Business as usual: Nissan’s seven-seat SUV gets minor update, more safety, same mechanicals

SINGAPORE –
Hot on the heels of its smaller Qashqai brother, the Nissan X-trail has also gotten its mid-life refresh, and will make its debut in Singapore by the end of 2017.

This facelift incorporates a slightly bolder look to a car we thought looked rather handsome back when it was new in 2014. Nissan’s corporate design cue, the “V-motion” grille, is now wider and more prominent than before, with a surrounding black strip, so it extends down toward front bumper as well.

Also new are adaptive LED headlights with a boomerang shape for the daytime running lights, again echoing the style set by the Qashqai as well as the Pulsar hatch. At the rear, the taillights have also gone full LED, and the rear bumper has also been reprofiled. A chrome moulding across the base of the doors rounds out the list of exterior changes.

The list of interior enhancements is even shorter: there’s a new flat-bottomed steering wheel with slimmer spokes that aims to provide drivers a sportier look and feel, while a leather-stitched dashboard and centre armrest give a greater perception of quality in the cabin.

Powering the new X-Trail is the same 2.0-litre four cylinder mated to Nissan’s XTronic Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). With 144bhp and 200Nm of torque, performance should be unchanged from the outgoing model, 0-100km/h in 12.1 seconds, top speed of 180km/h and fuel efficiency of 7.5L/100km.

Mainstream Japanese cars have been receiving more active safety features like autonomous brake assist, as the Singapore-only Toyota Harrier and new Mazda CX-5 show. The X-Trail gets onboard with this movement as the facelifted model comes with new safety features that aims to help you look out for and avoid crashes.

Nissan’s umbrella term for them is Intelligent Mobility Technologies, and on the X-Trail will include Intelligent Around View (basically a 360-degree parking camera), Intelligent Forward Collision Warning, and Intelligent Emergency Braking, which will automatically engage the brakes if you’re too distracted to notice an obstacle or pedestrian in front of you.

No official word has been given for local pricing, but it should be in the ballpark of the current model, perhaps with a premium of just a few thousand dollars. The X-Trail currently retails for $137,300 with COE.

Nissan says the X-Trail is its best-selling car overall, and also claims the model is the world’s best-selling SUV. Including US sales, where the car is known as the Rogue, and quoting a press release from June 2017, “in FY16 the X-Trail was the world’s most popular SUV, with 766,000 vehicles sold – more than any other rival model.”