Even though the vast majority of my mileage will come on asphalt, I decided to go with the OR for the times I get away from it all. I didn't find the ride quality to be much different than the S/SE (though tire noise is a bit higher), and figured that while I might save a few bucks, in the long run I'd regret not having the off-road equipment when I really need it. The trade-off seems worth it for my needs.

I do have a 60-mile daily roundtrip commute, but I'm planning on adding some quieter, softer highway-biased tires for that, and saving the OR tires for just that purpose (such as when I make the annual pilgrimmage out West). My thinking was that it's easier to get the rear locker now, rather than try to add it later. Conversely, I reasoned that it's easier to "soften up" an Off Road with a simple tire swap than it is to "toughen up" an S or SE with a whole bunch of stuff later.

I checked the inventories of Western Nissan dealerships (particularly in CO) and found that the majority of their stock consists of Off Roads, whereas in Michigan ORs are seemingly quite rare. Since I travel to Colorado regularly for camping and fishing trips, this seemed like a good hint for me as to which model to choose.

Right here in Michigan, we get lots of people who run the Sleeping Bear Dunes on Lake Michigan in Jeeps and dune buggies and such, and I've heard that a locker can be quite handy in certain situations (though admittedly at higher speeds at which the stock locker doesn't operate, to my understanding).

I chose the Xterra because it is specifically intended for a higher level of off-road performance, and I took the "in for a penny, in for a pound" approach when I went with the Off Road since the slight on-road penalties are far outweighed by its capabilities in the dirt, at least according to the many owners that have attested to it. YMMV.

Oh, and I thought the OR's wheels were the best-looking of the bunch, which was the real kicker. :p

Next phone call goes to Shrockworks!