Nissan X-TRAIL Reviews

The Nissan X-Trail has been well-liked since its inception 25 years ago and the current generation has done reasonably well in an increasingly crowded mid-size SUV market. While not the front-runner in terms of sales - the Toyota RAV4 holds that title, of course - the Nissan X-Trail is one of a few mid-size SUVs to break the 1000-sales mark this year so far, a feat increasingly achieved by newcomer Chinese models. To strengthen its place in the market, Nissan has broadened the X-Trail offering to include more affordable (and more efficient) two-wheel drive versions of its e-Power hybrid grades, as well as a style-focused soft-roader version called the Rock Creek. Starting with the most visually obvious addition, the X-Trail Rock Creek is a $48,315 ask, before-on roads, for its single seven-seat grade. The Rock Creek uses the same 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine as the rest of the combustion-powered range, with 135kW and 244Nm driving all four of its wheels. It’s built on the same spec as the ST-L, but adds plenty of unique styling and black trim, with orange accents and stitching inside, plus a unique set of 18-inch alloy wheels. Inside, ballistic nylon-trimmed seats are joined by a step-up from the donor ST-L in the form of a 12.3-inch driver display and 10.8-inch head-up display. The front seats are comfortable, spacious and ergonomically sensible, and the second row has a decent amount of room and some adjustability to account for the third row. That back row is, however, pretty useless for adults due to the cramped space. Nissan says the Rock Creek has the same 465 litres of boot space as other seven-seat grades, measured from floor to roof with the third folded flat. The 2WD e-Power on the other hand starts from $45,990 in ST-L grade, $50,915 for the mid-spec Ti and up to $54,715 for the Ti-L. They’re all five-seaters with equipment matching that of their 4WD counterparts. That means the ST-L gets some basics like leather-accented trim and a surround-view camera, while the Ti gets a sunroof and head-up display, and the Ti-L gets all the fruit like a Bose 10-speaker sound system and heated seats even in the second row. The five-seat e-Power has 575L of boot space with all the seats up, 10 litres less than the five-seat petrol. The e-Power 2WD has very similar outputs to the e-Power 4X4, with 150kW and 330Nm from its front-mounted electric motor. The same 106kW/250Nm 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine powers the very small 2.1kWh battery, but not the wheels. Regardless of grade, the X-Trail uses a 55L fuel tank and can run on 91RON unleaded fuel, though Nissan recommends 95RON for the e-Power. The 4X4 petrol Rock Creek sips 7.8L/100km on the combined cycle according to the claim, though with some off-roading and unsealed road driving the trip computer shower 9.7L. The 2WD e-Power should use 5.4L according to the specs, but 6.2L was the displayed rate on the drive. You shouldn’t need to try hard to get better figures than those we saw on the launch, as test-driving involved a combination of fast driving on twisty NZ roads and gentle off-roading around Lake Wakatipu and the Rees River. The current X-Trail has always been easy to work with from behind the wheel and the front-drive versions don’t lose much of the smoothness and urge the all-wheel drive version of the hybrid X-Trails boast. While it doesn’t feel like the lightest SUV, the steering is accurate enough to take any guesswork out of cornering and the electric motors get the mid-sizer moving quickly. Traction doesn’t suffer much without the rear wheels in play, though given the limited drive time in each grade on the launch it’s possible very wet conditions or rough roads could show up flaws. The Rock Creek on the other hand should be safe as houses when it comes to light off-roading, given its 4x4 system, though its on-road prowess is somewhat dulled by its petrol engine. Compared to the e-Power, the Rock Creek handles and rides similarly on the road, but its acceleration feels lacklustre and its efficiency takes a big hit. The X-Trail has a maximum five-star safety score from ANCAP, though this was tested in 2021 under more lenient criteria. Its 'Pro-Pilot' driver assistance systems remain, as mentioned, subtle and exist to prevent genuine mistakes rather than remind you constantly how to drive. Seven airbags join a series of features like front and rear AEB, pedestrian and cyclist detection, blind-spot monitoring, lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control and a driver monitor that’s based on inputs rather than a visual sensor. Pretty much everything from a safety perspective is the same across the variants, though the Rock Creek gets a spare wheel rather than a repair kit as in the e-Power. Nissan offers a 10-year/300,000km warranty as long as you service with authorised Nissan dealers. Otherwise it’s five years and unlimited kilometres. You also get a flat price of $399 for any X-Trail grade at the first five services. These will come up every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

