here's me making a big splash with the 05 X...

Photography courtesy of Critters.

Here is a link to the story in the Toronto Star newspaper after we spent a week with the 05:

CLICK ME

The actual story in the paper includes photos. I'll scan them and post em too later.

OK you guys suck!

Going the Xterra mile
Off-road truck club members find lots to love about Nissan's revamped SUV, coming here in March

A week of hard driving finds trail behaviour is vastly improved — more power and less getting stuck

STAN JOSEY
TORONTO STAR

The end of the road can't come soon enough for members of the Southern Ontario Xterra Club.

Most weekends they load their bikes, boats, boards or skis on the roof rack and head for the places an ordinary vehicle won't take them.

Their passion — the chunky and spunky Xterra, Nissan's one-off adventure SUV — has undergone a major face-lift for 2005.

That worried some of them — including this writer — so I asked if club members could try out the new model as soon as possible. Nissan came up with a pre-production prototype, a rare privilege indeed.

"Get it good and dirty" was the assignment from the editor.

So for a week, various members of the club poked and prodded the new vehicle, and tested the limits of its off-road and on-road performance.

The truck, which will be unveiled publicly for the first time at the Montreal and Toronto auto shows, ate up about 2,000 kilometres of highway and off-road trails, with hardly a notice from other drivers — even non-club Xterra drivers.

That's because the new truck, while radically improved and cosmetically upgraded, still looks like an Xterra.

But it acts a lot differently. Introduced in the 2000 model year, it was immediately an attention getter, with its beefy aluminum roof racks, raised stadium seating in the back and the hump on the back hatch that holds the first aid kit.

The new "X" is slightly larger inside and outside, has a much larger engine and an off-road driving package that won raves from seasoned off-roaders.

The new Xterra, which will go into production later this month in Smyrna, Tenn., will be the latest in a series of trucks to be mounted on Nissan's new, light and tough F-Alpha truck frame.

When it hits showrooms sometime in March it is going to cause quite a stir, because the new X has gotten a lot prettier, a lot more powerful, and is priced in the mid-$30,000 bracket. So it's doable for the young adventurer or the soccer mom who wants a ride with attitude.

"I was really worried it wouldn't look at all like the old one," said Jaimie MacPherson, founder of the SOXC.org website.

"I'm glad they have kept the style cues such as the roof rack and the bump on the back. My Xterra (a 2000 model) will still look like the new Xterra."

But the similarities end there.

Club members were impressed with new pedal responsiveness at all speeds attached to the new 4.0-litre, 265 horsepower engine — up from 180 horsepower.

"I can't believe the extra power," said Leslie North, who got a 2004 yellow X as a Christmas present last year. "The only thing it doesn't do is fly."

Garnett Davey of Whitby also felt the difference as he tested the truck on Duham back roads.

"When you give it the gas, it goes," he said. "I normally would have had to drop the gears in my manual to get that kind of acceleration."

And it didn't take long to get the truck good and dirty, wet and full of snow.

On the first night, somewhere in the GTA, Rick Almeida of Markham waved goodbye from a Tim Hortons and came back 15 minutes later with a very dirty SUV.

He said he made a wrong turn onto a construction site and immediately got the front end stuck in a mud hole.

"I was about to call for a tow but I hit the `diff lock' switch and out she went... Amazing."

As for me, I don't exactly fit the target market of 20-something surfers and kayakers, but I haven't had so much fun in a vehicle since the drive-in movies in the 1960s.

When I first bought the old truck two years ago, women used to flag me down at traffic lights and say "nice car."

"Thanks, but it's a truck," I'd say, and be on my way.

As I test-drove the new silver version on my job for the Star and on several short trips on family business, it didn't attract as much attention as my old X.

The truck has not yet been seen on showroom floors and that may be the reason it got little attention.

The big test would come when we took the truck to an abandoned gravel pit, not far outside the GTA.

More than a dozen SOXC members put the truck though its paces climbing hills, crawling over washouts and surfing through a big water hazard.

Pete Lush of Guelph said he couldn't believe the "phenomenal traction control" as he crawled the truck up a steep, snow-covered gravel slope and then flipped on the hill descent to go back down. It safely guides the truck down any slope alternately using the four-wheel ABS discs and some throttle application

Lush called the rear differential locker "awesome," adding "my truck never would have got up this hill."

