A new baby boy has arrived in the 60 billion double dollar man's household and the mom needs more room than her scion xb provides.


We rented an xterra for the weekend.  It seems to be the perfect compromise.

Anyone have an xterra?


It drives better than the old blazer.  Its comfortable.  Handles well.  Has lots of cargo room.

Gas Mileage SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!

If you are looking at a Nissan SUV I would look at the Pathfinder.  Gives you more room to grow into compared to the Xterra.

+1

Don't have one but have ridden in one.  Nice SUV's for the money.

Max

I am liking the xterra.

i've been off-roading with several xterras. they are very capable and have a strong aftermarket. i can't really say much about the space or family aspects though.

The Xterra's hallmarks include a strong engine and very capable off-road setup. I suspect that you can probably get some good deals out there as well.

Ill throw in my 2 cents as my parents have owned

1991 Pathfinder
1998 Pathfinder
2006 Xterra

Before the Sport Utility Vehicle became "cool" was neutered and renamed the SUV they were built to get 1-8 people over some pretty serious terrain and still have room for luggage. This is what the 91 Pathfinders were all about. We took ours over some of the nastiest jeep trails the San Juan Mountains of SW Colorado had to offer. Imogene Pass anyone? We also racked up hundreds of thousands of daily duty and cross country trips.

Beginning in 1996 Nissan changed its gears and catered more to the needs of Suzy Soccer Mom to haul her 2.5 children to the mall, get groceries, and have that "safety" that comes with 5400lbs of rolling mass. It became a sedan with a lift kit. The box steel frame/cab was replace with a "unibody" setup, heated leather seats, with a 6 disc CD changer. My parents actually fought tooth and nail to get one as "stripped down" as they did. It had a bigger peppier engine (which got even worse gas mileage) and still offered 4wd but it just wasnt the same. We just never felt our 98 capable enough to take to the trails so it remained a pavement pounder for the most part. And every year after that the once rugged Pathfinder was catered more and more to suburbanites needing to haul around the entire neighborhood.

After that, Nissan soon realized that it had effectivley flipped many offroaders the bird and came up with the X. It was/is the no frills, all business, Steel boxed frame, offroad cousin to the original Pathfinders. My dad bought his for this reason. He wanted a new "old" pathfinder, and has been quite pleased with his decision. The only thing he wishes he would have done differently was not gotten the SC verson as it sucks Premium fuel at an even more stellar rate.

So, it all depends what you want in a vehicle.

Is there any benefit to getting the Offroad version?

I'm not much offroading.

Comes with a lot of goodies:

- Bilstein shocks
- BFG tires
- locking rear differential
- skid plates
- technology package (premium sound, subwoofers, bluetooth, etc)
- offroad lights/roof rack

How big a difference does the bfg tires and the nilstein shocks make?

These are things you want off road, but if you only drive on pavement, they aren't needed.  However, the BFG's that come with the OR package are Rugged Trails, they are not AT KO's (the famous off road BFG tire).  Nissan has been putting lockers on their 4x4's for years; again, lockers are sweet when off roading.

As ex_dsmr correctly said, it's nice to see a company still make an off road capable SUV.  The Xterra is in stark contrast to any pussified SUV detroit has come out with in recent memory.

Having just dropped $250.09 at the nissan dealershiptoday, on top of the $30.00 last month, $34 in june and $155.00 in Jan, I'm not impressed with the long term reliability or durability of Nissans.

What broke?

Curious as well. My 08 Frontier is up to 30k miles and it's the same truck as the day I bought it mechanically, exceptional durability; the only exception is the cheap ass interior.. but it's held up alright as well.

I had a 02 Xterra and it was a GREAT vehicle. ll the way up to 100k without a single issue(other than a fuel pump which went out and was under recall)

My only complaint was the paint was thin. That is it would develop rust specs especially on the rear hatch and side panels. I kept it waxed all the time and still fought them. The older V6 was also kind of a dog with poor gas mileage.

I drove mine mainly on the interstate to and from MN to my parents place so it wasnt real ideal for that(highway speeds really sucked the gas). It was all worth it though during the winter months. That was a tank in the snow even without the 4wd. There was also one time when I was hunting and went on a back dirt/mud road and while backing out slid into a huge mud puddle that almost rolled my Xterra. I had one side of it hanging up on the top of the sink hole and the other side in it up past the bottom of the door. I put it in 4wd low and rocked it back and forth twice before it climbed right out. I was damn impressed.

We are looking at the 2010 models as well for my wife to get into something a little bigger than her Audi. The new models as you probably know have the 265hp v6 vs the old one that was like 180hp. Ive also heard they do better on gas. We also looked at the off road ones which are pretty tits in the looks department. The only thing I noticed while looking at them was that the hood of one had those same shitty rust specs. The salesman said they get hit with sprinklers throughout the summer but I still think its unacceptable for a new $36K vehicle to start rusting from getting hit with water.

Id love to get another one buy my wife likes the Murano. Its pretty much down to those 2 I think and maybe the Ford Edge.

I read an article recently on how bad the x-terra is selling right now.  Apparently it is at lowest sales ever.  Might be the time to make a good deal on one.