TALK all you like about how a car looks but for lots of people how it fits in to family life is more important. Space wins over style, you might say.

So the refreshed X-Trail from Nissan - the world's best selling SUV - might grab some headlines with its fresh new face, complete with new lights and bumpers, added flashes of chrome and a touch of gloss black.

Inside, there's a flat bottomed steering wheel with a thicker rim, jointly adding - Nissan hopes - a sporty feel and safer grip.

But after the glow of new ownership has faded it will be the more practical side of the X-Trail that fosters longer term likeability.

So a cabin that is simply huge, front and rear, will mean fewer fights for the best seat from the kids and a boot, now 15 litres bigger than before (at 565 litres or a vast 1,996 litres with seats folded) on cars fitted with two rows of seats.

Piling on the practicality for families with lots of youngsters, there is a £1,000 option (£660 on top Tekna trim) of a pair of third row seats, with space for larger children or smaller adults.

How practical is that. Also high on the practicality monitor is a diesel engine that provides enough pull to keep this big car flowing nicely along a typical British road and show 46mpg on the trip computer after more than 400 miles of brisk workouts.

The 1.6-litre engine is much the most popular of a trio of power units offered in the latest X-Trail, which also takes in a more potent 177bhp diesel and a 163bhp 1.6-litre petrol.

You'd never call its gruff engine note particularly cultured but it fades into the background once cruising speed is reached. A crisply changing gearbox helps things along and this tall, heavy car doesn't mind corners, although you just know it's not up for playing sporty.

The X-Trail would much rather you settled back and enjoyed all the goodies that come with the range topping Tekna version - which takes approaching half of all sales and shows that we UK buyers like our SUVs dripping with kit.

Heated seats front and rear are now standard on the top Tekna grade and there's the option of tan leather (a rather smart orangey look) to relieve the blackness of the standard X-Trail cabin.

Tekna owners now enjoy an eight speaker Bose sound system (on five-seat versions) while every X-Trail has DAB radio as standard for the first time.

You'd need a book to detail all the goodies that come with Tekna trim, but highlights include a powered tailgate that can be opened with a kick of a foot under the rear bumper, a big glass sunroof, cameras with an all-round view of the car and safety equipment that stretches to alerting you if something is approaching as you reverse out of a parking space.