Right yeah. I do expect the DII to be king of the hill. However there is no denying the TLC it requires. What sucks about my old truck is that I finally had her running perfect. Chevy thermostat mod, HD fan clutch, brass waterpump. My temps were 184 no matter the weather. Ugh I miss her.

In terms of total package DD i think the Pro 4x Gen 2 Xterras offer a lot for their price range. Not as good of an offroader as the DII but also less to worry about. My favorite aside from the DII is an 05/06 Montero Limited. But those are cars getting dated and I imagine parts availability is a pain in the *** for Mitsubishi. A damn shame they discontinued them in the states. They continued the line up in Europe and Japan. Beautiful trucks.

2010-12 Pathfinders are also quite nice but they are not as compact as the X, Montero, or DII

 

I had so many issues with my Xterra (didn't wanna overload the thread) you'd only see me in one if it was given to me (00-04's). The 3.3L was a crappy engine, reaching the rear #6 plug took like 2ft of extensions and if you had a second gen with the supercharger it was even more difficult to change plugs. I never honestly felt safe in it vs any LR I've ever driven. The 4.0L engine and 05 up are totally nothing like Gen 1/Gen 2, but if I was gonna go for something from the same year it would be an LR3 and once again it would be light years ahead of the Xterra.

My cousin works at Nissan and it appears their quality is still as crappy as it was when I owned my 01 Xterra SE 4x4. Only this time it's not the Xterra, or Frontier it's with anything Nissan equips with their CVT's. They do nothing but die from only 400 miles on them to maybe 10K if you're lucky. They're so short on replacements the dealers are training their techs to rebuilt the blown ones & just send em back out hoping they don't come back, but they do.

From what I've seen any 4x4 that is also available in 2WD means it was originally designed around a 2WD setup and the 4x4 system was kind of an after thought. That was pretty much how it was with the Xterra until they got way more serious with the Pro 4x models.

If I was going to get something other than a LR I'd probably go back and grab an 06-10 H3 with either the 3.7L I5 or 5.3L V8 with the adventure package (rear or F/R Eaton Lockers). The solid axle swaps out there make it darn near unstoppable. I owned my 08 H3 Alpha for nearly 4 years & I put nearly 50K on it. Only mechanical issue was a leaking seal on the power steering reservoir (replaced the whole thing as it was only 99.00), and I upgraded the IFS support bar bushing. Besides that completely 100% flawless. I also owned an 07 H3 with the Adventure package and I pissed off a lot of Jeep Cherokee's & Grand Cherokee's in that thing. The H3 got a bad rap due to it's DUB H2 buddy, but honestly the H3 was a great SUV. It wasn't very easy to see out the back, but anything with a spare on the back isn't really.

I have now owned so many LR's it dwarf's all my other wild 4x4's. I have never had one be a mechanical nightmare, or a money pit (that was my Jeep aka Just Empty Every Pocket). I like to give TLC to all my vehicles no matter what it is, and if you get a good used LR and are on top of stuff = she'll never let you down. Here in TX just driving from my house to Houston is 2.5HR easy, and if I want to visit my friends in Austin it's 4.5-5.5HR depending on what side of Austin I'm on. I have jumped into my 02 Kalahari I dunno how many times with 235K on it, do a pre-flight check, and hit the road. Zero issues and I honestly love the feel of a RRC/D1/D2 on the road. My wife's LR3 drives great, but it DOES NOT ride like a RRC/D1/D2. There is just something about the seating position, the layout of the controls/dash, the ride, the steering, and the V8 rumble that I'll never get tired of.

I have saved so many D2's from the scrap heap it's not even funny. Every one I pick up has it's own story. Some were babied and blessed with excellent owners & some were abused, and abandoned, but still had plenty of life in them with the right owner.

I just bought a 1K D2 Westminster that has bad cancer (frame rot F/R), but even then it looks great body wise, interior is clean, and I'm pretty sure once I properly repair the waterpump it'll run just fine and it doesn't have any 3 Amigos! I'm planning on either parting it out as it's got a lot of good parts on it & the Westminster interior is nearly flawless.