Although the original Nissan X-Trail was one of the first mid-sized SUVs to really gain popularity and set the tone for what was to come, by the time the third-generation X-Trail arrived in 2014, it was a bit of a me-too product. Code named the T32 model, the third-gen X-Trail was offered as a five or seven-seater, in either front or all-wheel drive and with a choice of two petrol four-cylinder engines. Those consisted of a 2.0-litre with 106kW and a 2.5-litre with 126kW. Both engines were available in five-seat form, but if you wanted seven seats or all-wheel drive, you needed to stump up for the bigger engine. At that point, you went from the 2.0-litre’s six-speed manual transmission to a continuously variable transmission (CVT). There was also a turbo-diesel X-Trail with 96kW and a choice of either front or all-wheel drive. The diesel was strictly a five-seater. The specification was a bit confusing, too, because the front-drive turbo-diesel X-Trail used a CVT while the all-wheel-drive diesel got a six-speed manual exclusively. The all-wheel-drive platform did not have a second set of lower ratios, and, in fact, worked as a front-wheel drive for most of the time. When the computer detected any slip, power would be sent to the rear axle, although for slippery surfaces, the driver could lock the vehicle into all-wheel drive at speeds up to 40km/h. Thousands of Australians would agree that the X-Trail is a good thing with decent dynamics and good packaging. The boxy body means it’s quite big inside, although the seven-seat variant is pretty tight on space in the third row. For smaller kids, this mightn’t make much difference, but teenagers are not going to be happy in the X-Trail’s third row. The front seats, however, are very good. Some of the interior plastics are clearly built down to a price, and hard usage (such as that meted out by young families) can leave the interior looking pretty tatty in short order. In driving terms, the X-Trail is decently refined although there is a bit of road noise to contend with. The turbo-diesel can feel a bit lethargic off idle, and the bigger petrol engine is the superior unit in the line-up. Overall, though, any fall-off in the X-Trail’s popularity over the years is almost certainly down to increased competition from other makes rather than any perceived problem with the X-Trail formula. Fundamentally, the X-Trail T32 is a solid and dependable car. But there’s one major flaw that many newish cars also suffer from. It doesn’t affect manual-transmission examples of the X-Trail, but those fitted with the CVT have an inbuilt fault, it seems. Indeed, the main reliability issue associated with the X-Trail is the CVT as fitted to 2.5-litre petrol versions as well as the front-drive variant of the turbo-diesel. Beyond that, the engines don’t seem to give trouble and since the vehicle is not an off-roader, you shouldn’t be faced with trashed examples. Let’s talk CVTs. In the Nissan’s case, the problem manifests as a vehicle that is slow to select Reverse or Drive, as well as showing signs of juddering or shuddering at low speeds and a light throttle. The cause is a bit harder to define, but Nissan dealers were removing the CVT’s cover and looking inside the unit to determine whether the steel drive belts had been slipping and showing signs of wear. If wear was detected, the best fix was a new CVT, but sometimes replacement of the unit’s valve body (which controls the CVT’s behaviour) was deemed sufficient. But we’ve also heard that some dealers were also flushing the CVT’s cooler, suggesting that the belt wear may have involved the belts shedding small metallic particles and contaminating the cooler. If that’s the case, it’s also conceivable that those same metallic particles could enter and cause damage to other parts of the CVT. Either way, you need to know for absolute certain that any CVT X-Trail you’re looking at has a full and complete service history. This version of the X-Trail has been almost free of safety recalls, but there are a couple to check for. The first was for cars built in 2014 that could have had a fuel pressure sensor that was not properly attached to the fuel system. If the sensor loosened over time, it could potentially cause a fuel leak under the bonnet. The second recall was for a batch of gas struts on the tailgate of X-Trails built between 2014 and 2016. A lack of the correct rust-proofing on these struts meant they could fail and would not support the weight of the tailgate when it was opened. A Nissan dealer will be able to check the VIN of your car and tell you whether it was affected and if it has been fixed or not. For more information, check out https://www.vehiclerecalls.gov.au/. Apart from that couple of recalls on early cars, there’s not much to separate one year’s production from another’s. With that in mind, buy on condition and kilometres travelled rather than a specific build date. And make sure any prospect has that all-important intact and complete service history. Nissan’s engines have long been considered pretty tough customers and able to go the distance. But that doesn’t change the cloud hanging over the CVT in many X-Trails. So, the best one to buy is an X-Trail with fewer, rather than more, kilometres. You do see high-milage examples for sale with upwards of 300,000km on board, but they’re the exception rather than the rule. That said, that’s probably because even the earliest T32 X-Trail is still only 12 years old, rather than any refusal to clock up more kilometres. Even so, finding a car with closer to 160,000km showing is probably the better bet. As with many second-hand cars, the price difference between the base-model and the flasher versions largely disappears over time. So, buying the up-spec variant now won’t cost much extra, but will get you better standard equipment levels and, potentially, safety. With that in mind, aim for the Ti version which had lane departure and lane-keeping assistance that lesser versions didn’t get until later in life. Very early T32s with 250,000km showing can be had for as little as $6000 to $8000. We reckon, however, that there’s a smaller risk in paying closer to high-teens for a 2016 or 2017 all-wheel-drive version with about 120,000km on the odometer. Nissan has a dealer network of 180 making it the fifth largest network in the country. Both regional and urban centres are pretty well served by that network, too. There’s also an army of independent workshops that specialise in Nissans, largely thanks to the great reputation the brand has forged in motorsport. Bricks and mortar parts stores and online sellers ensure that spare parts and replacement items are easy to source. It’s hard to know precisely how many T32 X-Trails Nissan sold in Australia over its eight-year model run. But it’s a fact that Nissan sold almost 18,000 of the things in the T32’s first full year on sale (2015). You still see plenty getting around as daily transport, too, so even though the competition got tougher as the years passed, the Nissan was still on a lot of people’s short lists. That’s why there are literally hundreds for sale second-hand today.

