well, I traded my ranger for an 01 Xterra today.
I hated to do it, but there simply wasnt enough room in the ranger when the family had to go somewhere, and as my truck was the most reliable vehicle I had...
it was just time to get something big enough for my family.
here is a picture of our trip down to my mothers for Xmas:

 

oh, and I will be getting another ranger down the road, once my biz starts picking up again :)

 

yeah, it not much for more then two people....I found that we both can't get in it at the same time either...

 

Where's the pics of the new ride?

 

yeah that baby seat looks pretty crammed in that jump seat......understandable trade for sure. pics of the new ride?

 

I would have traded in the unreliable vehicles first, but that's just me. Nice pick-up, i like the way the Xterra drives. She is a gas hog however so watch out.

 

shoulda bought a exploder. oh well.

 

LOL! i feel your pain!! i have a reg cab and a 3 yr old and a 6 yr old..the 3 yr old is in a car seat on the pass side and the 6 yr old is in middle with lap belt...and yes he's big enough now to be outta a car seat now...thank goodness!! lol but yeah there's no safe way to have everyone including wife in it...im gonna keep mine but lookin at a new explorer for wife and keepin her escape. that way we have 2 vehicles that everyone can ride in if needed!!

 

by the time I got home it was too dark, but I will be posting pics tomorrow.

Ive tried everything I could to avoid this. Ive gone through no less than 5 cars in the past 2 yrs trying to have both my truck and a family vehicle. every single one of them ended up not being even remotely as reliable as my truck, which made the ranger the vehicle I drove the most (which put a ton of miles on it, Ive actually put almost twice as many miles in the past 3 yrs than I did in the previous 3 yrs since buying the truck in 05....)
I considered an exploder, but the very fact that its known by that name means I dont want it
this was a good trade, more for me than the person I traded with, but he might be thinking the same thing.
the gas mileage is the one thing I am not overly happy with, its EPA rating is slightly poorer than my ranger, but on the opposite end of things, it is 5 spd manual, so I should be able to eek out a tad better mpg than its EPA.
BTW Josh, the Xterra is the same color as your ranger, still not sure how I feel about that...

 

things to watch out for on your xterra...

catalytic converters... they WILL go out (you have 4 by the way).
cracked exhaust manifolds.
knock sensor... it WILL go out.
Numerous coolant leaks
Numerous oil leaks

These are just a few things I had wrong with mine. There was more but I'm tired and can't think of what else right now. If you join the nissan forums you'll find that almost everyone has the same problems. Don't want to scare you, but my ranger is WAY more reliable.

 

Sucks to see the truck go, but get some pictures up of the new one :)

 

Priorities man. Totally understandable! Hope you enjoy the ride for now!

 

nice pickup but in addition to other things mentioned, xterras absolutley KILL gas ... i know a girl with a stock 02 4x4 auto that generally gets 13 ... 15 if shes super light footed

another buddy is lifted with an 01 manual 4x4on 32s and gets 12.

 

thanks for the points of interest on the Xterra David, I'll def keep them in mind and keep an eye on those things.
some of the specs of the tera:
3.3L v6
122k
5 spd manual
2wd.

the manual is going to save me the most on gas using hypermiling techniques. the tank is only like 16g, which I wasnt expecting. from my drive home last night from Naples (115miles, 50/50 cty/hwy) I used 1/3 of a tank on the Xterra, which is pretty much the same I would have used on the Ranger with a 19g[?] tank. which isnt really making me all too happy, but I can live with it for a short time, until I clean this one up and fix the few exterior/interior things, mostly of which involves a heavy detailing, but a couple things need repainting on the outside.

as promised, here is a pic, I'll have more later on as its raining and I was able to get this only by braving a short break in the rain

 

HEY!! Thats awsome man!! you have to do what works for you and your family!! thats different for all of us..lol btw thats my old ranger..yeah i know i need a new avatar!! I do like the yellow xterra's.......lots of things you can do to those!!

 

Family comes first all the time. 122k miles don't sound bad at all. As you said, it sure need some detailing, but nothing major. Looks like the gray on the flares and mud flaps is fading.

 

it is, that is going to be the 2nd thing I do (after detailing the int)
then I will look into painting that front end to match.
also getting rid of those stickers... just... yuck.

all in all, Im happy
it drives great, I had a very comfortable ride home yesterday.
the stereo isnt all that bad either, even though its a hack job with the stock head (they used the rear speaker outputs for a sub so all it has is front and sub). but sounds decent enough and will work for now. I may throw a pioneer HU I have sitting here in it later on, that has pre-amp outs, that way at least I can get my full range sound back.

 

Yeah.. those stickers need to go. Nissans usually have a comfortable ride. An aunt has a Xtrail (not sure if you guys get those), but it sure is nice to drive.

 

I dont think we get those here in the US
simply cant understand why other countries get some really good vehicles, and we get crap here, from the same damn companies !

 

Well, a Xtrail is like a feminine version of a Xterra. So i guess it's fine. lol. I've seen a few of those Xterras. I remember one with some mudterrains. It was all black. It looked awesome. It had a brushguard and some foglights. Not sure if Xterras can be 4x4, but it sure looked tough.

 

yea, they come as 2x4 or 4x4, I wanted the 2wd strictly for the slight edge it gets in mpg.

 

buddy of mine bought one a few years back...just like that but no stickers...we called it "the school bus"

hard to say how I remember it riding. I was usually in the far back, drunker than a skunk.

 

lol


I miss my ranger...
its def going to take some adjusting, I walked out earlier and almost tweaked til I remembered my ranger is gone :(

 

LOL, that reminds me of a story. So i'm out drinking with a couple buddy's one night. Our DD is driving his new Escape, he also owns a mustang gt. After a loooooooong night of drinking, the DD and I have to help our buddy walk out of the bar, we eventually make it back to the escape and throw our buddy in the back seat. After being driven around for 10 minutes buddy in the back who hasn't said a word the entire time peeps up, "hey man, the back seat of your stang is amazingly comfy and roomy, who knew there was this much space in the back of a sports car"

I look over at the driver and we just burst out laughing. We talk to our buddy the next day about his ride in the stang and he said all he remembers of the night was how comfy the back of my buddy's stang was. He still doesn't believe he got a ride in the escape that night.

 

What year is it? And around how much did it cost you? If you dont mind telling us.