2000 Nissan Xterra Review

Specifications

Some of America’s most popular activities lie beyond the city limits. Kayaking, camping, mountain biking, fishing, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding; the list could go on and on. We have acres upon acres of some of the most pristine and gorgeous land this planet has to offer, with terrain that varies from desert to arctic to rainforest, and we like it. The only thing is, as the third largest country on the face of the Earth, a lot of the best areas for outdoor recreation can take a while to get to; for example, we here have access to some great beaches, a bunch of decent local ski hills and one of the world’s best ski resorts just nearby, and even a world-famous rock climbing site… the only drag is that none of them are closer than an hour away for most people. So, we climb into our trusty vehicles packed with as many friends and family as we can fit, slot gear and equipment into every nook and cranny, and make our weekly pilgrimages out of the city and into the outlying areas for dirt biking one weekend and camping the next. As a result, many Americans’ vehicles see their fair share of use and abuse, being mercilessly thrashed down logging roads, up mountains and through streams on the weekends before being flogged through morning traffic during the weekly commute. So when it comes to the question of just how important our vehicles are to us the answer is clear: very.

So, being the vehicle-reliant nation that we are, what kind of vehicle we drive is ofequal importance. Sure, Civics and smart cars (coming in 2008) are great for inner-city dwellers who don’t own a Yamaha YZ250 or a Rocky Mountain RMX and can’t tell the difference between a carabiner and a coffee bean, but for those of us who do and can, those cars simply won’t cut it. For us, trucks and SUVs are the only real options, and even most of those won’t cut it upcountry; ever tried taking an Escalade up a forestry road? Don’t. Thankfully, it was people like us that Nissan built the Xterra for. With the tagline “everything you need, nothing you don’t,” the Frontier-based Xterra represented Nissan’s most hard-core entry in the SUV segment, and ads backed by Jimmy Hendrix-wannabe Lenny Kravitz communicated this.

Looking like a Pathfinder that’d gone through military training, the Xterra boasted bigger fender flares, black plastic in place of more than a few painted pieces, side steps, and a distinctive roof hump that made it look every bit the rugged SUV that it was. Very trendy-looking, the Xterra’s body was one of the market’s most

functional, with the larger wheel arches making room for the suspension’s longer travel and bigger tires, and the roof’s hump giving just a wee bit more headroom in the back. A standard roof rack looked cool, but also gave those with big cargo more room to store their kit, just like the bump in the tailgate that housed a first-aid kit. And of course, the black plastic trim meant that any rocks or branches assaulting the vehicle wouldn’t nick the paint. The initial models had very truck-like front fascias with your average square headlights and vertically narrow, horizontally wide front bumper, while 2002 saw a swap to a vastly better looking and more modernized front end with odd, round-and-yet-square headlights and a deeper front fascia that appeared both more rugged yet more refined than the lame-by-comparison ‘00 and ‘01 models’.