This past summer, about five or six months after purchasing my X, I noticed that the armrest on the passenger side had some of the paint rubbed off of it (I guess it is paint). The "paint" is dark gray and the surface under it is lighter gray. It doesn't look too bad, and actually it adds character.

How'd it happen? Well, I don't know for sure, but I am pretty sure that my 13-year-old son rested his leg against it, and he probably had insect repellent (OFF) on at the time.

Yesterday, I took my X to the dealer to have a few nits corrected before the warranty for those things expire. I brought up the armrest, and I told them the same thing I told you, that I suspect that my son's leg, with insect repellent, was in contact with the armrest. So the service rep jumped on that. "We can't cover that, your fault, etc." She wrote on the ticket "Son sprayed chemical on armrest."

I told her that is not what I said or what happened. Anyway, it didn't bother me that they're not covering it, because like I said, it's part of the character of my truck and it probably was our fault.

Now, after the service people finished doing the other stuff and I was signing the papers, the rep then said that she ordered the armrest part and that they were going to go ahead and replace it. Cool. We'll see if that happens. If they do replace it, I'll post in the Dealership forum.

Backtrack... actually, I don't really think it is all our fault. I think Nissan is somewhat at fault to make a surface in the passenger area of the vehicle that will discolor or rub off when in contact with a common substance used by people, especially outdoor people.

LESSON FOR XTERRA OWNERS OUT THERE -When out in your vehicle (which is designed to support outdoor lifestyles) following your outdoor lifestyle, and you happen to be using insect repellent while following your outdoor lifestyle, be careful. You might melt the paint inside your outdoorsy vehicle.