- News
- Cars
- Bikes
- Features
- Motorsport
- Tuned
- GBNF
- Tried and Tested
- Tech
- Magazine
- About UsAbout Us
After more than three and a half years, Nissan India finally has another product in its portfolio besides the Magnite. The Nissan X-Trail comes in as a low volume CBU to reignite interest in the brand with a high quality premium flagship SUV for India, that goes up against the Skoda Kodiaq, Volkswagen Tiguan and Hyundai Tucson. Perception though, is a peculiar phenomenon. A large seven-seater SUV is seen as premium and desirable, while a compact car is viewed as budget-friendly. A 3-cylinder engine is typically associated with economical vehicles. But does it have to be this way? The Nissan X-Trail aims to challenge this perception. It’s a large and premium-looking seven-seater SUV, yet it’s powered by a 3-cylinder turbo petrol engine. Will perception be a downfall for the Nissan X-Trail?
There are no two ways about it, the X-Trail is a smart SUV. Great stance, imposing grille and tasteful 20-inch alloy wheels, it’s hard to not like it when you see it in the flesh. I like the power bulge on the bonnet, the high set sills on the side, and the neat rear end. If there is one thing, the lower plasticky bits look a tad down market. Otherwise, the X-Trail gets a thumbs up from me on the styling front. You get three colours in the X-Trail, black, silver and white, and in my opinion, all the colours look great on the car. I particularly like the white X-Trail.
But step inside and the good first impression doesn’t last too long. I was expecting to be wowed considering the smart exterior styling, but this premium CBU import has skimped on a lot of features. The fabric seats are a hard no for a vehicle in this segment. There is no seat ventilation, these seats also adjust manually and all the plastics except for the soft touch bits on top of the dashboard and the doors feel very built to cost. You get two digital displays as is the norm these days, a 12.3 inch instrument cluster screen and an infotainment screen that desperately needs an upgrade. There’s a lot of kit missing on the X-Trail. Like wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and ADAS. The Tucson and the XUV700 offer more, and will probably be over a million rupees cheaper than the X-Trail. The good thing is that the front seats are comfortable and the rear two rows are configurable in a number of positions. The third row of seats is ideal for children only, and if you don’t have any, folding it flat will liberate 585 litres of boot space.
Space is good on the inside with a wheelbase of 2705mm. It’s not the longest, the Kodiaq and Tucson have longer wheelbases but with a sliding middle row, there’s plenty of space should you seat five. What I like is the roominess in the cabin, partly helped by the panoramic sunroof and partly by a good 60mm extra height compared to its competitors.
The 3-cylinder engine in question is a 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine with Nissan’s patented variable compression ratio technology. I’ll explain that tech in a bit but before that, a little focus needs to go on the 1.5 litres and 3 cylinders, a configuration that this segment of SUVs have never seen because this segment of customers want premium configurations. It makes 161bhp and 300Nm, which is substantially lesser than the Kodiaq and Tiguan - 26bhp and 20Nm. Only the Tucson is underpowered compared to the X-Trail but it will also be considerably cheaper and offers a diesel variant that is more popular. The XUV700, despite being half a segment lower than the X-Trail, is in another league altogether in terms of performance. What’s even more shocking is that the X-Trail is only FWD, while all of its competitors offer AWD.
The engine feels relatively underpowered and revs high due to the CVT gearbox, especially when you are on the throttle. 0-100kmph comes in a claimed 9.6 seconds but what I like is that it actually sounds nice at higher revs, and the CVT gearbox is quite smooth. The rubberband effect is less pronounced than other CVTs I’ve driven in the past. The powertrain then is not the X-Trail’s USP.
The ride quality is very impressive, in the way it irons out undulations and imperfections in the road. The softish ride comes at the cost of plenty of roll in the corners, but that’s not something you will be doing often in an X-Trail. For a more enthusiastic drive, the Kodiaq is more suited. The X-Trail works better as an urban SUV when less is asked of the motor, when the CVT box is calm and collected, the ride is ironing out everything and all you are doing is flaunting its good looks. All round disc brakes offer good stopping power and the X-Trail doesn’t feel too heavy on the move. Sharp turn-ins lead to plenty of roll, so it's best to go easy on quick direction changes. The X-Trail prefers a laid-back driving style.
That VC Turbo has been around for almost a decade in the Nissan portfolio globally. It uses a multi-link system with an actuator motor to change the piston position, which in turn alters the compression ratio. The idea is to set different positions for these pistons for two types of driving - when you seek performance or efficiency. In the former, the X-Trail runs at an 8:1 ratio and when you are cruising and demanding less from the engine, it automatically shifts to a 14:1 ratio. Smart on paper, so we had to test it when we drove on the Delhi-Mumbai expressway. At 120kmph, with cruise control on for over 50km, the X-Trail returned 13.1kmpl. This number is close to the claimed figure of 13.7kmpl. It’s acceptable however we’ll have to compare a Kodiaq with its cylinder deactivation tech to find out which is more efficient.
This brings me back to the initial question I posed: Can Nissan reshape the perception of what a premium SUV should offer in this segment with the X-Trail? While only time will tell, early indications suggest it may not. Despite its smart styling and refinement, the X-Trail lacks in performance and falls short on features and luxury, which are crucial in this segment. On the positive side, being a Completely Built Unit (CBU) gives them the flexibility to introduce a more premium variant. If I were in Nissan India's product planning division, I would consider increasing the price to offer all the bells and whistles along with a stronger 4-cylinder engine. This SUV is meant to reignite interest in the Nissan brand in India as a maker of high-quality, globally acclaimed vehicles, so Nissan needs to go all out for this image makeover, even if it’s a low-volume CBU. It will only benefit the higher volume models that the company plans to launch in the next two years.
