Episode #218 - Budget Overlander Reveal
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
65:30
Concept
DNF
DNF means the car didn’t finish the event. Something went wrong—either the car broke or they couldn’t keep going.
Concept
overlanding
Overlanding is like a road trip, but you’re prepared for rough roads and remote areas. Instead of going fast like a race, you plan for reliability and carrying what you need.
Concept
budget overlanders
A budget overlander is an off-road trip setup you build without spending a ton of money. The idea is to focus on the most important upgrades first.
Car
Nissan Xterra SE supercharged
They bought a 2003 Nissan Xterra SE. It’s an SUV that’s meant to handle rough roads, and “supercharged” means it has extra forced air for more power.
Term
PDR
PDR (paintless dent repair) is a way to fix small dents without repainting. It usually works only if the dent is minor and the paint isn’t damaged.
Term
surface rust
Surface rust is just the first stage of rust on the outside of the metal. If it’s not deep, you can usually clean it up and protect it before it gets worse.
Term
Nismo
Nismo is Nissan’s performance brand. It usually means a more track- or enthusiast-oriented version of a Nissan model.
Term
strawberry milkshake of death
“Strawberry milkshake of death” means coolant and oil have mixed, making a pink, creamy sludge. That usually signals a serious problem like a head gasket issue, and it can be expensive to fix.
Term
brush guard
A brush guard is a protective bar on the front of the vehicle. It helps protect the headlights and grille if you hit brush or small obstacles.
Term
light bar
A light bar is an extra set of lights mounted on the front of the car. It helps you see farther ahead when driving off-road or in dark conditions.
Term
leaking coolant
Coolant is what keeps the engine from overheating. If it’s leaking, the engine can run low on coolant and overheat. That’s a problem you generally want to fix before driving far.
Concept
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is like an online classifieds section inside Facebook. People use it to sell used cars directly to other people, which can sometimes mean better prices than a dealership.
Company
Rough Country
Rough Country makes aftermarket parts for off-road trucks. A “two inch lift” raises the truck so it sits higher and can clear obstacles better.
Term
suspension lift
A suspension lift raises the truck higher off the ground. That helps with bumps and rough trails, but it can also change how the truck drives and wears tires.
Term
seat bolster
The seat bolster is the padded side of the seat. If it wears quickly, it usually means the seat fabric or foam isn’t holding up well with regular use.
Term
knock sensor
A knock sensor detects engine “knocking” (abnormal combustion) and sends that information to the ECU. If it fails or reports incorrect readings, the ECU can illuminate the check engine light and may affect ignition timing and performance.
Term
check engine light
That warning light means the car’s computer found a problem. If it’s on, it usually means there’s a code stored that can tell you what’s wrong.
Term
oil leak
An oil leak “from underneath” suggests oil is escaping from the engine or drivetrain area—common sources include valve cover gaskets, oil pan seals, or leaks around filters/lines. Even if the engine bay looks clean, an active leak can lead to low oil levels and expensive damage if ignored.
Concept
clean title
A clean title means the car’s paperwork looks normal—no major legal issues. That usually makes the car easier to register and sell later.
Term
AC does not blow cold
If the AC won’t get cold, it usually means the system isn’t working right—often low refrigerant or a failed part. The fix could be simple or it could be more expensive depending on what’s wrong.
Term
Spartan interior
“Spartan” just means the inside is pretty basic and stripped down. Instead of fancy soft materials, it’s mostly hard plastics and practical stuff.
Term
audio package
An “audio package” is an option that upgrades the sound system in the vehicle. It usually means better speakers (and sometimes an amp or subwoofer) than the standard stereo.
Term
locking diffs
A locking differential helps both wheels on an axle work together. If one wheel starts slipping, it helps the other keep moving instead of just spinning in place.
Term
alignment
Alignment is adjusting how the wheels point. It helps the tires wear evenly and keeps the car from pulling or feeling off.
Term
transmission fluid
Transmission fluid helps the transmission shift smoothly and protects internal parts from wear. If it’s been in there for a very long time, shifting can get worse and repairs become more likely.
Company
Rock Auto
Rock Auto is a website where you can buy car parts for cheaper than many local shops. Here, they’re using it to get a replacement ignition cylinder and keys without paying dealer prices.
Term
rear main seal
A rear main seal is a gasket/seal that keeps oil from leaking near the back of the engine. If it’s bad, fixing it can be a bigger job than a simple cover leak.
Term
rooftop tent
A rooftop tent is a camping tent that sits on top of your vehicle. You can open it up when you park and sleep up off the ground.
Concept
drag race
A drag race is basically a quick straight-line sprint from a stop. The car that has more power (and can put it to the ground) usually wins.
Term
MPG
MPG means how many miles you can drive on one gallon of gas. They’re saying the vehicle is getting very low MPG.
