Used 2006 Nissan Xterra SUV Consumer Reviews
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Bad Tranny makes it terrible
Ed, 10/03/2016
2006 Nissan Xterra S 4dr SUV 4WD (4.0L 6cyl 5A)
48 of 50 people found this review helpful
I bought this vehicle brand new in 06. I fell in love with the exterior styling. Did all the required scheduled maintenance. At 59, 980 miles the transmission failed(coolant mixed with engine oil-a common problem with this model and year). However the warranty was up to 60,000 miles so it was covered. At 100,000 miles the same thing happened. The dealer quoted me $9,500 to repair! I was ready to junk it at that point since the repairs would be more than the value of the car. But decided to contact Nissan Corporate and going back and forth Nissan actually covered the repairs because it was the second incident! I have to give Nissan credit for doing this. However, the aggravation of the whole event was not fun. At 135,000 miles a guy I know who owns a local transmission shop changed around some of the hoses so the problem will not occur again, for $100. I do not understand how or why the Nissan dealership did not do this after the first failure, or esp. after the second failure? I now have 235,000 miles and the vehicle needs more repairs (2 catalytic converters and ball joints) to pass inspectionso I am going to sell it for cheap. If it wasn't for the transmission/radiator problem this vehicle is good. But that is a Major problem for anyone who doesnt have the hoses changed around.
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2006 XTERRA GOING STRONG
Frank, 07/04/2016
updated 07/05/2017
2006 Nissan Xterra X 4dr SUV 4WD (4.0L 6cyl 5A)
39 of 41 people found this review helpful
I bought this as a second SUV. Its a good running SUV and performs well. I did remove the cooling lines from the radiator and placed it on its own cooling system to prevent damage to the trans. Cost about 200.00 and well worth it. You can do it yourself in about an hour. I will be replacing the headlights because they or get bad with scratches from age. Cost about 130.00 apiece if you do it yourself. Takes about 2 hours. My SUV has 157000 miles and going strong. Change oil every 5000 and just had the Trans system flushed and oil changed out. I am going for 300000 on this one and then I will have the motor rebuilt or replaced. Just updated this report. Xterra going great. Have a great 4th of July.
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Great SUV
Keith, 05/31/2006
2006 Nissan Xterra Off-Road 4dr SUV (4.0L 6cyl 5A)
28 of 30 people found this review helpful
I've had my Xterra for about a month now and I have to say, I am impressed. I take my X to the beach, in the woods and around town. The ride, handling and performance is better than I expected from a nearly 4000 pound truck. The engine is great! This thing gets up and goes when you need it to. The utilitrack in the back is a great feature if you have the cargo organizer. I use the roof rack for my surfboards and I'm looking into a clamp- on safari cage for my camping gear. The Fosgate stereo is pretty sweet for a factory system. Gas mileage is the only downfall, but what do you expect from a 4.0-liter engine? Overall a great SUV that is fun to drive! I highly recommend it.
Still love my Xterra 9 years later
Kris, 07/13/2015
2006 Nissan Xterra S 4dr SUV (4.0L 6cyl 6M)
32 of 35 people found this review helpful
I bought my xTerra new in Aug 2006 so I've owned it almost 9 years. This is the longest I've ever owned a car! Typically would trade cars after 3 to 5 years because they'd start giving me problems but this Nissan has been great. I honestly love it. It looks great and runs great. I love the powerful engine. Accelerating in traffic is easy. I sit high so I can so over and around cars. The inside is low maintenance and easy to clean. I have a base model with no electronics so that's why the low rating on electronics. I only get about 16 miles per gallon....occasionally 15 for some reason and I can't understand that. Half of my driving is freeway. I don't drive fast, brake hard etc. My boss drives a big Yukon and we get the same mileage! Another friend has a Dodge Ram 2500 pickup and gets the same mileage. Ford Expedition gets 16 mph and is twice the size. Still, I've done the math for what I would save in a year at 16 mpg and 20 mpg. The savings would only be $300 a year ($25 a month) so I'd rather have the Xterra. For the most part, I've only done regular maintenance. Oil changes, tire rotations, alignments. I've had one tuneup. I replaced the tires at 60k and again recently at 100k. I do think I should get more miles from the tires but I only drive about 12k a year so I'm changing out tires every 4 to 5 years, which is reasonable. I replaced brakes twice too. Non-routine maintenance includes: 1. The driver's side window motor had to be replaced. I rolled it down one morning and it wouldn't go back up. 2. The fuel sensor went out after 3 years so I never had any idea how much gas was in the tank. I managed by the number of miles I was getting per tank! I didn't replace it because I figured it would be recalled due to the number of failures. And after a couple of years, it was recalled. Nissan replaced it for no charge and I only ran out of gas once in the 2-3 years I drove without it. I'm not sure the sensor fully works even now because it's supposed to have a 21 gallon tank but I have to fill up at 16-17 gallons. I don't sweat this since it's registering Empty earlier than it really would be. 3. The AC fan 2nd speed went out and had to be replaced. Speeds 1, 3 and 4 still worked so this was just an inconvenience more than a real repair I needed. 4. One of the engine igition coils went out around 100k miles. That's all I can recall having repaired. Four visits to the repair shop in 9 years is reasonable to me and better than any other car I've owned. Current issues I've noticed are: 1. There is a squeaking sound sometimes that can drive me crazy. For a while I thought it was the seats so I sprayed WD40 on everything that looked like it could use it. I did some reading and it seems like it could be the hood. That makes sense because when I close the doors, I hear the squeak outside the truck. This is intermittent - I don't hear it everytime I'm driving. But when I do, it's pretty loud and squeaks the whole drive. Hoping to find out if replacing the hood stops would fix that. 2. The back hatch shocks no longer hold the back up so I need to replace them. I found some youtube videos that show me how I can do that myself so I will be doing that shortly. This year truck is notorious for cracking the radiator so I'm thinking of trading it before that happens. It would suck to have this near perfect vehicle be completely useless and worth nothing because I drove it one day too long! But I can't say enough good things about it. Mine has been a joy to own and to drive. If I do trade it, I promise that I'll miss it!
