I Want to Believe: Nissan May Find a Way to Bring Back the Xterra

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

Do you miss the Nissan Xterra? Me, too. Appropriately blocky and truck-like in all the right ways, Nissan’s midsized off-road SUV was a great blend of tough looks and actual, y’know, functionality.

The old Xterra vanished from showrooms in 2015. Reading between the lines of a statement made by the head of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s light commercial vehicle division and reported by Aussie site Drive, a new one may be on the horizon.

Speaking at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show, Ashwani Gupta made very encouraging noises about the future of body-on-frame vehicles in the company’s lineup.

“What I can assure you is Nissan is concentrating and Nissan is extremely competent on frame-based vehicles, frame-based trucks and frame-based SUVs and we are going to cover each and every segment of frame,” said Gupta. “Now when? I think you’ll have to wait a little bit longer, please wait a little bit longer to Beijing Motor Show.”

Granted, this statement was made to Australian media, whose home market has a vehicle mix quite different than our own. Still, with carmakers on a never-ending quest to streamline their global offerings and cut the number of individual platforms, there’s room to suggest that a hairy chested body-on-frame SUV in the style of Xterra may make a return to American showrooms.

Given our market’s thirst for SUVs and crossovers, and automakers’ thirst for profits, such a machine would make a lot of sense if Nissan can affordably adapt the platform to suit North American tastes and preferences. Most of Nissan’s current crop of high-riders are unibody designs, from the Rogue Sport all the way up to the seven-passenger Pathfinder, which ditched its rough-and-tumble roots several years ago. Only the slow-selling Armada uses a BoF design.

It has been widely reported that the next Frontier mid-sized truck will be unique from the Navara pickup sold in other markets, as the company feels the Navara platform is too agricultural for this side of the pond. Looking at the engineering effort put into the Canyon/Colorado twins, not to mention the popular Tacoma, they may have a point. Spreading the development costs over two models, especially with one whose nameplate enjoys good juju, would make a lot of sense.

The old Xterra has legions of fans, thanks to the trucklet’s rough-n-ready image and the chops to back it up. It is certainly not a machine one would be afraid to get dirty and, thanks to Nissan’s glacier-like design cycle, an ’05 looks remarkably like a ’15. All this helps to buoy the Xterra’s value on the used car market.

If any this comes to fruition, Nissan wouldn’t be the only OEM bringing back a popular nameplate. Ford is currently in the never-ending throes of bringing back the Bronco (if they don’t show a concept this year in Detroit I’m going to hurl this laptop into the sea) and GM has been making overtures about putting the Blazer name on some sort of machine in the near future.

Nissan has not officially announced any timetable for a new Xterra or Frontier. Won’t keep us from hoping for one, though.

[Images: Nissan]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • Kc1980 Kc1980 on Oct 31, 2017

    Problem is it will probably come back as a cuv based on the sentra, or some nonsense like that.

  • CincyDavid CincyDavid on Nov 01, 2017

    I was just thinking today that when my beater '06 Kia Sportage dies I'd love to get a "real" SUV of some sort, something NOT car-based. My only beef with the old Xterra was the same thing I hate about Toyota small trucks...I feel like I'm sitting on the floor with my legs sticking straight out, just like I would be in an Accord, just a lot higher off the ground. It's much more comfortable for me to sit higher off the floor with my legs lower...less hip pain. My college-age son would just love to get an Xterra...it's a close second to a Wrangler in his eyes. Of course he doesn't think a greenish gold Sportage with peeling clear coat on the hood is cool at all?!?

    • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Nov 01, 2017

      "Greenish gold Sportage" That was not a very well-aging color for that car.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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