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This article was first published 10 years ago

What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

February 26, 2014 14:36 IST

Image: X-trail SUV.
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

Nissan India has discontinued the X-trail SUV and 370Z coupe from India. Surprisingly, the company entered India in 2005 with the launch of X-Trail SUV.

The SUV was a CBU (completely build unit) import until 2010, when the manufacturer opted for CKD (completely knocked down) route.

On the other hand, 370Z coupe launched by the Japanese automaker in 2010 was also sold en-route CBU.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Nissan Tweana.
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

The company is currently focusing on the locally manufactured products, namely - Micra, Sunny, Terrano and Evalia. As of now, the only import product in the Nissan portfolio is the Teana Saloon.

Nissan entered Indian automotive industry through a top-down approach launching premium offerings first; but the company has now shifted into mass market manufacturing.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Nissan X-trail
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

In March 2010, Nissan with its French alliance Renault opened a joint production facility in Chennai. The plant is capable of producing 400,000 units annually with half entitled to each.

Nissan managed to sell a total of 163 units of the X-Trail SUV as of now; even, last year the company was able to roll out a minuscule of seven units.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Toyota Fortuner
Photographs: Courtesy, Toyota

The SUV was in the territory of Toyota Fortuner, 'the Segment king', currently.

Initially, the company didn't have widespread dealerships across India which subsequently resulted in weak after sales and support that was the sole reason people refrained buying this SUV.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Nissan X-trail.
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

The vehicle was always underrated among masses, contradictory to the well acknowledged fact that this is a full fledged SUV with decent off road capabilities.

The SUV came with a 2.0 litre turbo common rail diesel gathering 149Ps of maximum power and 320 Nm of peak torque.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Hyundai Santa Fe.
Photographs: Courtesy, Hyundai

The car started from 22.57 lakh for the base variant while the top-end lands at 26.96 lakh (Ex-showroom, Delhi). It was offered with three variants and 4WD came as standard in all the variants.

With the arrival of next gen Santa-Fe, even Fortuner's territory is in danger; so in all, it can be called a wise decision to pull the plug of X-Trail until locally produced replacement arrives, by the company.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Nissan 370Z.
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

The Nissan 370Z rivals against offerings from quintessential German players like Mercedes, BMW and Porsche; It is neck to neck with cars like BMW Z4, Mercedes SLK and Porsche Boxster.

Though, this car was capable for outright performance with the rivals, sharing DNA with GTR, but due to lack of brand image of Nissan in performance oriented sports cars in India, it didn't lure much customers.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Nissan 370Z.
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

The car came with a potent 3.6 V6 churning out 335Ps and max torque of 363Nm along with two transmission options, namely - six speed manual and seven speed automatic.

The car started from 55.50 lakh for the manual version while the automatic comes at 56.50 lakh.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Datsun Go.
Photographs: Courtesy, Datsun

Nissan recently started production of Datsun Go its subsidiary brand's hatch in the same plant in Chennai.

The company will also launch the updated Sunny which was showcased recently at the Auto Expo.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Nissan Sunny.
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

So in all, the plant is producing Duster, Terrano, Micra/Active/Pulse, Sunny/Scala and Evalia.

The plant is also exporting vehicle to several countries including products from both Renault and Nissan stable. So in all, there is a lot of manufacturing going in the plant.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Nissan X-trail.
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

Nissan has plans in near future for launching a premium SUV which might be the next generation X-Trail that will be displayed at the upcoming 84th Geneva Motor Show.

The new X-trail is developed jointly by Nissan and Renault and the car is based on CMF (common module family) platform.

The SUV is premium looking if compared with the outgoing version and sports Nissan new 'V' shape family grill, day time running LED's and improved cabin space in all the rows make it further up-market.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Nissan Qashqai.
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

Nissan has also confirmed that the next generation Qashqai will be launched in India; this compact crossover will sit below the next-gen X-Trail.

Qashqai resembles X-Trail in terms of design and also features the redesigned Nissan SUV grille.

It is expected to be powered by Nissan's 1.2 DIG-T turbo petrol mill while the diesel avatars will be powered by the tried and tested 1.5 K9K in 110bhp version along with 1.6 litre diesel also, mustering out 128bhp.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Nissan Qashqai.
Photographs: Courtesy, Nissan

It is expected that the company will launch these SUVs in 2015 in India as currently it is committed to bring Datsun products as the brand is in establishment stage. Datsun has stated that it will launch 10 new products by 2016.

The next gen Qashqai and X-trail are global products and designed jointly by Renault and Nissan as both the cars share CMF (common module family) platform.

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What is wrong with Nissan X-trail, 370Z?

Image: Datsun Go+
Photographs: Courtesy, Datsun

These products will definitely help the conglomeration in getting desired increase in market share as they have entry level product from Datsun, mid range products from Nissan and Renault and when these SUVs will be launched, they will have the share in the premium SUV space too!

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