C O V E R     S T O R Y

Toyota RAV4, Suzuki Grand Vitara, Honda CR-V, Ford Escape, Subaru Forester—the soft-roader segment is getting pretty much crowded, providing just about any need and want you could think of.  What something sporty and compact with some poser points?  The RAV4.  Something for the family man?  Try the Honda CR-V.  All the bases have been covered, so it begs the question, is there still room for the Nissan X-TRAIL?

Late to the compact SUV party, the X-TRAIL is Nissan’s bid for resurgence in the local scene.  After pretty much being walloped in the compact sedan and mid-sized sedan markets, the company needs a new image leader—something that will epitomize the ‘shift’ marketing campaign.  At the same time, it wants to show that Nissan has always been in the forefront of advanced thinking.  On the first point, the X-TRAIL is spot on.  It can be considered as the company’s new image leader, along with the 350Z.  It fits with the revitalized international line-up, where Nissans are now designed to be entertaining, radical and unique (see Murano, new Quest, new Maxima and Altima).  So is it advanced then?  Hardly.  It’s a compact SUV—sure, it’s the first for Nissan, but it’s the Nth variation of the same old theme: small-engined, four-wheel drive, drives like a car, blah blah blah.  I’m not saying that the X-TRAIL is awful.  In fact, I find it a pleaser to drive.  However, it fails to carve up a nice niche for itself. 

The X-TRAIL offers sportiness, practicality and toughness—none of them to an astounding, mind-blowing degree.  If the compact SUV market were a high-school class, the RAV4 would be the athlete, the CR-V, the nerd and the Escape, the bully.  The X-TRAIL?  He’s the kid that rarely gets the teacher’s attention.  He’s your Average Joe—your 50^th percentile, and there’s the rub.  The X-TRAIL is androgynous, and it does nothing extraordinary to grab the headlines.

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