I did another Roadkill type deal, find a D2 with some mechanical issues & in this case it was a bad drive shaft, and recently replaced front cover gasket, but it wasn't put back together 100%. I showed up, spotted the rust right off the bat (was of coarse not mentioned in the ad) & where most people would run for the hills I saw past it's rust and saw it's other good values. I put the belt on, clutch fan, and fan shield, tried to add coolant, but the gasket on the water pump was done wrong and it leaked like crazy.. I then went to work on the badly rusted on front drive shaft. It took me 2.5HR of banging on it and it finally fell off the flange on the TC. I then slapped on the good spare it came with, installed a new battery and for the first time in 4 months it came to life, it got oil pressure, and since it was only in the 45-50F range I carefully got it to move under it's own power drove maybe a mile down the road to a gas station and bought 5 gallons of fuel. I was monitoring the engine temps with my trusty scangauge II, and since it was leaking so much the temps started to climb, and then I could hear the waterpump bearing. I got it towed to a friends house (15mile tow in the dark via a tow strap and decent traffic), then I got a ride back to my LR and I drove home.

This Friday I plan on installing the LR trailer harness onto my 99 D2, renting a car dolly (I had one reserved & only when I went to pick it up did I realize the 99 didn't have a trailer light harness), dropping it off at my friends house, go to my companies Christmas Party, and on my way back drive the 1K Mater up onto the dolly, remove the rear shaft and call it a day and just take it nice and slow on the way home 1.5HR away. If it turns out the engine isn't good = parts truck and I'll list the parts on here and locally. I'll be keeping the 5 perfect Comet 18inch rims and having my BFG KO2's installed onto them. To me a black D2 looks sick with a set of Comet rims and an aggressive sidewall tire.

 

My D2 is daily driven with almost 200k miles. I'd trust her to drive across the county if I could afford the gas bill.

 

Yep I feel the same way. Truly if I didn't trust em I wouldn't own them period. I really really really understand why my dad liked to drive across country when I was a kid growing up. It's the adventure lol!!! If I'd only known that then!! I'd love to drive from Beaumont, TX to the Portland, OR area. I could cut across some great parts of the US!!!! Gas is cheap right now, but I just can't take that amount of time off to really enjoy it. 2 weeks would be awesome! Just cruise up there, visit my family, off road in all the states I can, and enjoy my LR! I'd leave tonight if I could.

 

Best4x4 had a Gen1 supercharged Xterra and my Disco replaced a 97 R50 Pathfinder with just over 300000 km on the engine when I sold it. The Xterra was killed by black ice and Pathfinder just reached the end of it's life, too much money in age related repairs were needed, plus my wife told me to go buy another truck . I would not hesitate to buy another VG33 engined Nissan, if I wanted to go that route. I drove that Pathfinder for 8 years and took out for 4 -7 day offroad trips every year plus regular monthly short runs, it always got me home. That spark plug was pain, but they did come with a tool to take it out.

But I agree with you on one thing if I don't trust it I will not drive it, I am often 200 to 300km from the nearest cell coverage and civilization and if I do not trust my truck to get me in and back out then what is the point. I love my Disco it is very capable, if it becomes unsavable at some point I will likely get an LR3, Land Rovers have kind of grown on me.

 

Best 4x4 seems like you got a dud in your Xterra. Thing is my family has had a lot of experience with Nissan's and they've all been pretty solid vehicles. The thing with DII's is they truly are a product of their previous owner. It was quite an experience and a privilege having one. It turned me into a mechanic and those are skills Ill have for life. Hell I just replaced my rack and pinion in my TSX. And I so much confidence in doing it because of all I did with the Disco. But I don't think I could own one again unless she was strictly my second vehicle. God did I love wrenching on her, which is part of the joy and experience. I sort of see the Xterra as a compromise in practicality vs loss in capability. Only Xterra I would want is a Pro 4x.

Keeping a DII running wouldn't be that difficult now that I've done it all before essentially. Future proofing the coolant system and knowing all the greasing and oil servicing intervals. Knowing how to take it apart is a plus. But its the stupid things like the headliner sag, bad seals all around, iffy electronics, dumb coolant cage, poor plastics, and pasts cost all weigh it down. However these trucks have never been cheaper I'll say.

This has been an interesting discussion. Once you go from a DII its hard to find something similar. I think the Montero is probably the one that closely replicates it. If you havent seen any of the 06 or newer models they really are some impressive vehicles.

 

 

Im at 160,000, DD everyday, hate the gas. Cheaper than paying 40-50k for Jeep or a 4-runner which are everywhere these days. I know nothing about newer Nissans, other than they were or are Datsuns!! Loved the old Datsuns though.