Thanks for your response, Saturday.

Good suggestion checking the tranny fluid. I'll do that next chance I get.

The reason I went to the torque converter is due to a past experience I had. My mother and I both used to have '94 Mustang GTs. One time I drove hers and noticed that it didn't have near the "snap" in terms of accelleration and it just felt sluggish compared to mine. I mentioned it to her and she mentioned it to the dealer. Upon hearing her complaint, one of the mechanics in the shop said that he new what the issue was and it had to do with the torque converter. He made some adjustments to the TC and it was like a whole new car. The performance I'm seeing from my Xterra lately "feels" like what I experienced with my mother's Mustang.

I can definitely take it to the dealer, but I know how these types of complaints normally go in a dealership shop. Not wanting to spend a alot of time chasing a vague issue, they will simply say that they don't see any problem and that it's "normal", unless I can give them as specific information as I can to track down the issue.

Then again, maybe it's all in my head and this is just how Xterra's are. It sure seemed like it ran much stronger, before, though. It's only got 8,500 miles on it.

So, I'll pose these questions to recent model year Xterra owners with auto transmissions:

- When you take your foot off the brake when the truck is in drive, does it roll, or do you have to give it gas for it to move? Most automatic cars/trucks I've driven will role when you lift your foot off the gas. My Xterra does not. Does this indicate a potential issue?

- When you get to a hill on a normal road, does the truck slow down significantly and you have to force a downshift by almost flooring the gas to maintain speed?

- Does the truck never seem to be in the "right" gear? It seems like the truck is always either "bogging" out or I have to nail the gas to get it to downshift, in which case it takes off like a bat-out-of-hell! Is there no way to just get moderate, smooth acceleration from this truck?

Is the above normal for the Xterra, or is my truck not performing properly?