Test Drive Nissan X-Trail 2001 - 2003 SUV

freedom of choice

X-Trail is the first compact SUV company Nissan. Just a year ago, he was presented at the Paris Motor Show as a concept car, but today we have a serial sample of this model. Some kind of stitching allegedly, like, and maybe ...
 
It is hard, oh hard to go on it around the city. Now and then come back on some obstacles. Here is a pedestrian: Instead of quickly climbing from the roadway, he, on the contrary, slows down and goes an estimated look in us until it stumbles on a curb stone. But the steep Maine on his TT-shka: It seemed that now he would work us as standing, and would hide ahead, punching the path to the grunt of the specialign. No. Having grew up with the X-Trail, the business lord as if forgotten, where I went, - overtook, slowed down and let's look at us in the rear-view mirror. But the most interferes with SUVs. By envying a new tribesman, they consider their duty to get acquainted with him closer and willy-noils overlap the road. In general, Nissan indifferent to the novelty is not.
 
This should be expected. The X-Trail looks very fresh. Powerful bumpers. Developed wheel arches (notice not overhead!). Large glazing area. Perfect front optics. Integrated back lights. 16-inch alloy wheels and, of course, high clearance. In general, Natural SUV. Only huge headlights are constructed. Whether they are smaller, more precisely, they are not so strained on the hood, the car would have looked better and would have much less chance to damage the head optics. Every road happens on the roads.
 
By the way, about any. The fact that the car is thought out from and before, we understood when only gathered to sit in it and opened the doors, the lower edge of which completely overlaps the threshold. What does it give? And the fact that even if you post the wheels the most dirty dirt, the thresholds will remain absolutely clean, and it will be possible to get out of the car at least in a tuxedo, even in the evening dress without fear of dirting the outfit.
 
Surprises were waiting for us in the cabin. Wow, the instrument shield is here - in the center! Looking ahead, let's say that after 20-30 minutes of driving, such a solution is perceived as proper. Moreover, significant advantages are manifested. First, almost all crew members can monitor the instruments. Secondly, whatever, even the most intricate, not a driver landing, and in whatever position the adjustable steering wheel, the shield is always in sight, without interference.
 
A large closed glove box is located on the traditional place of the instrument panel. Inside the socket - suddenly you will need to recharge the phone or connect the coffee maker. However, is it worth brewing coffee or tea on the way, if you can buy a ready-made drink and put it in one of the special boxes in the central console? There are two of them - on the left and right of the radio. Want colder - turn on the air conditioner, hot - the stove. True, heat or cool the drink is in the closed vessel - during heat treatment it lies almost horizontally.
 
Open banks can be fixed in cup holders that are located on the edges of the torpedo. In the folded state, they are practically not visible. Below, the tape recorder and hozblock on the center console are displayed and the climatic installation buttons, as well as a pair of shelves and an ashtray. In general, the beard from the X-TRAIL is quite traditional.
 
Even before going to the road, we celebrated the convenience of seats. Equipped with the necessary minimum adjustments, they provide a very comfortable landing. This applies not only to the first, but also the second row. The rear backs, like the front, changes the angle of inclination.
 
In general, we did not expect that inside the X-Trail so much free space. Plus, the car has a pretty roomy trunk - 410 liters. If you fold the seats, a completely smooth area is formed, allowing not only glass to transport to the cottage, but also to swell in the car at reasonable conditions.
 
Cargo can be placed on the roof where there are longitudinal rings. I installed crossbar - and ahead: or with skis and snowboarding onto a mountain resort, or with a surfer and a bicycle on the seaside.
 
The fact that the X-Trail will deliver you to the right place without difficulty, there is no doubt. It is equally easily moved along the highway and in the sand. Ask, where does such confidence come from? Well, first, Nissan has been producing SUVs for 50 years, and, by itself, they become no worse, but better. Secondly, we checked it.
 
As usual, our test began in the city. Saturday morning, street movement in Moscow resembles Brownian. In addition, everywhere cork. They are not formed because of the wrong organization of traffic flows or a huge amount of cars, but because of the uglars who consider themselves the extractable masters: it remains to slip on the oncoming lane, turn off the leftmost row to the right or roll out under the warning traffic signal to the center of the intersection, Yes, there and stay. Not riding, but a continuous disorder. But not only on the X-Trail.
 
