Jeff, you missed my signature. No, I don't own a unibody Jeep, and the Dana 44 was standard on mine. I wasn't referring to the Liberty, but rather the Wrangler series. But, like the Xterra, if you have the money, you can build most anything: SAS Liberty.

These are our toys:



We have the pleasure of owning both. Once again, I speak from experience, rather just winging it.

As I said, cast aluminum housing anything, isn't near as strong as a Dana anything. You buy yourself an 05/06, swing by my house, we'll perform a ball peen test. I'll enlighten you why cast aluminum is a piss poor choice of material on something that's subject to impact.

It's nice that with the Jeep I had the option of getting different axles, or lockers front AND rear. Even after the sale, I can swing by the dealer and have them add a lift kit, etc. I wish Nissan offered more options and upgrades.

There's a lot of things I really like about the Xterra (motor, room, comfort, ABLS, etc), but it's got some faults too. The weak front axle housing, wussy plastic interior, lack of real bumpers, very limited aftermarket support, etc. It's a great all around vehicle, but it doesn't excel at everything.