Nissan X-trail

[BigKev]

I will be moving to Thailand next year and I am trying to get a feel for the different makes and models available many of which are not for sale in America. I have not yet decided on car, truck, or SUV so am considering all options. I have seen much written on the usual suspects(Fortuner, Crv, Jazz, Dmax, etc.) but only one passing reference to this vehicle. It is not sold in America but seems to be quite popular elsewhere in the world. Does anybody have one? What do you think of it?

I am aware that Toyota and Isuzu rule the pickup truck world and Toyota and Honda seem to own the car market so to buy other then that I am risking massive loss of resale. I care little about resale and simply want to buy what I like an consider the best value for the money. I am one of those that buys a car and drives it till it drops so resale is of little concern.

Cheers,

BigKev

[Plus]

It has been a disappointment for Nissan here. The car is too old and too bland looking to sell. Reviews were quite favorable though.

[Moonfruit]

Indeed, the X-trail won the award of 'Car of the year' last year in Thailand.

My dad actually owns one back in the U.K. and its quite nice to drive, though i do find the looks a bit quirky, and im not keen on the interior. It does handle well though, and goes well to boot. They are becoming more popular. Up until about 8 or 9 months ago, i never saw one on the road, now i see quite a few.

Nissan seems to have a bad image here, and Thais think that Nissan aftersales sucks, but i wouldnt know. I just think that Nissan offer a decent product at a decent price, though usually a little bland.

In Thailand, i drive a Ford Escape. Its a perfect size to me, though it does drink a lot of juice. Its also getting a bit long in the tooth now also, but its about to recieve a new facelift, and the new model does look great. Hunt around on the net, and you can find some spy pics. My 3L V6, goes very well indeed, and handles well for an SUV, though obviously far from the MR2 i drove back home. (Dont think my 8 month old would like being strapped to the hood of an MR2 though!) .

What are the alternatives?

Obviously first up is the Toyota Fortuner which is the vehicle of choice here for everybody and his brother. I dont like them however, partly for the reason that they are very very common. Another reason for my dislike is their sheer size! They are absolutely huge, and finally, im not too keen on the driving position. They are undoubtably very good motors though, and you will find many supporters on this forum.

That leaves the Isuzu MU7. Thats enough said about that one.

Any others? Jeep? Not a likely choice given prices and fuel consumption. Honda CRV is popular, but again i dont like. It's more the kinda car that you would buy for the wife.

My next car will most likely be another Escape, especially as they are offering zero % finance at the moment, though likely that will have dissapered when the new model arrives.

[micheal]

used to own one.. until moving to LOS this year

It was fine...bland but fine...except for the interior which marked REALLY easily. The dashboard was really hard plastic and marked and scratched and the seats seemed to stain even from rain coming in through an open window.

Other than that (admittedly serious) issue...it was OK

[tigerbeer]

overpriced in LOS!

[nikster]

How much is the X-Trail in LOS?

In my opinion - biased as I am extremely happy with my Fortuner - the options in Thailand are mainly limited by price. If you don't care about price, and are willing to pay 2 - 3 x (sometimes 4x) a car's U.S. price, good for you. You can get a Lexus or Mercedes M320 or BMW X-5 or Porsche Cayenne in Thailand, too, they are just 300% or more overpriced. Many smaller cars suffer the same fate, overpricing due to taxation.

But if you are not filthy rich or you are just unwilling to get a bad deal, you are stuck with just a few models of cars in this country.

Foremost, Pick-Ups here are an incredible value. Isuzu has a good reputation amongst Thais, Toyota and Mitsubishi both just introduced new and excellent models. Good price for the $, for sure!

For competitively priced SUVs, there's only the Fortuner and the Ford Escape. The latter smaller but a very fine car, but in my opinion you just get less car for the $ compared to the Fortuner. The Escape is more expensive. The only reason for that is that the Escape is taxed higher than the Fortuner.

Fortuner, Isuzu MU-7 and Ford Everest all fall into a very favorable tax bracket of PPV, some sort of people carrier. However, only the Fortuner is a decent car. The MU-7 is worse on pretty much all accounts which is why Isuzu doesn't sell many. The Everest is a horrible, terrible excuse for a car, and simply bad. I have driven in one, everything about this car is wrong, it seems to be a case of "want to look like SUV, huge, cheap". And a cheap car it is.

The Fortuner is an excellent car and I can whole-heartedly recommend it, it beats anything I could get in Europe for this price, and compairs well with U.S. SUVs.

I also looked at some Suzukis - the Grand Vitara looked somewhat decent, but was more expensive than the Fortuner which is pretty ridiculous. It was also too small for me , my knees seemed to bump into everything in this car.

I really love the design of the Suzuki MPV, a van/minivan kind of car. Beautfully designed and pretty inexpensive. Didn't buy it because i need a 4WD (I live in the country) and also the interior felt very cheap. But if you want to buy a minivan - definitely check it out. They are around 600 - 800K Baht, very good price.

Not sure why Nissan is poo-pooed by Thais, but I suspect one reason is that Nissan sells only a few and very unattractive models. In the U.S. Nissan has been revamping their entire fleet, and they sell really nice cars there.

