One Powerful X, and worth it!

I got my 2005 Nissan Xterra as a sort of response to my dismal experience with the 2004 Nissan Titan (see my review there for details) and this truck is far more of a treat than I had originally expected.

To start out this review, let me say that this is my fourth Nissan vehicle, this Xterra being preceded by a 2000 Altima, 2003 Xterra and a 2004 Titan. The Titan was arguably a mistake, but the previous two Nissans were fantastic. My wife still has her 2003 Xterra, and I figured owning a new one wasn’t that bad of an idea.

I wanted a truck that I could go off-road in, and have the convenience of 4WD when I needed it. I also wanted something with pickup, and for myself, would never have purchased an Xterra prior to this model. It’s all in the power, and the suspension. There’s a lot of fun to be had with a truck like this.

To start with, handling needs to be addressed. In previous Xterra’s, the vehicles frame was unique and the ride was much mushier than the 2005 model. When I say mushy, this isn’t a negative, depending on how you drive.

If you take a turn and hit the gas and expect a good takeoff half-way through the turn, this Xterra is for you. The older X’s would have left you wanting for more power, or would have worse, rolled over. The extra thick anti-sway bar connecting the front wheels together makes for some good wide, and the rear anti-sway is huge as well.

These thick anti-sway bars do cost in terms of ride stiffness though. In the 2003 X, hitting a speed bump usually results in a smooth bounce though at low speed, and at high speed, a little bump. The 2005 X is much stiffer – the front wheels aren’t so bad at the speed bumps, but when that back axel hits, you’re getting kicking in the seat unless you’re really moving fast – it’s those jarring bumps that are more disconcerting, but frankly, the steering stiffness and general handling more than make up for this minor shortcoming. This truck drives more like a sporty car than an SUV. Tight steering and short turning radii are nice too, for those times you need to turn around in a hurry.

Engine power, when I first started driving the truck is there, but it’s slow on the take. After you get moving a bit, then suddenly you notice the extra passing power. After driving the truck for a month though, I noticed a change. Apparently the X’s computer learns the driving style of its primary driver and learns to respond to that persons driving style. My style is full military thrust whenever possible. Once the vehicle understood this, it stopped being kind and wimpy on the line, and started launching, almost like my Titan did. Now the truck goes like nuts when I drop the hammer, and I love this.

When using these nice acceleration features, I’ve also noted that some of the other features start to kick at times. In my case, the vehicle dynamic control kicks in to keep a wheel from spinning off the line – kind of like 4WD lockers, but done through the braking system. It doesn’t work in 4WD-Low though, so there’s nothing like having proper lockers when on the trail. The VDC stuff can also be turned off for those times you want to actually spin a tire or the truck around a bit. I guess I’ll get to see what the difference in this is soon enough as it’s supposed to snow tonight and I want to try making donuts in the local parking lots.

This truck’s brakes are worth taking note of – it’s got 4 wheel disc brakes, and boy, what a difference. Hard braking is pleasurable in this truck, with little resistance from the system, and plenty of responsiveness. Stopping hard in this truck is fun. The 2003 X has disc front/drum rear, and braking in it is no different than the average Buick. One other item to take note of – the emergency brake in the 2005 X is a hand brake. In all previous models of X, it was a foot pedal to the left of the brake pedal, just like something you’d find in old Chevy’s and Fords. With this X, doing a bootlegger skid is possible, thanks to the good old handbrake. Note: Don’t bootlegger on asphalt or it’s your backside.

My truck is the SE model, with the cloth interior, full creature comforts, Fosgate stereo with 6-disc CD/MP3 changer and the Sirius satellite radio. It’s got the rooftop covered luggage bucket, which I’d gladly swap with a sunroof, and all the rest of the trimmings that come on these models.

The back seats are considerably smaller than my Titan, but it’s not impossible for someone with my large frame to ride in back. The luggage area has a new compartment underneath the floor, which is a nice place to stash tools and my towing hitch. The truck comes with a full size spare, and in my case 17” allow rims with pressure sensors, and a real jack with factory wheel locks. Nothing too fancy there really, but if you’re into the off-road thing, you’ll want to do without the wheel pressure sensors.

The step rails on this model are somewhat more cheaply made than in the previous models. My first trip with the Rocky Mountain Xterra Club saw to the demise of these steps, as they had bottomed out in the first run, and were trashed. I’ll probably be replacing these with a pair of properly made rock sliders, but no hurry yet. Going off road with the RMXC folks was a learning experience, and my X only got stuck once. Some of the terrain freaked me out too, but it was able to eat up 8” rocks without trouble. The 4WD-lo mode worked well, and the engine ran strong throughout the trail, which was coincidently rated one of the harder trails (8 out of 10) in difficulty. Not bad on my first day out.

Thus far I’ve done my own oil changes, and the accessibility of the oil filter and plug is a little better than in the 2003 X, rating an easy on my scale of difficulty. On this truck you don’t have to remove the entire front armor to get to the filter, like you do in the 2003 X.

The instruments in this X are much more advanced than the 㤌 Titan had. It’s got a MPG calculator, “Distance to Empty” calculator, “Average Speed” and the rest of the basic counters and stuff as well. The Rockford Fosgate 6-disc CD Changer with Sirius isn’t bad at all. I ended up not subscribing to the Sirius stuff – paying for radio isn’t my bag – I don’t drive enough to justify it. I do miss the AUX input that the Titan had though. I really would like to be able to plug my iPod into this stereo. Now I’m looking at cable hacks to install it, but that’ll be a different nightmare/website thing, once done. The MP3 playing feature is nice, and it helps keep me from missing my iPod a little, though it’s navigation system could use some improvement. Perhaps a better use of the display or something. Anyway, it works and it sounds nice. The bass is a little heavier than some setups I’ve seen, and the auto-volume feature isn’t as noticeable in this stereo setup as it was in my Titan.

I’ve done some towing in this truck already, and in my case it was u-hauls largest trailer, and it was in the mountains here just west of Denver. This was an interesting ride however – after coming down off I-70 and getting on the highway towards Central City, I started to experience some fading due to brake overheating. I took my time and chilled out however, and the problems went away. That’s the only brake issue I’ve had with the truck to date.

Mileage to date has been good. I average between 15 and 16mph all the time, and that’s feeding it the cheapest gas possible (as requested by Nissan’s manual and techs.) The gas tank is a little bigger in this truck than in previous years, so it’s not cheap to fill (especially at today’s prices) but it’s still better than I had with my Titan. The engine in this truck is a 6 cylinder version of the Titan’s motor, and that design is something to behold. There’s not distributor – at least, not a high voltage one. This engine has a coil for each spark plug, and this just makes for one clean engine. Note: I’ve driven my X in water deep enough to submerge the front and back tires completely, no leaks and no stalls. The X comes out of eXtreme, for this truck.