Well not me but my brother. Its time for him to graduate fro his honda to a truck he likes the looks of the Xterra. So my question is what to look for when buying? Are there any "bad" years?
We have been looking at 05's
Well let me know what to look out for.
Thanks
Hunter
I'll second Oz's push on 07s being the best years (that's what I've got).
Depending on the type of wheeling and mods he's going to do, here's where he might want to go:
Mild to moderate wheeling, no real changes to suspension or drivetrain - here'd I'd suggest taking the time to find the OR model. If you get the manual you'll have a 6spd tranny, factory skids (better than nothing), a rear locker, and a clutch lock-out cancel as well as upgraded Bilstein shocks. With the automatic you swap out the clutch lock for Hill Descent Control. It's certainly a good base if he's not going to bang the hell out of it. Then I'd suggest sliders as a good bit of armor to start with, migrating to replacement skids and bumpers as necessary. Definitely upgrade to 32 or 33" tires (Nitto, BFG, etc). Gas mileage will suffer but the stock tires just aren't that good off-road. Note that this may mean he'd need to do the melt mod, but that's a minor thing to do.
Hard core wheeling, major upgrades to the drive train, large lifts, etc - then he might as well get any of the Gen2 models in the base trim so he can put the money into the mods. Depending on budget, that could include SAS, Titan swaps, major lifts, upgrading the shocks/springs, etc. No sense paying extra for parts he's just going to replace.