NISSAN X TRAIL 2003

What are your offroad expectations & where do you hope to take this vehicle?
Cheers Craig.........

Best year for Xtrail was 2005.
But I'll give you the bad news first.
Early models (2001/02) had the odd problem with catalytic converter disintegrating and dust getting into the motor (precat was on the manifold). But Nissan did recall this, so its not a problem on later models.
Next hassle was with the butterfly valves - the screws could work their way loose, and get sucked in and damage the motor. Nissan did a recall in USA in mid 2005. Rare cases have occurred in Aus.
Then in Nov 2003, the Series 2 was released - some minor changes, but the biggest plus was that the ST model got factory cruise control.
Then in Jan 2006, the motor was detuned from 132Kw to 123 Kw because of emission laws.

So a 2005 model gives you the best model, and is the best sorted.

We own two in the family now - a 2005 ST Manual and a 2007 ST-S auto. They are brilliant vehicles - heaps of power and fuel consumption on the highway is around 8.5 l/100k. Great size. And I can't notice any difference between the 132Kw and 123Kw models.

But when it comes to offroading, theres no low range, and the 4wd mechanism can get hot on the hard slog on sand, and revert to 2wd - so they really are no more than a good softroader.

Cheers
Phil

Hi
Could be wrong here but heard of the xtrail coming to grief in the gulf of carp, nice low air intake. Heard they like to take a drink from time to time :)
Is this correct?
Cheers Lyndon

Also, if you've got about 15,000hours spare, you can have a look in the archives in http://www.australianxtrail.com.au/

Xtrailers have their own forum. Have a look at this one.
http://www.australianxtrail.com.au/Forum.htm. You might find out more about this type of soft roader there.
Briar

Some time ago I was doing the research on an xtrail as a second vehicle. We have a jeep and I was looking for a car for myself - see thread 52122 for the feedback. In the end for me it came down to the crv or xtrail. I prefer xtrail for far better off road ability (but we are talking current model here so can't comment on the '03).