‘Yellow’. ‘Outdoors.’ The two most common things that come to a person’s mind when asked what they think of when they hear ‘Nissan Xterra’.
‘HECK YES!’ The quick response from a person when asked ‘Would you like to go and test drive an 05 X?’
Texas Motor Speedway and Marshall Creek. The setting. Nissan USA, reporters and the SWXC. The participants. Four 05 Xterras, one 05 Nismo Fronty, one 05 Armada. The focal point.
Today the SWXC was invited by Nissan USA to a unique opportunity. To come drive some 05 Xterras before they were even on sale. The event was broken down into three parts: Marketing presentation, a cone road course and some dirt fun.
The marketing presentation was actually pretty cool. Put on by the senior marketing manager for Nissan SUVs, we got to hear some good insight into what Nissan thinks makes the Xterra tick, and coolest of all, we got to see three new commercials from Nissan. These will not even be on TV until March! I inquired on if we could get copies, but was told no, as they do not want the commercials leaked so I guess everyone else will just have to wait to see em…
After the presentation was over, we went outside to the infield of Texas Motor Speedway for the real reason we came. Drive some Xterras! On hand to play with were four 05 Xterras: two Off-Road Package 6-speed 4x4s and two ‘normal’ AT 4x4s. The two OR were solar yellow and a new color from Nissan called Midnight Armor. (The midnight armor color we learned is actually called Hippo Gray in Japan; may go well in the Orient, but in the US, Nissan did not think it would be a big seller, so they renamed it to midnight armor.) From a dead stop, we took off down a slalom course, going as fast as we felt we could handle. Not to pick, but I saw Lance had to hit the breaks at one point.
The acceleration, handling and breaking on the new X is phenomenal! 95 more hp than my 01 sure makes a BIG difference.
As we were talking to reporters, asking and getting asked questions, we were told to round up, and head over to Marshall Creek. As DFW was the first stop on a 15-city venture, Nissan had laid out a somewhat tame course for us to take the 05s through. Fun none-the-less. As we waited for our turn, most of us went mudding around Marshall Creek in our own daily drivers. It seems everyone got stuck except Regan and I. Roger decided the deepest pit just was not good enough without his X sticking out of it. After some short fun in our trucks, we got our turn in the 05s. Pure pleasure. Good handling, good turning, and my-oh-my the power! Aside: Quick funny. As were we driving the dirt course, Connor, the reporter from IRELAND we were with, aimed the rear wheels of the yellow X at a cohort, and sent a rooster tail out across his nice white shirt. Had us rolling with laughter!
Once the getting dirty was complete, we lined up all of our trucks for a family shot. From 2000-2005, we had representatives of each model ‘class’. Dan even loved one of the trucks so much, he drove off ‘to look and take pics’. Yeah, right. We found him grinning ear to ear in the driver seat of the midnight armor X, just dreaming away!
All in all, this was an awesome experience! Thanks to Nissan for putting this on, and thanks to all who were able to attend!
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