Concept
first gen
“First gen” just means the first version of that model that came out. Later versions can change the styling and engineering, so some people prefer the original.
Term
front bumper
The front bumper is the part at the very front of the car. People notice it because it changes the car’s look, and on some vehicles it can also relate to how protected the front end is.
Concept
PCP
Here, “PCP” is just their nickname for “project car progress.” They mean the updates and changes they’re making to their car over time.
LIVE
In a world with entirely too many shows about cars, this is another Pointless Automotive
podcast.
Oh my God.
Okay.
Should we kick it again?
Might as well.
Okay.
I was going to ask into my doubt.
You want to check that?
Make sure that's recording too.
Sure.
What's that?
Equipment check.
We are still recording.
Okay.
You know, I was going to ask you if we were recording on that and I assumed you had a
certain confident error around you.
No, I just, I'm not used to doing this in the flesh.
I know.
Which hello, by the way.
I guess we should try this all over.
Yeah.
So, Chadwick again?
Yes.
Frank, I'm still here.
And yeah, we went for a whole, what, three and a half minutes of starting this off without
hitting the record button.
So we were drinking some Paps Blue Ribbons.
We were, God, let's just go back over our old ground.
We were pumping the Patreon and the fact we're going to be drinking Rainier's.
Rainier's will be the Patreon Drink of Choice by our first Patreon.
Yes, member.
Shout out.
Requested that we drink some Rainies on our late night confidential episodes, which
we're going to record later.
Yes.
That's what we're in person right now.
Heck yeah.
And why else are we together in person?
The grand reveal.
So if you guys remember the last APA podcast challenge we had was the Cheap Rally Car Challenge.
We had $3,500 Volvo V50, T5-0 will drive.
Yes.
You had a Focus SVT.
Correct.
Two cool cars.
Mm-hmm.
There was some completion of that challenge.
So we're going to try to.
Yes, I got the DNF.
We're going to try to beat it again because I think it was a month and a half ago or so.
We just decided why not go overlanding because that's fun.
Yes.
We like outdoor adventuring.
Different speed compared to going on a rally.
Completely different speed.
We raised the budget just because off-roading is freaking pricey, right?
Let's be honest.
Yeah.
Even like versus building just a street car, it tends to be a little pricey.
So we set it $5,000 seemed like a good solid target and guys, we have both purchased our
budget overlanders.
We have purchased our budget overlanders, overlanders, you tried to say.
And here's the thing, I have no idea what you bought.
You have no idea what I bought.
I'm now here at your place.
You kept yours.
Purchase all secret squirrels stashed away in the garage.
I have no clue.
You have absolutely no idea what I've bought.
Maybe we bought the exact same thing.
Maybe we bought we're taking wildly different approaches maybe to the $5,000
overlanding rig situation.
If you haven't heard that episode where we talked about some concepts and theories
on how we might approach this, sure, go check that out.
If I was thinking or we were at all professional, I'd say, oh, it's, you know,
episode 209 or whatever it is.
Yeah.
But just scroll back and check it somewhere.
And so without further ado, how are we going to rock, paper, scissor for this,
dude? How about this?
I'm going to ask the eight ball.
Oh, if you should go first.
Yeah.
Should I, Frank, go first to reveal what if our names are in there?
No, Chadwick goes first.
Get the fuck.
Well, should I be the one to first reveal my overlander of choice?
Without a doubt.
All right.
A ball cannot be defiled, cannot be denied.
OK. What'd you buy, Frank?
What'd you buy?
I found on Facebook Marketplace and purchased a 2003
Nissan XTERRA SE supercharged automatic, dude, 180,000 miles.
OK, paint and body are in pretty darn good shape.
OK, it's got on the driver's door.
There's a hopefully PDR able dent if I care and I kind of don't.
Yeah.
And then drivers side recorder panel also has a dent with some broken paint
and some surface rust, not that big a deal.
The rest of the paint and body look really, really good.
It's like it's like that pewter gray.
OK, with black cloth and like charcoal cloth interior, like they all had
the factory, those factory 17 inch supercharged specific wheels.
Were those the what did those look like?
Were those the four?
They're like a charcoal five spoke kind of.
Oh, that's cool.
That is cool.
Runs, drives and it needs some love.
I guess we can get into the particulars in a minute,
but maybe we should reveal each other's like that peek behind each other's curtains.
So supercharged, that's kind of hard to find.
It is. I was not.
I had just not even considered finding a supercharged one
because they're far more rare and they come in a premium.
Yeah. And honestly, for what we're doing,
I don't need the 25 percent bump in power, like I don't need it.
It's it's nice, but it is a cool factor.
It's absolutely super cool factor, and it's going to help on the other end
when I hopefully don't blow it up or put it on its roof.
Yeah, in the resale side of things, because it just makes it far more.
It's a modest bump.
It goes from like 170 to 210. Correct.