Automatic gearbox is a tool that will save you in the most hopeless jam from the nervous breakdown. Everything is simple: it is enough to take off the leg with the brake pedal, and the car will go. The X-Trail has a high-economy 4-step e-Flow automatic. The smoothness of its work is very high. Even with intensive acceleration, you practically notice how the transmission changes. Switches are felt only when the gas pedal sharply takes off to the floor and turns on the kikdown. A second later, the engine roars at elevated circulation, and the box will jump onto the lower row with a tangible jerk.
 
But the cannon acceleration will not. The car, of course, rushes forward with great pressure, but the speaker will not hit the imagination: 13 seconds to hundreds - that's all that you can squeeze out of the X-Trail with a gasoline double-liter engine and an automatic transmission. However, the power of the rank of four is enough in order not to feel flawed in the multipoint transport stream, it is easy to ride along the highway and with a bang to perform any maneuvers.
 
The engine is very easy to lift already at one and a half thousand revolutions and is practically not noise, although the drive of the GDM mechanism is carried out not with a strap, and chain. Any motor vibration is absorbed by two balancing shafts. The compact balancing system is located below the crankshaft, which is why the center of gravity of the car is closer to the bottom. Due to this, the X-Trail has almost no valve in turns. You can easily pass rather steep turns, and at speed, more appropriate to the SUV, but a car.
 
Fast turns are not afraid also because the X-Trail is equipped with a number of electronic devices that ensure the stable behavior of the car on the road. This is the ESP + coursework system, and the ABS associate with the EBD brake force distributor and the Nissan Brake Assist system, which reduces the thread of the brake pedal. This is finally the differential of elevated friction, which, together with Esp +, will send brake efforts to the axle wheel, and the torque is to free from work.
 
Safety does not remain aside and four-wheel drive. The efforts of the All Mode 4x4 systems developed by the Nissan Nissan Engineers The optimal torque is instantly fed to each wheel. To automatically connect the rear axle, it is enough for one of the front wheels to sneak just a few degrees. True, the Auto 4x4 key must be activated on the center console.
 
So, for the time being, the X-Trail remains an ordinary front-wheel drive car with all its pluses - low fuel consumption (on average 10 liters per 100 km), good course stability, etc. But it is worth pressing the mentioned key, the machine turns into a beach jeep.
 
If necessary, the rear axle with this transmission mode is really instantly connected. It would seem, in the sand, the car should at least flush with the front wheels, but not: Paul turnover, and immediately come to the rescue. But this is not all. If you are not sure that the rear wheels will pick up on time, you can establish a tough connection between the bridges. To do this, there is a LOCK key - blocking the inter-axis clutch. It is worth turning on it, 57% of the moment will begin to be distributed to the front axle, 43% - to the back. Moreover, it was not without electronics: when the system feels that the difficult area of \u200b\u200bthe path passed and the car moves faster, it itself goes into AUTO 4x4 mode.
 
Riding along different roads and testing all the options for the transmission, we came to the conclusion: whether the car has a more powerful engine installed, it would not be obstacles at all. 192 Newtono meters not always enough.
 
But there is a choice. In addition to the machine, a 5-speed mechanic is installed on the X-Trail with a gasoline engine. This improves overclocking dynamics (11 seconds before hundreds) and the maximum speed increases (177 km / h). The model also has four interior designs - three classic and sports.
 
In addition to the gasoline, the X-Trail is equipped with a 114-strong diesel engine, the torque of which reaches 270 nm at 10,000 min-1 (in gasoline - at 4000). This car is equipped with a 6-speed manual gearbox, which provides him with almost the same dynamic characteristics that has a gasoline version. This is such an obstacle machine will definitely be less.
 
In general, complete freedom of choice, both modifications and directions of movement. It remains only to find free $ 35 thousand.
 
Text: Oleg Kalaushin
 

A source: Magazine 5 Wheel [11/2001]