I picked up a 2005 Solar Yellow Offroad Xterra with 6400 miles on it for 22k. Within 12 hours of owning it we were on our first offroad excursion. We went up to Fall River just west of Idaho Springs, CO. I figured it would be a good trail to do since I dont have any experience and it was planned last minute. Well heres some pics of my buy and our trip.

Heres some pics of me parked on an incline with the creek in the background.

Another angle.

Heres the start of our trip.

Heres me going over a small washed out area.



Heres some pics at the end of the trail.



Thats the extent of the trip. There are some more pics of the scenery at the end of the trail that can be viewed here... Fall River Trail Pictures . I didnt want to post them all here and make the post load slow for anyone without broadband. Its probably to the limit now.

Looks sweet, now get rid of those Step Rails before they do damage! You'll hear that alot in here Those aluminum OEM rails bend if you hit a rock and do more damage than good.

Yup they are the first to go along with the mud flaps. I havnt had anytime to do anything to it yet, but that is on my list of things to do before I try any trails more difficult that that one.

nice...

Looking good..

nice pics!

Nice X! Check out your friendly neighborhood Xterra club at www.rmxc.net
We're having a meeting next Saturday the 17th of June at Observatory Park, then heading up to Alpine Spirit's house for poker and beer

Welcome aboard, SOLAR YELLOW RULES!!
GOing wheeling the same day you bought your rig? You'll fit in just fine up the withthte RMXC

X2

x3

well good new and bad new...

Bad news first... The Xterra is gone. They called me today and tried to boost my payment from 520 a month to 670 a month. Bank required I have gap insurance and extended warrenty (to match my Loan length) which added about 2500 to my loan. (my credit is maxed with the purchase of my house so I got a higher intrest rate than I had liked) We worked some numbers and get my payment down to 644 a month with a little more money down. but in the end it wasnt working out... So for the 3 day I had it I atleast got to take it offroad and show it what kinda life it should live. Whoever had it before me never took it offroad and Im sure who ever buys it next wont take it. So I feel like I set it free, if only for a brief moment of its life. lol

Now the good new, I bought a 2004 Frontier instead. Its 4x4 kingcab and its silver with 18k miles. Its hard to compare it to the Xterra, but its better than going back to my Mitsu Eclipse. Atleast I can still go wheeling. Already planning a trip this weekend. Something short and easy.

So hopefully I wont become an outcast here and possibly still hang out with the rmxc. Im a noob wheeler and any chance to learn from the veterans is one I will take without hesitation. Im thinking about doing the Fall River trail again this coming weekend to get a feel for the trunk since Im a little familur with it. If anyone would like to meet up and join let me know. Id like to meet some of you guys.

Get me on AIM at FantomRush if anyone wants to chat.

um did you sign contract @ first price? If so how and did you let that dealership screw you? Bank Loans have no effect on if your getting "Gap" or any other extended warrenty for that matter. I would cuss that dealership out, they "baited" and "switched" you.... i would return that frontier b4 its to late.

Didn't you have the paperwork w/ your payments signed when you left the dealership with the X? If you did that's your contract for your loan they can't just change it on you after it's signed.

That dealership is unethical to say the least. I hope you didn't buy the Frontier from them.

Check with your state consumer protection office and an attorney. If you've got a leg to stand on, stick it to 'em and make it hurt.

Also, search on this forum and see sites like carbuyingtips.com for plenty of info on avoiding this kind of crap. Are you eligible to join a credit union? Most will accept relatives of current members, so check into that, and make sure you know your credit score before you start the car buying process. Those assclowns at the dealer will tell you anything to make another buck off you.

Information is your friend. Going in unprepared is like wearing a sign that says, "Please screw me."

Edited to add: And I'm sorry that happened to you. It really sucks.

I didn't have all the paperwork completed when I took the X on Saturday. It was basically an estimate when I took the it off the lot and my wife wasn't there to complete the paper work. We were going back yesterday to complete the paperwork when we found out the payment was going to go up. So I don't think we had a legal completed contract since the paperwork wasn't completed and signed.

