NISSAN X-TRAIL

Andy brutalises his 4x4 crossover

This month, I’ve come to the Yarwell of-road course, near Peterborough, to discover if the X-Trail is as good of the tarmac as Nissan promises.

My instructor today is Darren Swan, a man with a distinguished career driving large 4x4 things in the army (so presumably 4x4 things with very large guns on), racing Freelanders and instructing novices like me in the dark art of of-roading. Yarwell looks pretty intimidating, but Darren tells me that he’s driven the X-Trail before of-road and reckons it’s up to the task.

I engage the X-Trail’s 4x4i system by a simple turn of the dial just in front of the gearstick, engaging the central multiplate clutch to switch the Nissan from twowheel drive to four. Apparently, the X-Trail’s central screen boasts a 4x4 mode that displays exactly how the system is administering power, but I’m blowed if I can fnd it. I do, however, manage to locate a readout on the dashboard, displaying how much power is being sent to the front and rear wheels. The X-Trail remains front-drive in sensible road driving, throwing power to the rears only when needed. In such a situation, you’ll probably be a bit too busy to look at a screen on the dash.

Darren and I set of in search of Yarwell’s finest mud, hills, rocks and water. “l’ll take you to some areas where we can get one wheel of the ground and really test it,” he declares. I don’t dare to argue. He guides us to the base of a near-vertical, slick-mud drop and tells me to stop right at the bottom. “Boot it,” Darren orders.

I do, and the Nissan makes bemusingly serene progress to the top, with no slipping or lack of traction. Considering I’m on road tyres, that’s impressive. As is the way it gets down the other side. So slick is the mud and so steep the slope that I expect to slither all the way to the bottom, but the X-Trail picks its way down in confident, controlled fashion. With only a minor grounding of the towbar. Sorry, Nissan.

Determined to test the indestructibility of the X-Trail, we tackle some muddy-sloped banks and some deep, icy water. The X-Trail takes it all in its stride, and at the end of the day I ask Darren how he reckons the X-Trail measures up to its posh new rival, the Land Rover Discovery Sport. He’s driven both, and reckons it could be too close to call. A big TopGear test is in the offing, I feel, and the X-Trail should hold its own. Oh, and if anyone at Yarwell has found an X-Trail numberplate buried in the mud, could they post it back to TopGear HQ?