The Best Forgotten Off-Roaders! 

Xterra is so underrated. I always wanted one. Frontier is also underrated, especially the new ones. Naturally aspirated V6, nice 8 speed transmission. Not as "nice" as the new Colorados and Tacomas and Rangers but its nearly as reliable the last gen tacos and way more affordable. Doesn't take much to lift them and get 33s on them. Don't go bigger than that unless you Titan swap it, tho. Those CVs don't hold up well to more than mild off roading with anything bigger than a 33. A guy I follow on here has a '22 on 35s and keeps breaking it in the front. He's waiting on parts for a Titan swap.

Roman contemplating the ethics of assisted suicide while Tommy describes his love for the Jeep Liberty and won't shut up 🤣

Am I sensing a "Go Big" 3.0? Xterra vs Montero vs Trooper? That'd be too cool. Thanks guys!

Historians will be discussing why Nissan stopped making the Xterra a thousand years in the future

I have a 2010 xterra with 89k miles and it’s been great, got it for $9k from the original owner. At the time, it was $12k cheaper than a 4Runner with similar mileage.

Was there a 2 for 1 haircut special going on the Pennysaver?

Roman was 100% disgusted when Tommy brought up the liberty 🤣🤣🤣🤣

You are absolutely right about the Dakota! The 2009 Durango with the hemi is a hidden gem.

Glad he got a brand new wife and not a used one 😂😂

When I first moved to CO, I had a new 2008 JKU Rubicon that ended up being a buy back and I bought a 2010 Xterra Pro-4X to replace it. It wasn’t quite as good off the pavement, but it always made it through obstacles. It was also fantasticly reliable. I put thousands of off-road miles on it and it never skipped a beat. In 73k miles all I ever did to it was front brakes once and a new battery. Other than tires and oil changes. It never had one squeak or rattle either and it had so many miles on washboard roads.

Ah, poor Roman bought a car that he thought made him special but found out it didn't. Lets all shed a tear for him.

I love my ZR2 S-10 off-road rig.

A Nissan Xterra 4x looks amazing and always thought would be a fun off roader that’s reliable and different than a 4Runner.

Nissan should really bring back the Xterra. And do it properly. Not as some unibody CUV. Base it on the Frontier again. Everything has gone to "softroader". Bring back these Xterra types. Toyota has gone the right direction with the Land Cruiser (although I wish it had the 6 cylinder). I wish the Montero would make a comeback as well. Nissan and Mitsubishi are part of an alliance together. Maybe they can make something work? Who knows. I wish GM would've reserved the Blazer name for a proper off-roader. Not this street worthy vehicle they currently have. I loved the Blazers of the 90's (GMT400 based and the boxy solid front axle one of the 80's and early 90's) as well as the two door Yukon GT of the 90's. That thing was sweet. Thanks for the video guys.

Roman car show rant was great lol love the Roman rants

I'm from Quebec, Canada, and I just got done shopping for a used SUV. And I can garanty you that XTerras are everything but forgotten here... You can either have a rotted-out high mileage one for around 5000 CAD$, or a cleanish high mileage one between 7000 and 12000 CAD$. What still flies under the radar over here are Jeep WJs, which is what I ended up buying. Got a 2002 WJ Limited with all the bells ans whistles, really clean, H.O. V8, Quadra Drive, with 142000KM (88000 miles) for 5000 CAD$. And honestly, I don't know why I didn't start by searching for a WJ in the first place, as it's the most incredibly comfortable véhicle I've ever drove, compared to the stiffer Xterra which has leaf springs in the back!

I had an Xterra for 6 years, kinda loved it. It was reasonable price on the used market, had 4x4, and it wanted, can get it with a 6spd manual and a locker

Our 2nd gen 2008 Liberty is going strong at 170,000 miles, having done its fair share of off-road action. A 2” OME lift and some longer Bilstein shocks provided a nice lift with better than stock handling. Great interior space and smooth on and off road. We’ve also owned Land Rovers we’ve off-roaded over the last 20 years and currently wheel a 2020 Gladiator. No shame in a Liberty, but the sky slider is Russian roulette!

