My fuel consumption display usually sits around 31 - 32 on average running around. As mine is an automatic that might have some bearing, but one thing that is really noticeable is the MPH in the gears. My 6th gear is virtually an overdrive and the car will only automatically go into it at over 70mph, and only then if not under much load. I can manually select 6th, but even if I leave it in manual and the speed drops below 60mph, it drops into 5th. There is no way it will stay in 6th below 60, whatever I do. Then again, at 70mph in 6th it's only doing about 1,800 revs. 70mph in 5th is around 2,500rpm, about the same as my Volvo V70 diesel auto in top gear.

I don't know whether my car is behaving normally or not, as it is the first X Trail I have ever driven, but it seems to run really well. It is smooth and quiet, and performance is similar to the Volvo, which was a turbo 2.5 litre 5 cylinder. The Volvo only had 4 gears though.

Yes, the 6th gear shift by it self at 110kmh/ or 70mph in queens numbers. It is not very healty for the engine to sit under 1500rpm. The shoot will build up.

When nobody is not looking, I go to 110km/h, wait for the 6 gear, lock the cruise, and go down to legal speed.

In 6th gear mine reads 2000 rpm at 70mph. The gears do seem evenly spread throughout the range with only 1st being low which is often the case on 4 wheel drive vehicles for off road use. I find I can travel in 4th at 30mph and 5th happily at 40mph and still accelerate. I can also just get into 6th at 50 as long as no sharp inclines otherwise at 50 where any hills I just stay in 5th and economy is still good. I should point out I am not a Miss Daisy driver; I don't hang a round and am normally up to speed limit pretty quickly but I'm not hard on accelerator every time I come out of a corner etc. Folk say I'm a quick smooth safe driver - LOL I never concentrate when I drive which is probably how I am always aware of what's happening around me and can always find my way back from anywhere I've visited and can always find the place again - probably making mental notes of landmarks etc..................

Your driving style sounds very much like mine Jim. I learnt smooth driving when I took my PSV test way back in 1972, and 20+ years of coach driving, much of which was based in Norfolk, meant I tend not to hang around when I got the chance. I often had to be at a specific place at a certain time, and some of my journeys were long ones.

I normally leave my car in auto unless I am on a motorway and want to select 6th gear. If I tried to select it at 50mph though it wouldn't go, it would stay in 5th. Even in manual mode it will protect the engine and not let it labour, so it will change down to 5th when the speed drops below 60mph. It won't let the revs drop much below 1,800 under any kind of load, only when coasting or barely touching the accelerator. It pulls well from 1,800rpm upwards, even with the caravan on.

That's interesting as mine will pull well from around 1500 rpm and doesn't seem laboured. The gear change light normally comes on at about 1350rpm - sometimes see this when going round roundabout in 3rd.

Mine will pull from 1,500 too, if the gearbox lets it get that low and I'm gentle with the throttle, but it pulls better from 1,800 upwards. No way it would get down to 1,350 except from a standing start. The gearbox simply wouldn't let it. I didn't know the manual box version had a gear change light, that's a new one on me. So many years since I had manual gearbox car. If I remember right the last one I had was a Triumph 2000, which would make it sometime in the mid-80s.

Jim, remember, you have the tuning. Fuel and boost deliveri is different. And too much torque at low rpm will destroy the automatic transmission.

Wow, quite a few replies since my last post.

The old bonnet looks like it had a bad paint job at some point, the paint cracked and then peeled in places that you could see the primer underneath.

Dpf light, I am more than likely wrong about the light flashing. No idea where I got that from? Lol.
The dpf light has only come on twice since we've owned the xt, we used to do a lot more miles as the wife worked 18 miles away but changed her job a few months ago to somewhere closer and also away at dog competitions or training most weekends but with covid they're all cancelled.
I've now got her a little petrol fiesta to run around in and I'm using the xt for work as I do at least 40 miles a day including 10 miles dual carriageway.
As for fuel consumption I think it's normally about 33-35 for me, I'm no slouch when driving and like to think I'm pretty smooth after years of being an advanced motorcyclist and driving hgvs and large armoured vans.

Also got a nice new mot on her a couple of weeks ago. Ended up putting her into the garage to get them to sort the hand brake cable as it was completely seized and I didn't fancy rolling around on the floor in the cold and wet replacing it. Got them to replace the handbrake shoes, rear discs and pads while they were at it.

It took them 6 hours in total, 4 hours to get it all apart, 1 hour to clean it up and 1 hour to put it all back together what they put on the invoice was "anything that could be seized, was seized" and "the caliper pins had to be beaten out"

Think I dodged a bullet on that one

On the downside it takes my total spend since beginning December to almost £1000


Question for you knowledgeable folk... my xt is the 150bhp auto, are there any mechanical differences between the 150 and 170bhp engines or is it just down to the factory map?

Well mine's a 2011 Facelift but no longer has 170hp and now has 221 after Celtic remap which also raised torque from 266lbs to 326lbs.

Mine is a manual so can cope with it. The auto can't take it. Looking on Celtic website it looks like there must be some differences as they can only take it from 147 to 195 so increase.

https://www.celtictuning.co.uk/services ... t3-content