Upon first glance, the X-Trail looks quite good with it's well balanced and clean lines. Certainly nothing unusual or extravagant about the exterior. But when you look inside, you notice it..... the central dash mounted speedo and other dials. Maybe you're thinking "why?"..... and that's a very good question! Let's clear the air straight away on this point. The location of the dials didn't distract me during my 2 day test drive around Melbourne and Ballarat. Quite surprising, perhaps, but it did become easy to adjust to the somewhat uncommon practice of locating the speedo in the middle of the dashboard. Those with a long memory will remember the original Mini had a centre mounted speedo. Remembering back to those "good old days" I seem to recall it was easy to adjust to the odd positioning during those times as well. So it's easy to live with a central positioned speedo after all. I can assure you, though, that I did have some doubts to begin with. The interior isn't flash or trendy, but it is fresh, pleasant and comforting. Very easy to live with. So all things considered, the X-Trail is clearly an attractive package as it has the style as well as the heritage.

There's two airbags upfront and two drink coolers, too. Remote door locks, remote fuel filler door, CD player.... the standard equipment list is very good.

Mechanically, it's fairly conventional. Power is from a 2.5 litre 4 cylinder engine and mated to a 4 speed automatic gearbox. I liked the "lock-out" feature on the overdrive, as I see no point with an auto selecting overdrive when you're doing around 55 km/h in a city street. Power is adequate for a "small" all-wheel drive. You may feel a lack of power if you're fully loaded and driving up a hill, but for everyday driving it's more than adequate. Ride comfort is very good. Road noise isn't a problem. The more you consider and wonder about the X-Trail, the more you realise that X-Trail is a mighty fine proposition.

But can a car, or even an all-wheel drive wagon be perfect? Let's answer that question by saying it's difficult to fault Nissan's answer to the expanding market segment occupied by cars and wagons called small or compact 4WD's.

There's two models to choose from..... the ST and the Ti, both of which offer a manual or an automatic transmission. The subject vehicle is the ST with 4 speed auto.

Prices are in the lowish 30's to mid-to-higher 30's, depending on model and options.