I have a 1st gen Colorado with the 5.3L and I love it. I wish the Colorado got the front and rear e locker like the H3 adventure/alphas but most of the H3 parts are interchangeable with the Colorado.

My leveled F150 FX4 is all I’d need, can go most places on/off-road and still tow 13k

I was surprised Kapizov signed with the Wild initially. I never thought he would set foot on NHL ice. I wouldn't be surprised if he signed with a NY team. It would be so reminiscent of Gaborik. I know he loves Florida though so he may sign with the Panthers when his contract is up.

94-96 Montero SR would be a great project to get. There is a decent amount of Mitsu members in Colorado as well to help source parts and aftermarket. If you wanted newer then 05/06 Limited with the Offroad traction control system is great as well. I own a 1995 SR built to the hilt and it's an Offroad weapon. My 2002 limited is my long distance Overlander.

I love the way Tommy moderates his father ❤

The Xterra has always been one of my favorites. My buddy Drew has one and it always performs on the trail. I have a Jeep Liberty, it may be my favorite Jeep. I know my wranglers will get the job done, but that Liberty usually will too and no one ever expects it to.

The list offered up here by the senior and junior Micas is, I think, a pretty good one. I had an Xterra. Mine was 5-speed manual and had a limited-slip rear differential. It could easily handle the overwhelming majority of legal, open routes on Forest Service and BLM land. I'm contemplating buying another as the Xterra is my Wifey-Pooh's favorite car. when equipped with a manual transmission. The KJ Liberty actually does have a reputation for being crap. Whether it is deserved, or not, it is there. My sister bought one when they first came out. She got 375,000 trouble-free miles out of hers. She put the biggest BFG AT's on it that would fit on stock wheels with no lift and used it on trails with no complaints. I got behind the wheel on a few fairly technical trails and concluded that I've certainly owned vehicles that were worse on the trail (Mitsubishi Montero 2DR, SLA-IFS Ford Ranger 4X4, stock Suzuki Samurai) than that thing. Land Rover..... I worked with a network of Land Rover dealers who offered customers off-pavement driving tuition, I was contracted to provide them with it. The original Discovery was fabulous and the Discovery II was, in some ways, even better on the trail. The Land Rover to buy here in North America, if auto mechanics isn't a hobby you embrace, is the LR 3 with the 4.4 V8. I know literally dozens of people who cling to the LR3, have nothing but praise for them, and have had no problems with them. I've driven them on trails from mild to wild and haven't missed the live drive axles they don't have. I wouldn't recommend anything beyond the LR3 from the Land Rover line. That's not because I think they're bad, per se, but just that they don't do anything any better or differently than other choices that might be more cost-effective to maintain. Ford Ranger..... I had a 2007 4X4 XLT with 4.0 SOHC, five speed, and 3.73 gears with LSD in the rear. As a trail machine, IT SUCKED. The earlier Rangers with the TTB IFS do not suck. The difference is that one iteration can't be bothered to keep both front tires on the ground on any surface more technical than a mall parking lot while the other older iteration had droop compliance galore. Hummer H-3........ The sight-lines out of these things completely suck and that's a shame because everything else about it is pretty damn good. Get one with at least rear LSD, put the biggest tires on it that'll fit with stock suspension, and you've got more capability than you need for the majority of open, legal routes on BLM and Forest Service lands. Low Range and Recovery Points......... Oh, Lord, here we go again, with Roman not understanding the gearing of the Renegade Trailhawk. A 4.33 ring and pinion X 4.7 first gear equals 20.351:1 mechanical gear reduction. In second gear, the mechanical reduction is 12,2972:1 As with every other vehicle with a torque converter, the mechanical reduction is augmented by 2:1 torque multiplication potential from the torque converter, so the potential effective torque multiplication in second is 24.5944:1 and first is 40.702:1. That's essentially the same gearing as my '73 Bronco had from first and second gears of its C4 automatic with it's Dana 20 in low range. When I run trails in my Renegade Trailhawk, I'm in second gear, most of the time, as I would have been in the same place with my old Bronco in four low. The gearing of a Renegade Trailhawk in first and second gear is on a par with just about every legacy body on frame, two-speed transfer case, automatic transmission equipped SUV sold in the U.S.A. from the 70s into the 00s. Jeep cleverly leveraged the 9.808:1 gear span of the ZF 9 HP transmission with its average 1.33:1 steps in gearing to get proper gearing for off-pavement use. Why Doesn't Subaru Go With A Low Range? Because they're not really meant for running the kind of trails that a Jeep Compass Trailhawk or Renegade Trailhawk is / was meant to be capable of handling. They don't have enough approach angle, for starters. I had a manual transmission Crosstrek in my household for about five minutes and it would have needed a hell of a lot more than a 2.42 to 2.7:1 low range to do what my 2015 Renegade Trailhawk could do off-pavement, right off the showroom floor. I know there are people out there who mod the things into doing what they shouldn't do stock, but I'd rather run trails in something closer to capable in stock form than spend money trying to make a Subaru in to something that more closely matches its marketing hype.

