the chosen camera and kit car for a trip to Bruges.
The X-Trail had the task of carrying three of my team, six bags of luggage and all our camera equipment across 300 miles. Was I nervous? To be honest, no.
We got off to a good start, with no issues getting the car loaded up and onto the Eurotunnel to take us into Europe. The only hiccup – or should we say almost a hiccup – was that the electric tailgate never stops itself from rising to its maximum height, even if you’re in an enclosed space. This meant I had to jump after it to prevent it colliding with the roof of the train.
Upon exiting the train in France, we got on the motorway and I was reminded about how effortless Nissan's ePower hybrid system is. I will explain fully how the system works in my next report, but it made the X-Trail feel extremely smooth on the French motorways.
What I also found smooth was the ride: it absorbs the likes of ruts, bumps and expansion joints without much drama – just the thing for battered British Tarmac. Plus, even at France’s blissful motorway speed limit of 130kph (80mph), the car was quiet enough to hold a conversation between the front and second row without it turning into a shouting match.
Unfortunately, we only achieved a rather underwhelming 34.4mpg during the entire trip of 296 miles, but I can forgive that seeing as the car was fully laden with both people and luggage. What’s more, the X-Trail had made my life easier in other ways: for instance, it automatically converted the speedometer into kilometers and switched the headlamps bias to a European position without me inevitably forgetting to do so manually.
The biggest test came when we had to collect some props for the video in the form of three trees, one for each car tested. This meant putting them all in the X-Trail for a small period of the journey – a task that my car took in its stride, swallowing all three 6ft trees in the second row. This blocked my view out the back which finally provided a use for my digital rear view camera.
On our LeShuttle crossing back to the UK, the majority of cars we saw were SUVs. However, I don’t think any we saw were quite as laden and capable as my car. If you were to ask me to do the trip again, with the choice of any car to do it in, I would pick my X-Trail every time.
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