IN AUSTRALIA’S busy mid-size SUV segment, stalwarts like the Nissan X-Trail risk going un-noticed among all the activity.

But a look at the sales charts tells a different story because in the first half of 2017, more than one in 10 Aussie mid-size SUV buyers headed to their local Nissan showroom and drove home in an X-Trail – the growing demand for this recently updated model making it the brand’s best seller and our nation’s fourth most-popular medium SUV.

We spent a week living with a mid-spec ST-L seven-seater – one of only two three-row mainstream medium SUVs on the market at the time of writing – and found just a handful of reasons why any of the X-Trail’s many buyers would be disappointed with their purchase.

Note: Some images are of the Nissan X-Trail Ti 4WD