Monthly Archives: March 2009

Apparently it’s going to be another week or so before my X-Trail is fixed and returned.

I’ve now had the loan of a 56-plate X-Trail for just over a week, and quite frankly I can’t wait to get rid of it. It’s a face-lifted version of my own 03-plate, but in my opinion a lot worse. Admittedly the engine is more powerful/less knackered than mine, but that doesn’t make up for the downsides.

Firstly, the seats and doors are trimmed with what appears to be a nylon version of sand paper, it’s utterly utterly horrible and makes my skin crawl every time I brush up against it. To be fair though the mid-range X-Trail Columbia isn’t really meant to compete luxury-wise with my own range-topping SVE.

The driving position feels a lot worse, the centre console seems wider and gets in the way of my left leg, and I can’t seem to get my right leg comfortable at all, even with the seat all the way back. I feel sorry for anyone taller than me who tries to drive one.

The sat nav in the centre console is almost unreadable in sunlight if you have the sunroof cover open.

The adjusters for the mirrors and lights have been tucked further down on the console to the point where someone my height (6’2") can’t actually see them to operate the buttons.

The power steering is far too light and devoid of any feel, making driving the car a somewhat numb experience.

There seems to be a lot more body roll, possibly a result of softening the suspension slightly to cope with the 17" alloys which replace the 16" ones of the pre-facelift versions, mine certainly feels a lot more stable.

Hopefully mine will be back in time for the trip to London on Friday.

This is what happens when a Toyota Yaris gets shunted into a Nissan X-Trail.

Yesterday was Al’s stag do. It actually started Friday night with a “quick pint” in the pub, which was notable for not being quick, and involving rather more than a pint. Saturday was started in a slightly fragile state with a carbo-loading massive fried breakfast. Once this was out of the way we headed off over to Hunstrete to go laser shooting, however when we got there I drove past the entrance and stopped, Ryan stopped beind me, and Dan didn’t stop at all, hitting the back of Ryan’s car and shunting it into the back of mine.

Dan’s car wouldn’t start again and came back to Bath courtesy of the AA, Ryan’s car was somewhat shorter than intended and went away on the back of a low-loader, and mine was still drivable so came home under it’s own steam. It’s due to be collected sometime soon to go away for repair, and will be temporarily replaced with a hire car.

After waiting for the other cars to be recovered and dealing with all the insurance faffage we finally caught the train over to Bristol and started the proper drinking, aided partly by the 99p drinks offers in Weatherspoons. Much beer and tequila was quaffed over the course of the afternoon and evening, with a brief pause for food and Margaritas in Las Iguanas. We ended the night at Jongleurs before heading home in a minibus. I eventually fell into bed at 3am at which point it would probably have been a good idea to turn my alarm clock off.