The X-Trail is almost identical to the Qashqai, we had a Qashqai to start with but we out grew it. The dash, steering etc are identical. I have two babies and a very large Rottweiler (120lb) and needed the extra boot space.
There aren't many non-premium cars of this size on the market and given we only do 4k per year and it gets wrecked I didn't want to go premium.
If you time it right you can negotiate Nissan down around 27% off list price, my wife's is an N-Connect which is middle of the range: 19" wheels and sat nav. We paid £21k. This is our third Nissan, we get a call about 18 months in to swap for a new one for the same monthly payment. Despite the huge discount the car is in negative equity - we owe £19k and it's worth about £17k. We can return it under PCP though in 18 months.
The pros of the car are:
Fuel economy - always 50+ mpg
Size - might be the lowest cost 7 seater out there(?) well maybe not be it's a low cost option.
Spec/Tech - the navigation and all round cameras are excellent, general spec is very high (power boot, folding mirrors)
Performance - for a 1.6 diesel 130 hp it has a lot of torque and I don't find it underpowered
Negatives:
Traction is not great with 19" wheels
Depreciation - need to be careful how you buy, lease costs are low and Discount levels depend on the time of year and demand
Serving is affordable (£220-£320) however they stopped the 3 year £299 service pack which was a great deal. Annual services is a bit of a pain but if you own a Lexus you're used to it.
I pay a consistent £300 a month for the family car (last 3 Nissan's) and I'd buy another X Trail - we treat it very poorly (dog/kids) and treat it as disposable, never had any issues with trade ins or doing a deal. I've looked at leasing and found the large deposit outweighs the monthly saving so it's also around £300 a month.