2017 Nissan X-TRAIL Pricing and Specs

Bad news. That generation of X-Trail had a six-speed manual option on the base-model two-litre petrol, front-wheel-drive model and on the all-wheel-drive turbo-diesel. But if you wanted an X-Trail with an automatic gearbox, then it was a CVT or nothing.

This issue will always come down to the documented service history that each car comes with. A switched-on previous owner will not only have serviced the vehicle by the book, but will also have kept the relevant receipts as proof of this crucial work being done. We'd always choose the vehicle with a big wad of service receipts over a similar car with no (or less) evidence of scheduled maintenance.

Beyond that, the Nissan clearly has almost 50,000 fewer kilometres on its odometer, so all things being equal it probably nudges ahead at that point. In either case, the CVT transmission fitted to these cars is likely to be the major source of mechanical grief down the track. Both brands' CVT transmissions have been known to give trouble. If that bothers you, then perhaps the one to buy is the Outlander AWD with the turbo-diesel engine option. In that guise, the vehicle has a conventional automatic transmission rather than a CVT.

Your vehicle has an official braked-trailer towing limit of 1500kg, so with the caravan at its maximum weight (the Aggregate Trailer Mass of 1478kg you’ve quoted) the answer is a technical yes. However, being so close to the maximum allowed towing mass means you’ll really be right on the limit of what’s safe and legal.

That, of course, is if you run the caravan at or near that ATM, which is the mass of the total towed load including water tanks and luggage. If you tow the van with empty water tanks and nothing inside it, it’s weight should be well shy of that ATM number. At which point, you’re looking a whole lot better.