New Car: 2017 Nissan X-Trail ST review HD

New Car: 2017 Nissan X-Trail ST review The back seats are also very spacious in terms of legroom and headroom, with room for three adults in the back row thanks to a mostly flat floor. Plus, unlike many rivals, they slide on rails, and recline. There are also standard rear air vents and large side windows (like a Subaru Forester) that create a nice atmosphere. You get top-tether and outboard ISOFIX child-seat anchors, and while the seats fold 60:40 to stow longer items, there’s a clever flip-down through-loading section that allows you to seat two outboard rear passengers while sliding items between them. Basics like this are where the Nissan is a winner. On the down side, those back seats are flat as a tack and offer minimal support, which may grow tiresome on long journeys. Up front things are similar, yet appreciably different than before. For one, the Japanese X-Trail remains beautifully built, with a tough and hard-wearing feel giving the promise of longevity despite the kids doing their best to ruin everything. There are also some tactile improvements to be found such as the softer leather console lid, soft-touch materials scattered about the place to liven up the otherwise austere plastics and that lovely new steering wheel that alone adds half a point. Standard features include hard-wearing cloth seats, push-button start with proximity key, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, cruise control, a reversing camera, front/side/curtain airbags, 17-inch alloys plus a space-saver spare, and LED daytime running lights. The element that clearly lets the Nissan down its old-world infotainment. The tiny 5.0-inch screen here (upper grades get a bigger touchscreen) is a decade out of date, and there’s no Apple CarPlay/Android Auto connections unlike a base Tucson. It also means the rear-view camera resolution is low, and the field-of-view limited. On the upside, the Bluetooth audio quality is crisp and the system rapidly re-pairs to your phone upon start up. The setup works well enough, it’s just not very intuitive or modern — two things customer surveys suggest are vital. Stylistically the MY17-Trail bears close resemblance to the 2016 car, though there’s a bolder new grille, revised bumpers and new wheel designs. People familiar with older boxy X-Trails such as the T31 series will still find this rounder iteration bamboozling. There’s no change to the base engine, which when matched to the automatic is a raspy 2.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder petrol (the base manual ST has a 2.0) making a fairly strong-for-the-price 126kW of power at 6000rpm and 226Nm of torque at 4400rpm. The automatic transmission is a CVT, which is less drone-prone than many, and by its nature keeps the engine in its strongest torque band by virtue of its lack of defined ratios. Engine power is sent only to the front wheels, though for $2000 extra you can get an on-demand all-wheel drive system. If you only drive on sealed roads, 2WD is fine. Claimed fuel consum