Interesting, it looks like a grown up Juke, and appears to be the same body(near enough)to the Infinity QX50 which has a 3.0 l engine and a bit of a different beast (body apart) and priced way above the Metropolis, lots of goodies but possibly in the £50K bracket with all the toys, but nothing about off road capability my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

realspeed wrote:

I was going to carry on about ride comfort- steering -towing and many other things but don't think I will bother now. Sorry. I may not be around so much now but will try looking in occassionally and put in my 2 pennies worth

Realspeed
Please do not stop posting your "experiences" of your XTrail. I am sure that they will be of interest to many forum members - myself included.
But a "this does it better, lesser, easier, harder" etc than model/manufacturer xyz or abc may not be an appropriate approach.

I find many aspects of my dear lady's FL2 infuriating, but overall it does the job it was bought to do daily, and, it has never dumped her stranded on or off road. But in all honesty it is neither a bad vehicle or the best-in-class.

I think the big difference, apart from the brand, is character.

if you were to take all the badges off the Nissan, you would be hard pushed to identify it. It could be a Kia, Hyundai,etc

but take the badges off any Landrover and it is easily identified.

the Landrover has bundles of character and that's one of the reasons we own one.

Iain

That ends with the DS.

again what has a citron got to do with this? At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

Ok I will give my thoughts still but remember these are just my thoughts and observations and not decrying LR in any shape or form. Can I also remind members the comparison is between my own freelander against the Nissan so there a bound to be a huge difference but that is the only comparison I have.

Doing observations like this is not easy to try and keep an even balance between marks. I would love to see how other members would do the same with their previous 4x4's, than maybe realise what one has to think of not to try and offend

Having said that I will do a bit more then

Widows?
Yes I found the window sill height about 3 inches higher than the freelander which is annoying as I did, rightly or wrongly, like to rest my right elbow on. Now if I try that with the Nissan I look like a demented chicken with a distorted wing, so it is back to the quarter to three position as it should be when hands on the wheel. The passenger widow is not a one touch up either it is hand on switch until closed

On the left on the steering wheel there is this little switch on the right conventional cruise control settings etc

Click image to enlarge

Glad you like your new car
As it is a 4x4..........
Fancy an off road challenge? Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

Any time but not in my new car. Fancy a challenge with 7 people up?

Think I will wind this up with a quick mention of Lighting

I can remember way back when Sweden made it law all cars had to have daylight running lights, now the EEC have caught up and all new models have to incorporate them, But I have not seen anywhere that says they can't be disconnected by the owner.

Right got that out of the way so what about the Nissan lighting. Internally the usual same as the freelander so nothing to shout about except I do like the way the dash lights up when starting with loads of red around switches. Almost like being Christmas all over again every time the car gets started

what I have noticed on the boards is the number of members looking to upgrade the freelander headlights. So to me it seems this is on area that LR should be looking at (sorry about the pun) but it was/is not the best out there. The Nissan does score heavily on my Tekna version to include "Cats eyes" running lights using LED technology with auto dimming when on main beam for on comming vehicles. Using LED lights save on battery drain and going through the setup less fuel eventually to recharge a depleated battery. What i did like on one of my previous Lexus RX300-SEL was the way the lights turned in conjunction with the steering to "see" around corners. Just one trick Nissan missed as far as I know.

To pick up another point raised about cars looking alike I believe this is down mainly to personal impact regulations as to bonnet height shape etc and to wind tunnel testing and each company arriving at the same conclusion. This is not only with 4X4's but with most ordinary cars as well

Ok summing up

hopefully gives some idea of comparison without causing too much offence, and if I have I am sorry. Being a loyal brand forum it is so much harder to try and attempt a posting like this than for an "ordinary" car tester with no such concerns.
I am in no way a professional writer -car examiner-or anything else connected with the motor industry, of so everything I have posted have been my thoughts alone.
Having owned and driven many 4x4's I do have some experience of the type of vehicle, but hurriedly say not serious off road only in bad road condition and muddy tracks

I do believe this may well be the first time anything like this has been attempted on this site so maybe breaking new ground and hopefully encourage other members who might like to have a go, to inspire them. What I would say is how hard it has been to try and give an honest opinion without favouring either mark. I do appreciate members feelings about loyality but please do consider the number of questions raised on this forum about problems members have, so even with Freelanders not everything every time is perfect they do have faults from time to time.

Having said all that if any member has reasonable questions about the Nissan or comparison then I would be only too happy to try and answer them as best I can

Thank you all for taking the time to read through my ramblings wether liking them or not Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

Is your X-Trail the 4WD version? If so, have you managed to discover anything about the 4x4 architecture and how it works? I've had a look around both Nissan and other sites, and besides mentioning some kind of on/off/auto switch there seems to be no information about the system itself.

Personally I'm not particularly loyal to Land Rover The Brand - why should I be, they have shown little loyalty to their traditional customer base! So I'm quite open to other marques, however, there doesn't seem to be anything other than the FL available on the UK market which comes close to what I'm looking for.

Is your X-Trail the 4WD version? If so, have you managed to discover anything about the 4x4 architecture and how it works? I've had a look around both Nissan and other sites, and besides mentioning some kind of on/off/auto switch there seems to be no information about the system itself.


Yes it is the 4WD Manual version. There is a dial between the front seats

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Thanks for that. Is 4WD supposed to be a reduced-traction-only setting (i.e. locked centre coupling)? Just wondering why one would need to stop before engaging it. Sounds like it's probably a clutch type system, like a simplified Haldex.

Anything like HDC, traction control, etc?

I guess the lack of information reflects the importance Nissan places on the 4WD aspect of the car.

Pab

Only having had the vehicle for a couple of days and not being technically minded about what/how it works I don't have a clue at the moment. From what I have found out is it is a centre diff lock but do not quote that as gospel. I am sure Nissan tech dept could put you right on those points especially if you said you were thinking about buying one.
Sorry can't be more helpful on that information
In auto mode what it does do is detect a wheel slipping and compensates for it. as to how or what actually happens ,not having had it long, I can't say if everything locks up or just the wheel on the same axle or any other combination.

This car has done less than 30 miles now with 7 miles on the clock at time of purchase. So as you can see it is a learning curve for me as well. Other countries have had petrol versions, not available over here, so a lot of information on youtube is not exactly relevent for UK versions.
Infact information on youtube at least is virtually non existant due to only having been release mid August 2014 Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

Last edited by realspeed on 3rd Sep 2014 9:52 am. Edited 7 times in total

Anyway Pab thanks for showing interest in my ramblings, if only you ask questions it was worth the effort. If you need to know more and I can answer then please ask

Athelstan
you said quote "But a "this does it better, lesser, easier, harder" etc than model/manufacturer xyz or abc may not be an appropriate approach."

As it was done as a comparison between the Freelander I had and the Nissan, one can't avoid saying how one finds against one make or another. I have tried not to say This or That is better or worse and tried to give an even balance between what I found good or bad between both without decrying either.

Maybe you would like to do a comparison between cars you have owned as well and try not to do what you are unhappy about Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

Last edited by realspeed on 3rd Sep 2014 10:11 am. Edited 3 times in total

realspeed wrote:

This car has done less than 30 miles now ...

When I picked my FL up I drove it nearly 50 miles home from the garage - and the garage is only 12 miles away!