WHILE the facelifted X-Trail range lobbed in May last year, it took diesel-powered variants another four months to join the party due to production constraints. Needless to say, updates were relatively minor, including the range-wide standard fitment of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and some cosmetic tweaks inside and out.

However, the big news was the arrival of an automatic option for the aforementioned all-wheel-drive diesel variants for the first time.

Previously a manual-only proposition, these new variants open the door to a larger group of buyers who prefer their oil burners mated to a two-pedal set-up.

Considering that these new variants come with, a larger 2.0-litre engine instead of their predecessor's 1.6-litre unit, are they worth the wait? We test the X-Trail in range-topping TL form to find out.