The new truck is a little bigger inside. Marty Sjoerd, a tall guy with a tall truck, was pleasantly surprised his spiked blonde hair didn't hit the headliner.

Extending the rear cargo area forward now is a lot easier with a rear seat bottom flipping forward and the seat back folding flat. The back cargo area has been covered with a hard material to make it easier to clean.

Kristoff Lucyk didn't have kids when he bought his first X, but now he appreciates the wider opening rear door, which will be great for loading and unloading his daughter's car seat.

And the 60-40-split rear seat makes it possible to leave a baby carrier installed while flipping down the other side of the seat to handle longer cargo.

"I originally purchased an Xterra to get away from the normal temptations of muscle cars and speed," he said, "and this new truck doubles nicely as an off-road giant and a family shopper."

Exterior visual changes include bigger fender flares, bigger windows all around and a move of the now-larger Nissan emblem from the centre of the rear hatch to the right side.

It still has its beefy looking brushed aluminum roof rack but the front basket has been enclosed — "It'll make a good wine cooler," one club member remarked.

This streamlining of the front of the signature roof rack has almost eliminated the inside wind noise that required a lot of radio volume to mask in the old truck.

Tubular side step rails, which dedicated off-roaders always remove, were not included on the offroad model that we tested.

Suspension improvements and a longer wheelbase have given the truck a lot more stability and likely a lower centre of gravity, which decreases the feeling in some SUVs that they might role over in a tight turn.

"This vehicle will appeal to soccer moms for the space and will make them feel more secure that it can go more places than other SUVs. The vehicle's climb and descent is amazing," said John Marechal.

There were still some things that members didn't like. They found it strange engaging four-wheel high and low with a dash-mounted knob instead of the clunky old console-mounted shifter.

Cat Phillip, who used to challenge the muck in Rovers in Australia, found the nose of the new Xterra too flat.

"The grille doesn't end where the bumper starts," she said, wondering how the plastic front would fare in a small crash.

I found that the bigger engine idles more smoothly than the old one and by my rough calculation gets about the same gas mileage as the old powerplant

To my aging back, the smoother ride was just fine, and I enjoyed the throaty purr of the engine both at idle and during acceleration.

The new model will creep up from the mid-$30,000 price tag of the previous model, said Pete Bedrosian, Nissan Canada's product manager for trucks.

"It will be a little more expensive, but not $3,000 more," he said.

So overall, club members were both pleased and relieved by this latest generation of the truck that helped rejuevenate Nissan at the end of the `90s.

It's been enlarged and given a softer profile, with a few new toys inside and under the hood.

It should attract a lot of return buyers who want to get to the hills a little faster and in more comfort.

??? MARCH ??? the representative of my local dealer told me JAN!

Awesome right up! I believe it will hit the US showrooms in February... can't wait.

I did a quick write up on the Fronty in another thread and agree with the comment about the engine. At any speed, it has plenty of power - which is nice!

I CAN'T WAIT!

These are a couple shots of me going up and coming down a nice steep slipery ravine, then coming down a nice off camber rutted ravine (testing the locker), followed by a hugh downhill descent (testing the hill descent control.)





As mentioned, we were not allowed to comment on performance, capability, or opinions until after today when the story in the Toronto Star was run.

As most of you who wheel know, pictures do not do terrain justice when wheeling. The ravines I crawled up through with the 05 I would not have gotten through in my X without the locker, so the traction the locker provided was great (as most of you know who run ARB lockers.) The hugh hill I came down was rutted, steep, and very slick. One of the guys spun his truck around and almost rolled it at the top. The 05 with the HDC engaged just crawled down it like a champ, nice and controlled, although it is noisy when working that hard (it was a pretty damn big hill!)

Some of my fav changes:
- the engine rocks! (obviously)
- the dual stage throttle control was great for crawling (not as jerky if you hit the gas)
- that said, I'm not big on the electronic vs cable engaged (could be pricy to repair)
- interior is much nicer and provides a little more room; controls are well placed
- love the rear cargo area changes (tracked adj floor tie downs and added tie downs in back of rear seats)
- rear seats don't remove to fold down (better IMO) and fold nice and flat
- front passenger seat folds ahead flat
- I personally like the new styling EXCEPT the larger wheel flairs and larger rear first aid hump

Here are a couple pics of the actual story from the Toronto Star (I'm looking in the rear cargo area in the first page and driving through the little ravine at right on the second page):

FUCKING AWESOME

Congrats to you guys for getting in on the press action, way to go!

