I'm buying a Nissan Xterra S
 

... Anyone want to talk me out of it? It is for my wife and will be the primary family vehicle, since I have an 06 Mustang GT. We only have two kids (no more on the way) so it should have plenty of room. She'll be trading in her 02 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer. I got what I think is a pretty good deal on a new 06 Xterra. It is funny but the first thing my wife asked was if I could upgrade the factory stereo system. (She's a pretty cool wife I guess :) ) The Xterra just seemed like the most comfortable, most "bang for the buck" vehicle.

Posting before the American car nazis show up.

I won't try to talk you out of it but I will give you some information about what you're getting yourself into.

The Xterra is a really rough riding vehicle. It's great in the snow when you drop it into 4H. I've never driven anything that handled better in the snow and that includes my massive Ford 4x4.

It's also very highly rated for resale and reliability. You won't have to do a whole lot to it but when you do be prepared to pay dearly.

It doesn't get great gas mileage and they're underpowered.

But for the wife, I think it's an outstanding choice.

Which year are you getting? I'll give you the Consumer Reports lowdown on it.

I am buying a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer EXT LS tomorrow. If that falls through I have a 2003 I am going to buy.

If you get a chance, could you run a couple for me? If not, don't worry about it.

My BIL has 2WD (why?) Xterra...1st/2nd year out. has had Good luck with it.

Ill agree with the rough ride....ive test driven a few and didnt care for them much.....

But what do i know? Ask Recxjake..

I'm an American car guy myself... or at least I was. We've pretty much always had Fords and a couple GMs. I gave two different Ford dealerships every chance to give me the kind of discounts etc. on a new Explorer that Nissan did on the Xterra but they failed... at least so far. One of them was going to check a little more and call me back tomorrow morning, but it looks like the Xterra will be the choice. I'll always try to go American first, but I will absolutely settle for foriegn if it makes better sense for my family.

Sure thing. CR doesn't like either of those years in the Trailblazer.

They like the 05 and 06 much better.

Both the 03 and 04 got dinged in similar categories:

Drive System
Fuel System
Electrical System
Fuel System
Paint/Trim/Rust
Body Integrity
Body Hardware
Power Equipment
Audio scored poorly in the 04 and very good in the 03.
There's a lot more black than red for those years.

If I were looking at those vehicles I would look elsewhere based on what CR is reporting.

By contrast CR LOVES the Xterra, especially the 06. Earlier models have very few dings and mostly for body integrity.

Cool, we're looking at a new 06 4WD.
I thought the ride was just a smooth as our 02 Ford Explorer, if not better. It was not as smooth as the 06 Explorer I drove though. But the Xterra does get better gas mileage than the Explorer and costs a lot less.

My credit is good enough to get a real low interest rate on a new one but not good enough to give me a good rate on used. New will end up costing about the same as used due to interest rates.

That's good to know. However, I would disagree that they have a better product but feel they do have a competitive product and lower pricing.