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A Rolling Money Pit
jskirwin, 08/23/2014
updated 02/26/2018
2006 Nissan Xterra SE 4dr SUV (4.0L 6cyl 5A)
30 of 34 people found this review helpful
There's a very good reason why this truck has been rated as one of the worst used cars to buy. We bought our 2006 new. Mechanically things were fine for about 40k miles, and after that the truck simply fell apart even with constant maintenance. After warranty expired I replaced: Windshield. Both window lift assemblies and controls. The bearings and control arms on all 4 wheels. The rear differential. Rear lift arms. Alternator. Spark plugs and wires. Catalytic converters. But worst of all was the radiator/transmission cooler failure. That allowed the coolant to mix with the tranny fluid killing the transmission. It is a known problem - so avoid this truck and the heartache it brings. Because of the ruined transmission I ended up selling this vehicle to a dealer for $900 with 170,000 miles on it, which is less than I paid for many of the repairs. Worse vehicle I've owned since the 1980s, and because of Nissan's refusal to help, I'll never buy a car from them again. 2017 update: Avoiding Nissan is easy. There are plenty of better SUVs out there. Don't know whether the later gens fixed this problem but I would still make sure this problem has been fixed before buying a new/used one. 2018 update: This was one of the last truck based utilities on the market before it was discontinued. It’s a shame Nissan screwed it up. It could have been so much more.
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Great
faroglobal, 06/08/2006
2006 Nissan Xterra Off-Road 4dr SUV 4WD (4.0L 6cyl 5A)
7 of 7 people found this review helpful
Terrific all round vehicle for the mountainous Western US. Performs well in snow and semi-desert conditions. Gas mileage is not terrific. Comfortable off road and excellent handling in all conditions. Replaced an excellent 1986 Toyota 4x4 Land Cruiser Diesel w/ 200,000 plus miles. I expect the same with this.
Great - until after 100K
nomaddriver, 01/07/2015
2006 Nissan Xterra X 4dr SUV 4WD (4.0L 6cyl 5A)
10 of 11 people found this review helpful
Bought my 2006 Xterra new... LOVED IT. The design was awesome. It was a bit rough (its a truck after all) but comfortable overall. Powerful engine, though hard on gas. All sweet for first 3 yrs/ 65K miles. After that things started to all apart. Fuel sensor crapped out so I couldn't tell how much gas is left based on the fuel gauge. The driver windows stopped working. U-joints went. By the time I passed 100K, the transmission fluid leaked into the radiator and vice versa. Spent $1500 to replace the radiator and flushed the trans. only to have them tell me that I need a new transmission - $4-$5K (at 110K I wasn't able to go in reverse). Couldn't afford it so traded it at a loss.
Second xterra, best vehicles I ever owned!
Ernie, 02/09/2018
2006 Nissan Xterra Off-Road 4dr SUV 4WD (4.0L 6cyl 6M)
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
I owned a gen 1 before I bought my gen 2. Bought my gen 1 with 167k on a failed odometer, not sure how many miles were on it. Owner never changed the oil and it ran fine (I did). Drove it two years and sold it. My 06 second gen has been amazing. Only issue I have had is with the universal joint in the back, it likes to chew them up. This is probably due to the fact mine is an off road addition and has a higher lift causing the transmission input angle to be higher causing premature failure of those bearings. It is what it is. I have driven this thing through everything including snow, ice, mud, you name it. Pulled people out of snow banks on the side of the highway, drove through 6 inch plus of snow and my X didn't even flinch. Comfortable, fun to drive, and reasonable gas mileage for what it offers. I have 200k on the odometer and it's still running strong. I will keep it until it dies (probably never will).
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General Review
cristella, 12/10/2011
2006 Nissan Xterra X 4dr SUV (4.0L 6cyl 6M)
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
My Xterra has 94,000 miles on it. I've kept up with all required/suggested maintenance and inspections. The only thing I had to replace were the tires at 40,000 miles and they are due to be replaced again. No problems whatsoever.
Buy One
Brandon, 07/26/2006
2006 Nissan Xterra SE 4dr SUV 4WD (4.0L 6cyl 5A)
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
This is the second Xterra I have purchased and I am sure I will be buying more. I use my vehicle for work, home repairs and vacations and it couldn't be a better fit. Amazing stability control with simple to use 4 wheel drive means its safe in all conditions. Killer stereo, good looks and convenient design make me like it even more. Pulls 5,000 lbs no problem and still gets 22+ mpg on the highway (not pulling 5k).
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