We didn't take the Frontier last night. It got late and my wife and I hadnt eaten dinner yet. We told them we would sleep on it and come back today to finalize the deal. I think the Frontier is better suited for our needs. They didn't have any decent ones on the lot on saturday when I went there looking at Xterras. We are remodeling our house right now so I think the frontier will be better for picking up supplies from Home Depot or Lowes. The only thing I don't like about the frontier is the 3.3 V6 and the gas mileage it gets. Atleast the 4.0 V6 had 100 more HP and gets simular gas mileage...

I also found another Frontier thats exactly the same at Tynan's for 2000 less with about 4000 more miles on it. I'm going to try and see if they will match that price. If not I may go to Tynan's and buy that one. They are the same trim level and color. I'll find out this afternoon.

Any other suggestions or opinions out there?

EDIT: I am a member of a credit union also. I havn't been there very long. I've already talked to them about getting a load. They said I could get a loan with them after I'm a member a little longer. I plan on refinancing after I can get a good rate thru them.

Good pics!

Wow - that sucks dude.

I paid a one time fee of $150 for Gap insurance through the dealership. When I went into financing I already had my loan approved through my bank, the only thing I didn't have was the Gap insurance, which I told the finance guy my bank would do for $150. So he just added it at $150 - no questions asked.

As for extended warranty etc. I still haven't purchased that yet, but will before the year is out. You don't have to buy that up front - You can add it later.

The bank was requiring I have the warrenty since I was financing it for 72 months. There was no way around it. But its all good. I like the frontier a little better since I can move stuff in it.

I've financed a vehicle for 72 months before, your bank sucks!

The extended warranty part is bogus. Consider that the regular warranty is 3/36, only powertrain is good to 6/60. Heck, domestics are only good to 3/36 for everything, including powertrain! So most anything after the 3/36 for Nissan is customer pay, extended warranties are your choice, like insurance at a blackjack table when a dealer pulls a face card, your choice.

Should've tried a dealer that's been around for a while.

We have a sweeeet '02 X sitting on the showroom right now. Blue (I don't remember which blue, not Just, not Denim, oh well), straight and 4x4. Well, the Frontiers are nice too.

So using the payment info from your previous post, you were going to pay a total of $37,440 for the Xterra.

Glad you said no to the higher payment, the total of which would have been $48,240.

tell me about it... lol Im paying a little higher interest rate since Im considered a medium-high risk with my debt to income ratio. After 6 months or so of making good payments I should be able to refinace to a better rate or even better refinace my house and just pay it off.

So you took the Frontier from the same dealer? Why would you reward them for bending you over a barrel?

It wasn't their fault for the payment going up. They were able to lower it, but after it was all said and done it was still a little more than I wanted to pay.

My wifes Brother in Law is the parts/service manager there so we were getting a better deal than most people would get. They know we are related so they wouldn't try and screw us over. We actually got the employee price on the xterra and the frontier. I actually got another 1500 off of the frontier because of the sour deal on the xterra. Basically I got a 2004 4x4 Frontier XE offroad, fully loaded with a vinyl bed cover and only 18k miles for $15,999 plus tag, tax and title.

I think they were in the wrong. You had a verbal agreement, you took possession of the merchandise which means that both you and them accept the terms. They fulfilled their part of the contract by giving you the vehicle, on your part you had to pay what was agreed upon when you took possession of the vehicle.

However, if they don't want that and they take back the vehicle and you owe them zero, your don't have any losses so there isn't much you can do.

Yeah I was definatly not out anything. I took the Xterra off the lot with a full tank of gas, put 350 miles on it over the weekend (including taking or offroad), and I brought it back with the low fuel light on. lol So I bascially went thru about $60 worth of fuel and it cost me nothing in the end.

The sales man was like where did you take this thing... It was covered in dust and mud all over the wheels and inside the fenders. The inside was all dusty from driving the trail with the windows down. I bet the lot tech who had to clean it was pissed when he got it. lol

It was a good time while I had it.