Feature: The 4Car Top 10: £10,000 4x4s

Nissan's X-Trail has been a best seller in Europe for years, and with good reason: it's an excellent all-rounder. Its off-road skills are more than sufficient for most buyers, with a part-time automatic four-wheel drive system that can be manually 'locked', and on the road it's very car-like to drive. There were some glitches with the Renault-supplied diesel engine, although they should all have been sorted by now, but generally the build quality is good, making it a better buy than the MkI Land Rover Freelander. The X-Trail may not have the same snob appeal as the Freelander, but it does have more street cred among the extreme sports crew. Accessorise with mountain bikes, windsurfers, snowboards, paragliders...

Road Test: Nissan X-Trail (2001-2004)
Driven: Nissan X-Trail turbodiesel
Road Test: Nissan X-Trail (2004-2007)

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