Nissan X-TRAIL Problems

MY CHOICE would be the X-Trail, but there's not a lot to choose between the two. I would expect a dealer would offer you about $6000 on a trade-in for your Vectra assuming its in good sound condition. The kilometres are about average, so it seems like a car in the sort of condition you would expect for its age.

If it's an accredited repair shop, it will have the experience and skill to do the work. Body repair shops remove and replace panels all the time. It's not a concern as such, and done as a matter of course these days rather than panelbeat the roof to rid it of the dents as might have been done in the past. If the work is done correctly the structure of the vehicle won't be affected, and I would certainly have it done. I assume it's covered by insurance, so you have comeback on the insurance company if the work isn't done well. And resale value will be much better without dents in the roof.

I UNDERSTAND Shell is having problems with LPG at the moment and my advice is to use BP at least until Shell gets on top of its problems.

YOUR poptop would probably weigh about 1500kg when loaded, so that's the weight you need to consider when buying a vehicle. In my view it comes down to where you want to go when travelling, and what you want to do with the vehicle for the rest of the year. If you stick predominantly to the blacktop on your travels, then a regular Commodore or Falcon is probably the best way to go. Both will easily tow your poptop, are comfortable and will give you reasonable fuel consumption. An X-Trail will tow up to 2000kg if the trailer has brakes, so that will also handle your poptop. A recent experience with a 3.0-litre Subaru Outback, rated to tow 1800kg, showed that when it was towing a 1200kg camper trailer the fuel consumption rose about 30 per cent, and rose even more when towing a camper weighing close to its rated tow capacity. That said, the Outback would be a great compromise for round-town use and towing capacity.

GLAD we could help. I hope you continue to enjoy the savings at the pump.

Brakes are not covered by warranties. They're considered consumables like tyres, filters and so on. But that presumes you get reasonable mileage out them. In this case you are certainly not getting reasonable mileage. Though Nissan and its dealer are telling you to go away, I'd persist with Nissan head office. I think it has a moral obligation as a good corporate citizen to fix your problem instead of hiding behind the warranty.

CARMAKERS publish fuel-economy figures based on a standard test; they're intended to be used for comparison purposes so buyers can determine which car is more fuel-efficient. Because they're taken from a dynamometer test, they don't necessarily relate to real-world fuel economy. The best thing you can do is to review all of the things that can affect fuel economy, such as driving style, speed, hilly terrain, tyre pressure and roof racks -- and make adjustments to minimise their effect. That said, the Nissan X-Trail is one that is often complained about by Carsguide readers and some have resorted to LPG to fix the problem.

BEFORE the advent of bigger front-wheel-drive family cars from Toyota and Mitsubishi in the '90s, we mostly used rear-wheel-drive cars for towing. They are still preferred for towing because the weight over the rear wheels is an advantage. The recent popularity of all-wheel-drive cars, including 4WDs, has further clouded the towing issue. If I were to go on the round-Australia dream drive, I would take an all-wheel-drive. Not for the towing, but to get to those out-of-the-way tourist destinations that I couldn't get to with a two-wheel-drive car.