Nissan X-Trail SUV 1.5 E-Power E-4orce 213 N-Connecta 5dr 7Seat Auto Owner Review

After 6 months of waiting I got my Nissan Xtrail NConnecta Epower E4orce at the end of November 2023. It looks beautiful both inside and out. It drives very smoothly and the acceleration and handling is very good for a big vehicle. I used to have an Xtrail back in 2005. It was great at the time. A refrigerated section in the glove box which kept drinks ice-cold, all the toys you needed and didn’t need. A really fantastic motor (on and off road). After the children grew up I went for Ford and stuck with them until 2023! Then I saw the new Xtrail and thought it looked good. Lots of motoring reviews later and I bought one! Well leased one.

At first, it seemed to be a good car. Drives beautifully; very comfortable to sit in; has masses of room for 3 in the middle row of seats.
But after a couple of months, when the newness of ownership has worn off, it begins to show its true colours.

The Epower is, at best very poor. The engine is almost constantly on. The EV button is a waste of time as it rarely switches the car over to electric power. And when it does it only lasts a couple of minutes at best. The capacity of the battery is just totally inadequate. Fuel consumption is dreadful. There is just no purpose to Epower. It saves you nothing. Do you get the electric car driving experience Nissan promises - NO! The petrol engine itself is noisy - very noisy. In fact annoyingly so. My wife had a 2014 Ford Ka and I a 2017 Ford Fiesta. Both engines were much quieter than that of the 2023 Xtrail.

I got a 7 seat model so that we had enough room for the grandchildren on days out. It would save taking my daughters car too. Big mistake! You can fit 2 children in the third row of seats ok but there’s no room for anything in the boot. An adult can fit in the 3rd row seats but not for long. They’re not easy to access unless you are a contortionist. (don’t bother with them would be my advice.) My wife uses a wheelchair but that will not fit in the boot when the 3rd row of seats are used. In fact very little will/ Totally useless!
Practically the boot of a Ford Fiesta is better than the Xtrail’s. I can’t stand the wheelchair up as there is no way of securing it like there was in the Ford so It takes up the whole of the boot.

When you first switch the car on you are greeted with an annoying screen that seeks permission to use the Nissan Connect services. You have to agree or disagree. Why can’t it save the setting in MY Profile - and that’s another waste of time because you can’t add anything to, My Profile. There’s no way of putting my car setting choices into it. I have to do it manually each time I drive. It’s infuriating.
The dual zone air conditioning is great (for me). My wife is constantly cold and has to have the heating on even in summer. I used to bake in my Ford Fiesta. Now with Dual Zone heating I can sit with 18º blowing on me. However, my wife just never gets warm. The heater is not that good.

The cameras are brilliant and give a good all round view of the car. The aerial camera is especially useful for parking. The warnings for pedestrians behind and in front of the vehicle are brilliant and it will apply emergency braking at times although this is a bit hit and miss. (if you’ll pardon the pun) I wouldn’t rely on it.

The E pedal is also brilliant. Basically it just adds auto braking to your driving when you lift your foot off the accelerator which is really useful. I use it all the time.

The displays are crystal clear and give so much information and it’s easy to go through the menus to change settings.
The hands free phone charging is good but it’s annoying that the car connects automatically to Apple but not Android which is over 3 times more popular.
Amazons Alexa is offered as the only pre-installed app which is quite random as it serves zero purpose.

The driving choices are varied. I always go for Eco - to save on petrol. Put your foot down and you’ll see what I mean. The Sport mode makes zero difference as far as I can tell. Off-road it’s comfortable and capable of moderately difficult conditions. I haven’t had a chance to try Snow mode yet.

The passenger air bag keeps switching itself off as my wife has to sit on a cushion due to her disability! The car thinks we have put a child seat in the front and so turns off the airbag!! There is no manual override. It’s automatic! That is just plain dangerous. My wife has to travel either in discomfort or unprotected in the case of an accident. How bad is that?

All in all I’m glad I am only keeping the car for 2 years. It is a very mediocre but beautiful looking vehicle from Nissan. The Xtrail has quite a bit going for it, but, as far as I am concerned it has a lot, lot more going against it.

I would look very warily at the lovely Nissan produced reviews of the technology in the Xtrail. I’m not sure who the design team were but they did an excellent job…

…for the opposition!