My wife and I have owned our Xterra for about a year now. My wife has been the primary driver....not a lot of miles .....about 6000 in a year. Just the other day for some reason she was complaining about a bouncy ride on the road.As I mentioned earlier she hardly ever drives the Xterra. We mostly carpool in the Jeep. I guess compared to our 1995 Jeep Cherokee Limited we have owned for 13 years she finally came to the realization that the Jeep definitely is more car-like in it's ride......could it be unibody construction compared to a ladder type frame. Don't get me wrong my wife loves the xterra. In many ways it is a much better vehicle than our Jeep....but she now is strongly believing the Xterra is more truck like. Just to reassure myself I took a new FJ Cruiser out for a spin to get a truck like comparison for myself and found the FJ is also bouncy but maybe because the suspension wasn't set up as stiffly. The ride did seem more compliant...yet the handling was not as precise as the Xterra. Most reviews I have read praise the Xterra over rides like the FJ Cruiser, Hummer 3 etc.... The Toyota 4 Runner seems to be a smoother ride and yet it is based on a truck chasis, I am not sure about the Pathfinder's ride as well, I'm guessing it might also be smoother. Sorry for the long post but can someone clarify why the Xterra ride seems a bit bouncy and stiff on the road....I know test rides should help but they are usually too short to tell. Could it be the shorter wheel base and height. Thanks for any input.

If your wife all of a sudden realized it's too bouncy...Is too much air in the tires possible? Like you...just recently got the tires rotate and balanced by a shop or something?

Um a jeep grand cherokee is very far from a car like ride.

The problem with the Xterra is the springs are way to soft and cause extreme bottoming out. The bump stops also hang too low. The 5" Calimini lift initially fixed it for me, but I am now back to square one. Probably need an overload springs and trimmed bump stop or Timbren Bump Stop.

This unfortunately is one of the 2 worst engineering problems of the Xterra after Differentials.