Er...GUILTY!
Mrs M. has had one for a few years now. They come in 2 basic flavours - The earlier T30 model and the later T31 model. Changeover was early 2007, I think. The T30 is a Japanese-designed and built machine. The T31 is considerably more "Renault". £5k might JUST get you an early T31. Mrs. M's is one of the last T30s ('56 plate).
There's an excellent technical forum for help with faults here:
http://www.x-trail-uk.co.uk/One of the best I've seen, and they're a friendly bunch too.
Before I write too much of an "essay", were you thinking of going petrol or diesel? Both T30 and T31 could be had with either. There is more than one diesel engine in the T30 (although I think they were all 2.2 litres, so it's hard to tell without looking at the engine number). Early (pre-2004) T30 diesels were famous for blowing turbos. Most are likely to have been changed with an upgraded version by now. All the T30 diesels have timing chains and are relatively low tech and reliable. We've never had a minute's bother out of ours, but leaking intercoolers are not uncommon. Also fuel pump "Suction Control Valves" (which are quite hard to replace, apparently). For a Jap car, I've been somewhat disappointed in build quality. The running gear appears somewhat "fragile". I've replaced a variety of (in fairness, cheap and easy to source) bits. Brakes are a real weak point. Calipers sticking. LOADS of threads on the forum on that! Again, relatively low-tech and easy and cheap to source reconditioned units on eBay.
We don't do any serious offroading in it. A couple of farm tracks several times a week. Some of the more serious offroaders criticise the departure angle. There's a big rear silencer that catches on steep ramps. Ground clearance is "better than a conventional car" but not in Landrover league. Also worth bearing in mind that it's not a "proper" 4x4 with low ratio gears and a centre diff (or diff locks). It's basically a front wheel drive car with an electromagnetic coupling that brings in the rear wheels when 4WD is selected. HOWEVER, in practice, they work extremely well on low friction surfaces. Ours is absolutely BRILLIANT in snow. Worked well pulling a boat trailer on slippy mud in a river estuary once too. There are several trim levels. Well worth getting the "Aventura". Better sound deadening, built-in sat-nav (that can't do postcodes!), heated leather seats, cruise control and, most importantly, "Traction Control". This is Nissan's "poor-man's-limited slip diff". It just uses the ABS pump to apply the brake to the spinning wheel(s) and I have to say, it does this to great effect!
Superb tow car - best we've ever had. Really "old skool" torquey diesel works well there.
Refinement on the older diesels isn't great by modern diesel standards. Someone on the forum once made me laugh by describing a cold start as a noise "like someone kicking a bag of spanners down a fire escape". With the right oil in them though, they're acceptable when warm.
We get about 32-34 to the gallon on normal runs, best ever was 36 on a run. Pre-2006 engines were "Euro 3" emissions standard and were a bit LESS thirsty than the later T30s which were Euro 4. Plenty of people on the forum with earlier cars get about 35 normally and nearly 40 on a run.
17" wheels don't leave you with a lot of choice for tyres. They're also fussy about tyre sizes (absolutely VITAL to have the same size (and preferably the same MAKE) at both ends). It can give the electromagnetic centre coupling a hard time if they're significantly different. Nissan actually recommend rotating them front-to-rear every 3000 miles (although I don't know anybody who does)!
Much roomier and more practical than a RAV4, and slightly better off road. No experience of a Honda CR-V. Don't think they're that good off-road or on snow but are probably better built. Better (I'd say) than a Freelander 1 (although not as good off-road).
Come back if you home-in on a particular model.