Friday, February 1, 2013

First Generation Xterra Still Being Produced!!

In China that is...

Originally going under the "Paladin" name and by Nissan in China it has now been handed over to Zhengzhou Dongfeng, renamed the AoTing and is produced as a commercial vehicle.

The body has remained fairly similar to the original design--ther is still a hump in the roofline and a bulge in the tailgate but the engines powering the SUV are decidedly different that what we saw here in the US.  Instead of the Nissan 3.3L gas engine the AoTing receives either a 2.4L Mitsubishi gas engine or a 2.5L diesel.

Per the linked article the 2nd generation Xterra has never seen Chinese shores but some 13 years after its introduction to the world, the original Xterra design soldiers on.

I recently (in November I believe) sold my 2000 Nissan Xterra after 10 years of ownership.  It was a great truck and traveled as far North as Happy Valley/Goose Bay in Labrador and as far South as Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky.  With some 140,000 hard miles on it, it was time to go as I drove it less and less.  It will live on in someone elses garage as the first generation Xterra evidently lives on in another part of the world.

China Car Times article...

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