The New Xterra Might Be the Best Thing to Happen to Overlanding in Years

All right, guys.

So as I mentioned in the intro, today I'm driving home from just having put my Hyperlyon camper on.

I'm super excited to get this thing out for its first trip.

Um, but in the meantime, I wanted to talk a little bit about the new Xterra.

Uh, Nissan has released some pictures, and if you're watching on the YouTube or if you're watching on Spotify, I'll throw some pictures up here, but if not, you can Google it, you know, new Xterra, 2027 Xterra.

They've just released some teaser shots.

Right now it looks kind of Xterra-esque, but mostly just aggressive and sort of new, right? So what does the Xterra mean? Let's sort of start by, by talking about that.

So if you are not familiar, again, keeping this pretty high level and providing context for folks that aren't Nissan people, Nissan made the Xterra from like...

I think it was like '98, '99, I think was the first year through '04 was the first gen, and then '05 through 2015 was the second gen.

And it was basically the same for pretty much that whole 10 years.

Now, there was a slight fascia update from '05 to '10.

In like 2010/11, that's when they fixed the SMOD issue, or the Strawberry Milkshake of Death.

So if you have a 2010 to '15 Xterra, that's kind of the golden, uh, sheep, right? Like, that's kind of what everyone is looking for because they don't make them anymore.

They're so cool.

They're such short wheelbase.

They were great off-road.

They were super underestimated.

It's the same 4.0 liter 6 cylinder and 5-speed transmission that also came in the Frontiers for, you know, 15 years or so.

So I mean, these things are just proven and rock solid.

So what does the new Xterra mean to overlanding, specifically for Nissan people, but for everybody? It's gonna push everybody to, you know, sort of get better, to improve, to think about new ways to catch up with things like the Xterra.

Because the Xterra was a serious competitor through 2015, and now even more so I feel like it has grown on people where they're like, "Wow, this thing is half the price of a comparable 4Runner and just as capable and pretty much just about as reliable." So the new Xterra to me means...

It's a, it's a good thing because it means that Nissan is also turning their eye back to us, the enthusiasts, the off-roaders, the campers, the overlanders.

Uh, so the fact that they are willing to take a chance, and they've also said it's going to be a naturally aspirated V6, so most likely the same 3.8 liter that is in the Frontiers right now, which is also an amazing engine.

Been around for about six, seven years now, uh, and it's pretty proven, pretty bulletproof as well.

Um, and likely, probably, if I had to guess, the same 9-speed or a very similar variant of the 9-speed transmission that's in this, that's in the Pathfinder, uh, that same sort of thing.