For 25 years and four generations, the Nissan X-Trail has been an okay mid-sized SUV choice. But the e-Power extended-range electric vehicle hybrid has been a standout since arriving in 2023. Fast, refined, sophisticated and fun, it redefined class standards, though buyers were slow to realise. Now, a minor facelift brings improvements, but are they enough for the Nissan to finally break through?

You want an SUV with seven-seat capacity without the mega proportions that normally go with the three-row configuration. AWD for some light off-highway capability would be nice, but you don't want to spend much more than $50K. Enter the Nissan X-Trail N-Trek 7-seat family tested for your pleasure.

Less than five years ago, comparing a pair of mid-sized hybrid SUVs in Australia like the Honda ZR-V e:HEV and Nissan X-Trail e-Power would have seemed fanciful, as there weren't any to choose from. But the Toyota RAV4 hybrid's success has changed all that, so here we are. Both offer compelling arguments. The Nissan's bigger and roomier but the Honda's cheaper, sportier and better equipped.

The 2024 Nissan X-Trail e-Power dares to be different with its series hybrid powertrain, which exclusively drives the wheels via dual electric motors, while its petrol engine acting as a power generator for the onboard battery. It's an approach that delivers a superior driving experience - in some instances.

The 2024 Nissan X-Trail e-Power brings the Japanese brand's take on the hybrid powertrain to the highly competitive mid-size SUV segment. But can it rise to the all-conquering Toyota RAV4 Hybrid's challenge?

The 2024 Nissan X-Trail ePower is a hybrid SUV - but not as we know it. Its 'self-charging' powertrain is unlike that of the rivalling Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, as its petrol engine doesn't drive the wheels, instead acting as a power generator for the onboard battery, which supplies the driving electric motors. So, how does it stack up in the real world?

The Nissan X-Trail has always been a popular family vehicle. It combines a decent size, engine and features but now it has seven-seats! Will this secure its popularity for the future?

Don't fall into the trap of assuming all hybrids are the same, you may end up with a car which is impractical to use or offers barely benefit. That's why we've conducted this comparison of the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid, Nissan X-Trail e-Power and Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Three similar mid-sized SUVs with very different hybrid systems.