Video: Land Rover Freelander 2 Versus Nissan X-trail from Fifth Gear

Now here on Fifth Gear we have got two firm favorites when it comes to soft roaders: the Land Rover Freelander 2 and the Nissan X-Trail.  Yeah, both of them like to think they've got this like roughty toughty 4x4 image but both of them also like to think that they offer a car-like driving experience with plenty of up-market features.  Now we decide we wanted to give one away as this week's competition prize but first we had to find somewhere posh and outdoors to do some testing.

Kinnet??: a hotel and sporting estate in Persia, Scotland. Once called the quietest place in the world its the kind of hotel where they describe the wine list as considered.  Rooms are around 400 pounds a night but then you do get a very special level of service.  This is the only hotel we've ever heard of that comes with a..well.. its a 4x4 concierge.  Alistair Cowl? drives around the seven thousand acre este in his Land Cruiser delivering tending to guests needs. He delivers logs to the lodgers, breakfast to the bobbies, and guns to the hunters.  And today I am going to help him out, which rather conveniently would also let me test the two leading soft-roaders. And hopefully, play with the guns. So, you mentioned guns? Mmm-hmm. Are they really big guns?

The idea was to spend the morning in service with the Land Rover Freelander and the afternoon shift with the Nissan X-Trail.  And before long the first mission came up. The armory. Some chaps fancying a bit of clay pigeon shooting needed some guns.  Hooray!  This is what butlery should be about - guns and cars, romantic evenings, killing things. OK, so first we are going to start with the Freelander.  Immediately, this is quite high - this is like a proper SUV. We drop the guns in, yep, they do fit. Under the floor - hmm just a full size spare wheel. Drop this back - that's actually not a bad boot - you know, its quite big - quite a high lip so you have to haul things up and get them in there - but looks pretty good. Other than that it is a bit kind of plastic.  I know, lets do the ole non-specific thunk test.  Ready?  Not bad.  Let's get driving.

What we've got here is a TD4 Freelander so thats a 2.2 liter 4 port diesel. Incidentally made be Peugeot Citroen so its the same one as in the Citroen c crosser and the Peugeot 4007.  ?? horsepower and feels pretty perky - It will do 38 mpg as a manual but its worth remembering if you spec this auto that drops to 33 miles per gallon.  But to drive you know it feels pretty good.  You got an SUV driving position - so you're quite high -see over all the hedges and stuff - but when you actually turn into a corner its pretty car like - doesn't roll too much good body control and all that sort of stuff.

It wasn't long before the roads turned to tracks.  Of course, because its a Land Rover, its engineered to be able to get to Timbuktu as well as Tesco's.  Basically what we've got here is a thing called all-terrain response which basically acts like a well... a 4x4 butler. You twiddle this knob here - it just goes to grass, mud ruts, or sand - and then it just sorts out all the complicated four-wheel drive bits for you. It is four wheel drive built for idiots.

Yes, guns. I believe this ones yours sir , yeah, sorry, and this one is for you sir. Have a most excellent day shooting. I'll be here if you need me. Thank you. And see you later.  Thank you. Right! I like this hotel.  Most of the ones I go to have an old trouser press gently shorting itself out.  This is definitely more like it.  

While I'm waiting for the guests to stop shooting, I'll just show you the back seats of the Freelander. Just come in here. OK so here we are in the back of the Freelander and actually you know its pretty good.  I'm six foot two and I've got enough knee room behind my own seating position - head rooms obviously fine but this bench in the back quite angular, so you're sitting quite straight up - now your knees are quite straight and your back is vertical.  But, you know, it feels quite premium in here I'll just show you the front. Hey, now this is more like it.  If you knew the old Freelander this is an absolute quantum leap forward.  Its borrowed quite a lot of the bits from big brother Discovery 3 - so it is a genuinely premium feeling place - a nice bit of leather - everything's nicely modern design - you know its good stuff.  

The Land Rover's ride and handling - on and off road set a very high bench mark.  After beautifully arranging some posh tea I was ready to resume afternoon duties in the Nissan. Now quite a while back the X-Trail won an extensive group test Fifth Gear did of little SUV's.  We expect this revised model to be even better. Ok, so there's a young couple arriving today who have requested a picnic -- right up at the other end of the estate which is miles away muddy tracks and everything.  This is where the X-Trail immediately starts to impress. These rear seats fold flat and its got this under floor storage.  So you got loads of space for picnic paraphernalia - its actually class-leading.  

This is a 2-liter diesel with 150 horsepower so its a little down in power compared to the Freelander, but it actually manages to be a bit quicker to 60 and to be more economical averaging nearly 40 miles to the gallon.  The weird thing is its almost not SUV enough - I mean one of the reasons I'd buy an SUV is for the high driving position.  But I really don't feel like lord of the manor down here.  More like a manservant, which I guess I am.

On the road you can just drive in 2-wheel drive which means it that handles like a normal car saves you a bit of fuel - less wear on the transmission - and that sort of stuff. Get off-road or get into a slippery bit of tarmac you can flip this on again on the little rotary know on this dash bit into automatic splitting of the torque which means basically it will push some power to the back wheels if the front ones start to slip.  There's also a locking mode where you can lock it in four-wheel drive if you are doing proper off-roading.  I'm certainly noting the fact that is has less ride height and we keep catching the exhaust on rocks.  You can feel, feel that, even though its getting there, in the Land Rover, we're in Land Rover - they conquer everything - I am sure we are going to get there. In the X-Trail, well you can't help having it in the back of your mind that this is Nissan - they build Bluebirds.  

And that question of brand values is an important one - for all the fancy options this adventurer X-Trail comes with like voice activated sat nav - please say a command after the tone... I love you... Bird view. Ha ha ha -- and the color reversing camera you still can't help feeling that people would actually prefer their picnic, guns, pets, school kids, or even shopping or whatever dropped off in a Land Rover.

That's all well and good up there in la-ti-da hotel luxury land but back here in the real world let me remind you the Nissan is 3 1/2 thousand pounds cheaper and is better equipped.

Yeah, but if you're buying a small SUV I reckon image is massively important - which would you rather have parked in your drive:  a Nissan X-Trail or a Land Rover Freelander?  It's like a mini Range Rover.  Anyway, it's my favorite, I am going to recommend it, and that's the reason we are going to give it away as this week's competition prize - how brilliant is that?