If you don't mind dealing with Mercedes maintenance, another one worth mentioning is the 1st generation Mercedes-Benz ML. They were surprisingly good off roaders back when they were introduced.

Had an 05 Xterra, it got significantly worse mileage than a 99 Suburban. Also changing the spark plugs basically required pulling the engine because one of them was less than an inch from the firewall so there was no way to remove it without at least disconnecting the transmission and lifting the rear of the engine.

I have a 2011 pathfinder and it’s actually pretty good. Bought it to tow my RSX-S to the track.

Xterra fuel economy is very similar to any v6 suv or pickup of that generation. I don't understand what's with all the fuss.

I love the Xterra, it was my first off roader, a 2002 4wd that I drove all over northern baja, now that the later pro4x are cheaper they are definitely a perfect choice. I now off road a first gen Sequoia although they are big, the wheel base is shorter than a Tundra, tons of space for gear and sleeping inside, 4.7 V8 ultra reliable and true low range with the options of 2wd, awd and 4wd, they are the only cheap 4wd Toyota that is left.

Tommy you have "Bedhead" again lol... comb that hair boy lol

I have an 07 fj and my old roommate had a 2015 pro4x xterra and it was sick. It had better passenger accommodations for sure. I’d say they are very competitive off-road. I’m a Toyota guy but the value you get with the Nissans is hard to overlook. I paid $15,500 out the door for the fj with 168k miles. He paid around that for almost a 10 year newer car with half the miles

I have a 2015 Nissan Xterra pro4x and I have a 2006 liberty renegade. The Xterra is awesome! That is my wife's car and she loves it. I bought the Liberty super cheap and i'm working on bringing it back from the dead. I put all new brakes all new suspension new rear axle it has 246,000 miles. It has a misfire on start up (due to lower compression) but once you get going the missfire goes away and runs great at highway speed. The engine will need to be replaced at some point but that will be a project for another day. Just need to get the rocker rust fixed and a respray and it will be as good as new.

Great discussion! I look forward to more in the future.

Lexus LFA >>> BMW i8. There were 500 LFA’s ever made and they were $375k!

I'm vehicle wholesaler. KBB is always high. Also keep in mind when your talking these older highly thought of vehicles like the Nissan, your going to pay a premium for it. A much closer to reality source for pricing use MMR. It's not perfect but it's much better than KBB. Old Tahoe's can fetch crazy prices when clean with low miles.

I had a Pathfinder in the early 1990’s. Loved the boxey shape & large tires. Transmission was trash.

Booyah 👊🏽 😁 👍🏽 🇺🇸 Clapped out 👏🏽 silverados and F150s

The problem with the Discovery 5 (other than the gamble on reliability) is that they haven’t finished depreciating yet, so it’s like you are taking a new car hit on a used car. You need to wait until they are at least as old as the LR3’s currently are so they have pretty much reached the bottom of the price curve and you can get them under $10k then sell them for nearly the same a couple years later.

