Buttons said:
I have a Nissan X-Trail and can't fault it both on roads/motorways and in situations that whilst not hardcore off-road, certainly a problem for most cars i.e. the farm roads and lanes you mentioned.
It's absolutely massive inside and incredibly comfortable. It is significantly bigger than a RAV4 regardless of what specs/dealers might say. I've spent a deal of time in a RAV4 and you generally need the back seats down for a big load, certainly would for a bale or two of hay).
It's fuel economy is pretty good, especially with the diesel (although I've got the 2.5 petrol which only gets 30mpg) and it's pretty fun too, never feels like it's going to tip over.
I have an X-Trail as well. The 2.2 diesel SVE. I've not had any problem with it at all, nothing.
I've owned cars since 1977, some cheap bangers and as the years rolled on some expensive high specced cars from new, and everyone has developed a fault at sometime. This is the first car that hasn't been a problem.
My car before last was a Freelander, excellent car, apart from the problems, such as new gearbox needed on a car less than six months old, and even more annoying at the time, the alarm activating in the middle of nowhere on the moors (yes it was used off road) so the car wouldn't start. The recovery people took ages to find us. Other bits went wrong as well.
That went and we got a series II Disco, and that was brilliant, still had a couple of problems but was prepared to put up with them. I was hoping to get the Series 3 until they came out and the prices seemed to have shot up
so it was back to something smaller.
I was asked for over £200 to have fitted in the new face lifted Freeelander a rear ashtray that wasn't needed, but did need the 12v socket that came with it, was.
It used to be standard in the older model but was now an optional extra!!
£200 for and ashtray and socket
BTW the wiring was already there for the 12v line, so it was a case of unclipping a plastic panel and refitting the new module, ashtray and socket, which would have taken a monkey all of 10 seconds to do. This was on a HSE model, top of the range, and the salesman would not give it as part of the deal, so i walked out, his and landrovers loss.
I then went to Nissan and looked at the X-Trail SVE. It was better specced, better safety with more airbags, all leather, better fuel economy by nearly 10mpg, a bit quicker top end, bigger boot, rear reclining seats, more storeage the list could go on, so my money went japanese instead of english.
There's a new Freelander due out the end of this year, and i'll see what thats like as my X-Trail wil be three years old in May 07 and i'll be changing then, but at the moment it'll be another X-Trail, but if my numbers come up it'll be straight back to landrover for a Disco 3, that comes standard with more 12v sockets