In Thailand that never happened. They sell something like 3 different models here... I don't think Nissan is at all serious about the Thai market.

You should also know that every second car you see on the road here is a Toyota. Toyota and Isuzu pick-ups make up the majority of cars in LOS.

[Digger]

I think one of the big problems Nissan faced was that they were unique among the bigger brands in not actually owning their business here. It has until recently been owned by a Thai family - that is now resolved and Nissan have bought them out, thereby controlling the entire operation. I expect they will continue to from strength to strength as new models come out and they improve their dealer network which frankly lags behind Toyota and Honda at least in outward appearance.

Edited August 29, 2006 by Digger

[Plus]

"Recently" being a couple of years already. I think all their passenger car line up came out under the new management. X-trail was one of those models that was supposed to turn Nissan's fortunes around but didn't. . Tiana didn't do any good to them either, and recent Tiida turned to be less exciting than expected.

They'll probably struggle it out with Ford and Chevrolet for a market share, Honda and Toyota are unassailable runaway leaders.

[ozymandious]

I’ve Test Driven a Suzuki Grand Vitara (Drove well, had 4WD, but inside was cramped /sardine can)

Ford is the parent company of Land Rover and Mazda

So the Escape , Tribute and Freelander all come from similar stock. (The particular freelander I’ve driven was a little bit different, it’s got a BMW diesel engine in it)

So I’ve had experience with a Honda CRV, Land Rover Freelander, and Mazda Tribute

Haven’t’ driven an Escape but I know it’s nice and a good buy.

The CRV is fine but I notice it lacked power going up and down the hills in Phuket.

The Freelander is a great ride but it’s price tag can be a turn off, Also if something breaks be prepared to wait for parts to arrive form over seas.

The Mazda Tribute is a good vehicle IMHO It’s got a bigger engine than the CRV and has More ommph

It’s a little bit cheaper than the CRV, I’m not sure how it compares in price to the escape. It looks good to me and you can take it off road if you need to.

By comparison I drive a New Toyota Helix Vigo 4WD (I need it cause I work where there aren’t roads sometimes) 4 Door and I put a Carryboy on the back so I can lock my stuff up and nobody bothers it.

I really like it and I’m still amazed even with the big engine how it sips diesel, must be that funky intercooler they got on it.

The only down side is that it’s BIG. Turning radius is bad but not horrible and it’s a bitch to park. Aside form that I love it.

[moonoi]

I’ve Test Driven a Suzuki Grand Vitara (Drove well, had 4WD, but inside was cramped /sardine can)

Ford is the parent company of Land Rover and Mazda

So the Escape , Tribute and Freelander all come from similar stock. (The particular freelander I’ve driven was a little bit different, it’s got a BMW diesel engine in it)

So I’ve had experience with a Honda CRV, Land Rover Freelander, and Mazda Tribute

Haven’t’ driven an Escape but I know it’s nice and a good buy.

The CRV is fine but I notice it lacked power going up and down the hills in Phuket.

The Freelander is a great ride but it’s price tag can be a turn off, Also if something breaks be prepared to wait for parts to arrive form over seas.

The Mazda Tribute is a good vehicle IMHO It’s got a bigger engine than the CRV and has More ommph

It’s a little bit cheaper than the CRV, I’m not sure how it compares in price to the escape. It looks good to me and you can take it off road if you need to.

By comparison I drive a New Toyota Helix Vigo 4WD (I need it cause I work where there aren’t roads sometimes) 4 Door and I put a Carryboy on the back so I can lock my stuff up and nobody bothers it.

I really like it and I’m still amazed even with the big engine how it sips diesel, must be that funky intercooler they got on it.

The only down side is that it’s BIG. Turning radius is bad but not horrible and it’s a bitch to park. Aside form that I love it.

Actually that statement is incorrect. Ford only own 33.4% of Mazda.....they are not the parent but a major shareholder with some influence in the day to day running of the company, which is not the same. They do own Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover though.

Also its incorrect to say that Freelander, Tribute and Escape are "from similar stock"

Yes Tribute and Escape are based on the same platform and are essentially the same car with a differant badge much like VW Sharon/Ford Galaxy/Seat Alhambra.

However the new Freelander is based on Fords C1 platform...this is the same plaform used by Ford Focus, Volvo S40 and Mazda 3. So Freelanders "stock" is somewhat differant from what you thought. and bares no similarity to the models you compared it to

Edited August 31, 2006 by moonoi

[Japhrodisiac]

I read in the Motoring section of the post on the weekend that Nissan will soon apply a very significant discount to the X-Trail, to clear out old stock. I wonder what you will be able to get one for?

[nikster]

"Recently" being a couple of years already. I think all their passenger car line up came out under the new management. X-trail was one of those models that was supposed to turn Nissan's fortunes around but didn't. . Tiana didn't do any good to them either, and recent Tiida turned to be less exciting than expected.

This is pretty surprising, given that Nissan kicks some serious b_tt in the U.S. right now. They have great design, and incredible value over there.

The only reason I can think of is limited/no manufacturing plants inside ASEAN and therefore horrible taxation which would destroy their value proposition. So they don't even bother to bring the cool cars. Or they just don't care...