Same engine, but had it tuned from 150 to 180hp and EGR off.

Good for you

Shame the gearbox can't take the extra torque as an auto would be awesome with that torque.......................however I am happy to change gear as box is smooth enough.......................

I am still surprised about that. Why on earth did they use such an apparently flimsy gearbox? I have had loads of automatics in the past and I have pulled some huge loads with them. Buses are almost exclusively autos these days and so are many trucks. Some railway locos used torque converter boxes back in the 1960s, and they could pull 1,000 tons or more, so it's not as if automatics aren't capable of handling massive loads and torques. What kind of torque did those locos develop? Probably 100s of times what any car engine could.

After many years of bus and coach driving when coaches generally had manual boxes, I had enough of changing gear, which is why I only ever have autos these days. I can still change manually if I want with my X Trail, as I could with my Volvo. It's not the gear-changing that gets me, it's the clutch work. It's possibly why I have arthritis in my left hip but not my right.

As i wrote about the DPF burning in another thread, my theory is that the engine temp(70c to start the burn) is not enough. Below 15c ambient, it takes over 15 miles normal driving to get to over 70c.

I must admit I had wondered about that. I haven't had my X Trail through a summer yet, so most of my driving of it has been in winter conditions.