I am curious as to where they are going to be putting the sub in the Rockford Fosgate package. Same placement as in 03 and 04's?

FYI - Stan Josey, who wrote the article (and is a reporter for the Toronto Star) is also an X owner and a member of SOXC...

Awesome is the understatement !!!

We were very privliged to be able to see let alone drive the new '05. It was both benificial to the Club as well to Nissan Canada !!! Two Thumbs Up for them !!!

I'm in the pic as well - on the roof !!!

The Sub is located under the drivers seat - which allows the cargo area to ... carry cargo !!!

Overall a great new Vehicle to keep the Market Fresh !!!

FYI...

Canadian 5150 is on the roof...
Xcited is looking under the hatch...
CRAZ4SNO (me) is testing out the rear bumper step...
Stan (the writer) is driving it in the interior pic...

The engine rocks... turn off VDC and you can peel her real easy!

Diff lock can get you out of many sticky situations...

and the seats... where can i get some for my 2000? they rock... with adjustable lumbar support... way more comfortable.

this truck is very capable, and with it being the same front end as the titan... think of the lift possibilities!!! (same underneath)

I posted a picture of it in my pictures from the plant tour but it seems the post has been deleted.

Is that in Canadian currency? I thought the price would be comparable to todays prices. (as seen on the "Build your Xterra" on the nissanusa.com)

Yup, threw me too at first until I realized the article was from Canada.

Yeah, that's CDN $$...

Anyone knows what this is about? 2005 Xterra Brochure???

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayIS...sspagename=WD1V

Anyone know how accurate the prices are in the "Build Your X-Terra" section at the Nissan Site for the 2005 X? Has pricing been finalized yet? If it's accurate, I'm going to be very happy come Feb/Mar.

KFJ

I WANT MY 2005 XTERRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW Did they ever get this guy off the roof? He looks like he wasn't going ANYWHERE but home with the vehicle.

Hehe... no, he's STILL on the roof back at the Nissan Canada Tech Centre still trying to figure out how the hell to get down!

Another thing we forgot to mention is that after our week with the 05, Peter B (the Product Planning Manager for Nissan) invited all of us over to the Nissan Tech Centre for a "Tech Session" where we got to see and go over all of the 3 gens of 05 Xterra prototypes, got to talk and ask questions, and had lots of pizza and drinks! It was great!

In regards to the pic of us in the paper, here is a funny one that one of our members posted on our board showing "What we were REALLY thinking:"

(Sorry for the size, but you souldn't read it otherwise...)

Around 1am Wisconsin time this morning I was watching the speed channel or something and they had the NEW XTERRA on there... looked alright and all.. That goofy top lock on the basket ... I liked the back step on there was alright right looking... then the handle for opening the hatch looked weird on the right hand side more.. and the inside looked sweet lots of room .

Over all it looks nice but I would have to wait like 5 more years to get one maybe or till mine DIES OUT<< -- what ever is 1st...

Talk to you later...


BOOM

may I just stop and say something completely off-topic? (or is it?)

Longest.

Thread.

EVAR!!! :p

Back to the Xterra. Hate the dial for 4wd, LOVE the 6 speed 350Z based transmission,(Automatics are ) like the 250HP bit, hate everything else, especially the electronic throttle.

FWIW, the Service Mgr at a local dealer that sponsors our club said that all the complaints about the dial in 4wd (vs lever) is a pile a hooey. He said in all his years with Nissan he has NEVER seen a problem with ANY of their e-controlled 4wd controls.

On another note, FYI - we were told by nissan that the HDC on the 05 is a VERY advanced and complex system, far superior to that in ANY of its rivals (4runner, etc).

so sad that none of those VDC, HDC or HSA will be available for the Xterra with manual tranny.

I don't doubt that it works properly (after all, this is Nissan we're talking about, not Ford) but it's still a wussy thing. Same for the ETC - I'm sure it works fine, but the throttle has no feel. I have always preferred cable throttle. Oh well, I know I'm fighting a losing battle, so no point in bitching about it I guess. Neither of my vehicles have it, so that's all that matters for now...