The 1st gen Liberties with a mild lift and some upsized at tires are capable little Jeeps.

I had a 2006 Xterra that I bought new… 6 speed manual and basic af… I owned it over 12 years and loved off-roading it on the local trails. Wish I’d never sold it.

You guys should find a mint original 2003 zr2 s-10. Put it through the paces. Compare to new.

Found an Xterra 2015 with 120k miles in great shape. Clean, no massive modding. Just normal Xterra. And yes that's hard to find. Their value hasn't dropped since I got mine. Scarcity keeping value up at this point. (Though I see a lot of them here in California.)

Pajero, 3rd gen pathfinder, frontier, Xterra, Suzuki xl7, 1st gen tundra, 1st gen titan.

The used vehicle market is extremely volatile, and KBB just can’t keep up. People see what new vehicles sell for and start asking more for used vehicles, and for people that need a vehicle they are stuck either paying more for new, paying more for used, or walking.

Xterra Titan-swapped on 35s here. Great little affordable rig.

I'm definitely a Nissan guy (300ZX, 240SX, Frontier, Xterra) and currently own a 2012 Xterra Pro-4X (manual) with just under 100k miles. I absolutely love my rig. It has a 3 inch lift and 33's and I average around 15 MPGs (not bad!). The Xterra is smaller in size versus the 4Runner and the engine feels noticeably more torquey (regardless of what their respective HP and Torque numbers say). Nissan's performance division NISMO is making off-road bumpers, wheels, etc. for 2nd generation Xterra (and frontiers) and the aftermarket is decent. Grab a 2nd generation Xterra now if you can find a reasonable example.

Hey guys, fun show topic! Right on about Dakotas. The 99-04 is a sweet spot (I was a tech at Dodge till 94, whew, those were depressing times). Question, why the complete lack of a transfer case shifter in everything but Wranglers these days? (Well, theres also the OffRoad 4runner). Do customers really demand this? That solid lever in my trucks always reassured me. It might grind, but I knew it was going to engage eventually 😅 😅

The pajero/montero is so underrated it doesn’t get a mention unless I skipped through too much.

Great video guys. You two have me cracking up 😂

Nearly picked up a 2012 Pro-4X Xterra with 100k miles for $7500 and kinda regret not getting it. The Titan axle swaps you can do on them is sick. But I got a diesel Prado instead xD

I am the proud owner on my second XTerra. Blue 2015 Pro 4X. 9 years. 200 000km. Impossible to be more reliable. Put a starter in plus the usual brakes and stuff. Still drives like a tank. I have been driving XTerras for 22 years now. Guys ! I hope Nissan brings it back as it should be. Frontier frame.

I can attest to to coolant in the transmission in the Nissan, my 2006 Nissan frontier did that and it was $3500 for a remanufactured transmission and the transmission was hard to find, luckily I only paid a $1000 for the truck with 135,000 miles and mint body and interior.

I had a 2006 Liberty turbo diesel went through mud and swamps and sugar sand in Florida never got stuck ever and went 377000 miles just following manufacturers maintenance schedule and if I hadn't totaled it I probably would still have it. The only cars I had better were 2 Isuzu Troopers 84 and 88

I regards to tow hooks being a serious off roader would make my FJ “not serious”. Last I checked mine (14) has no dedicated tow hooks.

Yeah, I wanted an 80 Series Land Cruiser. UT could only afford an Xterra. Horrible gas mileage but it's still a beast of a Mountain Goat!

If you get a Maverick, you should get at least the 4k tow package so you can test towing. The AWD with the hybrid would be nice to at least test on the slip test rollers, if not taking it off-roading.

The GMC Jimmy was a solid 4x4

Just two guys using the internet,haha

Ahhh the Xterra. I got so close to buying one back in college. It was just a bit too far out of my price range…it was $16k lol, imagine that. 2014, those were the days lol. That’s one vehicle that I never owned and really wish I had jumped for.

