My wife and I purchased her a red 09 xterra about 3 weeks ago and so far we love. This is our first X but not our first nissan. My question is what is the best thing to use for keeping the top plastic in good shape? Do you wipe it down with armor all or what? We looked at some used x's that had the top and front plastics faded out and it looked terrible so I wanted to keep it protected with some form of uv protector to keep it from happening.

Meguir's Back to Black is what I use.

I'll second the Back to Black. Most people try not to use Armor All

You can always buy new panels... they're not that expensive...


just don't paint them black.... that looks awful

If they get old and start to turn light grey in spots like mine, as a last resort, you can use a heat gun on low setting in an overlapping pattern, just like spray painting, and the color and shine come right back. Sounds crazy, but it works! check out the video on YouTube, heat gun on plastic.

that heat gun thing is interesting. My front grill, and trims are faded, I should try it on that.

I would definitely do it before I bought new panels. The only thing is you have to do it on the low setting and not stay in the same area too long at once. But it does work. Save some bucks!