A crossover vehicle doesn't have to be a compromise, and for proof, look no further than the Xterra. This new sport-ute from Nissan sits on the large side of the mini-SUV scale, but don't be alarmed by the truck's physical size: the price is tiny by comparison. While no official figures have yet been released, Nissan promises that the Xterra will top out at less than $26,000 for an SE model loaded to the gills.
Designed at Nissan Design International (NDI) in La Jolla, Calif., the Xterra is intended strictly for the American market. It's the most truck-like of this group of mini-SUVs, and that's not accidental. Unlike the other vehicles in this test, the new Xterra is based on a real truck; namely, the Frontier compact pickup. And if the Xterra looks familiar, that's because it shares the same hood, front fascia, A-pillars, windshield and front doors as its genetic source: the front is, well, all Frontier.
From other angles, however, it's hard to see any similarities. The wheelbase, at 104.3 inches, is shared with the Frontier, and so is the independent front suspension and leaf-spring setup at the rear. But because buyers see the sheetmetal, the Xterra is able to make a name for itself (a name that means, by the way, "terra" for the land it crosses and "X" for the intended generation of buyers). The Xterra's rear boasts individuality, if not appeal. Taillights form some odd geometric shapes, with the white, angled reverse lights appear out of place. The spare tire is located underneath the truck but still in view from behind, not the choice location for heavy-duty off-road aficionados.
Strangest of all is the shape of the rear window and indeed of the hatch's sheetmetal itself. NDI decided to put a recessed area in the rear door, a gimmicky feature that's meant to hold a first-aid kit. Unfortunately for the Xterra, the resulting deformation of the rear door makes it look like somebody fell asleep at the drafting table. The location of the first-aid "backpack" results in a slight humpback on the truck, and it gives the hatch a piece of rear glass the shape of Nebraska.
From all other angles, however, we love how the Xterra presents itself. It's not unlike a Land Rover from frontal and side angles, characterized by a squarish nose and a large roof rack that hides the up-sloping roofline. The roof rack comes with adjustable rails for carrying cargo of all shapes and sizes. For smaller items, there's even a plastic cargo tray up front that will hold up to 30 pounds of odds and ends.
The Xterra is being marketed as a mini-SUV to avoid treading on the toes of its bigger brother, the Pathfinder, but how well it does that is questionable. As one editor commented, "This is going to make the Pathfinder a moot point." The Xterra is 178 inches long, only 0.3 inches shorter than the Pathfinder. Both offer a V6 engine, and the Xterra offers more legroom for rear passengers (by an inch) and its increased width provides slightly more room for the hips. The Pathfinder will be marketed to a more upscale audience that wants more options, but the Xterra is where you'll find the real bargain.
But because this is a comparison test between mini-SUVs, let's look at how it stacks up against the assembled competition. Xterra's standard engine is a 2.4-liter four-cylinder that makes 143 horsepower and 154 foot-pounds of torque. Our four-wheel-drive XE model had the optional V6, a motor that feels brawny compared to the others in this test, and at 200 accessible foot-pounds of torque, the 3.3-liter unit never felt or sounded underpowered. It also helped propel the Xterra from zero to 60 in 10.8 seconds, which is only about a second slower than the lightweight Subaru.
Front-seat occupants sit sport-coupe style, with legs more prone than what we consider normal in a vehicle of this height (very much like the seating position in an Isuzu Rodeo). On the plus side, there is plenty of legroom. Five seating positions are available, but as with the other vehicles in this class, it's a squeeze to fit three adults in the rear-seat bench. Taller passengers will want to avoid the window seats in back due to a roofline that loses some headroom close to the doors.
The Xterra's cargo capacity has not been made official, but preliminary specifications put it at 66 cubic feet, which is just one cubic foot short of the CR-V and three feet less than the class-leading Jeep Cherokee. The rear-seat bottoms must be removed to fold the seats flat (an annoyance, but the seat bottoms can then be used as portable seatbacks). When expanded to its full potential, the Xterra's interior swallowed up all six members of our staff during a frigid lunch break while off-roading at chilly Gorman, Calif. The fact that four people can sit in the cargo area cross-legged without touching knees says volumes about the Xterra's cargo room.
On the road, the Xterra's recirculating-ball steering offers less feedback than the competition, but that turns out to be a blessing off-road. Large all-terrain tires don't help in the road-feel department, but they manage to soak up freeway expansion joints and potholes with ease. Through the slalom and on the skidpad, the Xterra turned in the obvious truck stats of the group, but we were impressed by this two-ton truck's consistent stopping distances, which were shortest of all at 125 feet. Standard antilock brakes don't hurt the Xterra's value.
Where the other trucklets on the off-road portion of this test made us tense up and shy away from obstacles, the Xterra and its big BFGoodrich P265/70R15 all-season tires simply ran them over. The only difficulty we found was in placing the meaty tires, which we realized were somewhere under the broad, flat hood. Determining their exact location took some skill, but confidence in the Xterra's abilities were never shaken, especially after scraping bottom in so many of the other wannabe SUVs.
The bar has been raised to new heights, and that bar is a powder-coated tubular roof rack with the word "XTERRA" stamped across in bold letters. For anyone to best Nissan, this class of vehicle had better become either much more powerful or much more economical. The Xterra's value is so good, in fact, that it's as if Nissan were somehow cheating. Ah, that's right: they started from the top and worked their way down.
While so many of the other guys are busy raising their cars higher off the ground, Nissan simply made their truck shorter front-to-back, and added a usable row of seats. Nothing complicated about it, except that the competition seems to be charging a lot more for what you get. Here's our vote for which direction we'd like to see the mini-SUV market turn. Instead of squaring off wagons and raising up cars, the industry would do well to downsize real trucks and make them behave more like cars. The mini-SUV gene pool would be a lot less mixed up.