I just tried to put a fairing on the front top of the new Defender I bought for my wife and she saw it ... sneered and said "it makes it look like an XTerra" ... and the fact that my wife knew what an Xterra was overcame my disappointment of spending $300 on something that will just go in the trash. :P EDIT: I can't wait until the next administration ditches the CAFE standards... or someone files a lawsuit over the CAFE standards since, IIRC they were implemented wholecloth by the EPA, not by congress. Therefore according to Loper Bright, they are essentially illegal.

Great video guys

You're definitely gonna talk about the X164 Mercedes😝

I like the Jeep Commander I see some here in New Jersey some I see have the V8s I'm from Texas live in New Jersey.

I loved my Xterra

Love my dads 2000 xterra!

Wife has an 08 Xterra Off-Road. Been a great car. We have wheeled it some. Mileage is pretty poor though.

Kia Sorrento 1st gen! V6, solid rear axle, and low range!

my dads 94 dakota has 350k and my subaru loyale has 307k back in the old days subarus had recovery loops

How is the rally edition of the Mach E off road?

Father like son

Xterra yes! Unfortunately they are neglected 2WD here in FLA, land of Big Altima Energy

I'd be down tfl found a diesel liberty for review!!!

2nd gen Durango

You could not add low range to a Subaru without a major reworking of the drive train. it doesn't work the way others do; the engine drives the transmission directly, which drives the front differential. The transmission also drives the driveshaft to the rear. There is no place to reduce gearing for all four wheels

You guys forgot of the fatal flaw of the 4.0 made by Nissan. From 100 to 150 thousand miles, the timing chain guides fail. When this happens, it starts to sound like a loud humming noise. It's $20 in parts but costs $1,500 in labor. Stay away from the 4L. Get the Toyota 4L and live worry free

Sorry Roman the I8 isnt that great.

KBB, Black Book, all others were always "optimistic" in my years with a Dealer License & only NADA was realistic. After covid & today, who knows....

Watched about three min of this and had more than enough of Roman interrupting every other thought Tommy had.

Didn't the liberty have the 3.8l mini van engine? Which kinda sucked

If someone owns have of boulder, they are going to get what they want. Don’t whine about it.

My mom had an early Liberty. It was dreadful. WTF, Tommy? 😄

Get the Liberty RT 4.0 V6

Don't care for the 'specialty' car shows my self

The xterra was horrible. The 2nd generation while 500 percent better then the old was a nightmare With a transmission wipe out problem, weak parts including rear diff, engine vapor lock, and a devistating bottom out issue that would tear it apart. Subarus are a street car, good grief.

1998 Isuzu Amigo.

Roman gets so flustered anytime his viewpoint is challenged.

Where's the Suzuki Grand Vitara?

Liberty fell out of favor because of rough ride +++

hummer h3?

The Ford Explore old model based on Ford Ranger pickup Chevy Blazer based on S10 pickup I wonder why the Ford Explore Timberline was not more popularized liked that car was fast enough on the highway 2.3 turbo had a light off road capable was discoloured for 2025 model

Roman, host your own cars and coffee events. It would be a great opportunity for the TFL community to connect irl. I’m in Southern California so hopefully Nathan could host a tfl cars and coffee out here. I’ll bring my espresso machine and serve coffee from the back of my f150. 🛻☕️

Tried Highroad, what a joke offer!!

Nissan Armada….has the low range, body on frame….huge miss guys….and way cheaper that Toyota if your on a budget.

The reason you see so many Tacoma's and 4Runners is because they work.

First

I dont like this guys. Andre and other guy forgot his name are great. I have been fairly watching this podcast and these 2 are so, idk, pompous. The rich guy stereotype. While the other 2 if rich or not dont give me that vibe. And the kid is just there because of daddy. Sorry not sorry for this comment. Still interesting podcast.

Nice video TFL. The idea of a new Xterra is pretty interesting. In my mind if a new one comes around the price for the old ratty models will only go higher 🫨