Yeah. And then torque from 200, like 245 or something like that.
Noticeable on a truck like that.
God damn, it is an auto.
Interiors in pretty good shape, but we I can go.
We can go there are plenty of foibles.
OK, and the purchase experience was I'll say fun.
Price, let's at least reveal the price up front.
Two thousand five hundred dollars.
We have used completely opposite approaches on this challenge.
And I'll get into that in a second.
Oh, boys, like literally a second.
Is it my go now?
Yeah, you go and then we can we can we can talk more.
First off, I'm super pumped about what you got.
Yeah, I think that's so fucking cool.
It's it's yeah.
So mine's rough.
So my project is going to be a little rough.
I purchased two thousand and eight.
Oh, newer Nissan, OK, XTERRA.
Oh, OK, a second gen off road trim.
Oh, lovely. OK, those are great.
Those are they can be.
I've heard they are when they were newer in a better shape.
Yeah, they're great.
OK, oh, a auto off road trim.
Does it have like off road trims?
So it's got the rear locker, rear locker, hill descent,
hill control, lower gearing.
Yeah, right. Yeah.
And then skid plates, skid plates.
And then you got the roof top lights, too.
Nope, that was on the pro for X or the last year of the off road,
which was 2011, and then the following year on the pro for X.
And did they ever make a Nismo?
I don't think so. OK, that was on the frontier.
Yeah, and off road before pro for X, it was called off road.
Got it. It kept the exact same thing.
So it's a 08, so it has the four liter VQ.
Yes. Big bump, like 260 something horsepower.
Yeah, which is a significant bump. Real healthy.
Good motor overall, but there are some there are some challenges.
Yes, this vehicle.
I have, even though I'm five years newer than you, 180,000 miles.
OK, right. OK.
It does have the strawberry milkshake of death.
It doesn't have it, right, but it's a high risk candidate
because it has the original radiator.
Yeah, you got it. Yeah, you got this job one.
No matter what, like, I have to figure it out.
Questionable timing.
So if you're wondering how I scored a second gen off road trim,
which kind of command a premium for the price point. Yeah, no paint.
I almost spent the whole budget. OK, the paint is rough.
So it's pretty scratched up.
Someone egged it like what looks like years ago.
And OK, what that means.
Yeah, that's just as good as a dent or like paint missing.
Yeah, so that sucks.
What else is wrong with it?
It's all original, which usually on a collector piece
you're excited about, but on a car that hasn't been super maintained.
Not so good. Yeah.
So I don't think the water pumps hasn't been done.
The strawberry milkshake of death hasn't been addressed.
Everything's original on this on this truck.
What tires is it wearing?
Do you have to get you got to get tires?
So this is where it gets good.
Here's where it gets really good. OK, it doesn't.
Because that's so at first I didn't want to buy this truck.
It was listed for it was listed for like fifty eight hundred dollars.
So it was a little above budget.
I'm like, I can knock him down and I don't want to get.
We'll get into the details later.
But so I came in there like I need to knock it down
because I got to be below five. Yeah.
I get there and he has these aftermarket just shit wheels, 17 inch.
That's not the right size because mine only has 16s. Right.
So the off road had big and medium tires and smaller wheels.
And then it had had what the hell were those the dualers?
Is it dual or bridge stone, dualers from 15 years ago?
Yeah, dry rot in the B of bridge stone.
That's how bad the dry rot is.
Just absolutely just not.
I'm like, am I going to make it home on these?
It looked good.
There was like still a little bit of tread left, but everything's dry.
Dry rot in the tread, everything like, yeah, fuck me.
I can't afford tires, but talk it down.
And he says to me, he goes and he didn't have this in the ad.
So he goes, I have something and I was just debating on whether I not.
And this is after I talked to the guy and we had a good like relationship.
I'll go into the background there and he goes, I have something for you.
And he's like, I do have the OEM wheels.
And I'm like, fuck, yeah, that alone is killer.
Right. And then he's like, I just bought new tires,
but I didn't want to mountain balance him yet until I found out what I was doing
with the truck and I'll throw those in.
And they're brand new.
Yeah. They're the Rubitrex by Falcon.
Oh, OK. So like a really good AT tire.
And I'm like, oh, OK, perfect.
And he's like, it's in OEM size, everything like killer.
And I knocked him down to 4800 was as low as he would go.
Sure.
So I have two hundred dollars to play with.
And you got some shit wheels you can sell for another two hundred dollars
and a brush guard.
It has like a real brush guard with a light on it.
I'm going to get at least two for that.
Those are like some random shit after Mark.
No, it's a good one.
I can't remember the brand. I looked it up.
It's like a dealer add on.
No, it's like the I don't think they had one.
I don't think they did for this the second gen.
But it's like a full brush guard with the headlight covers
and he has a light bar mounted to it and it's like all brand name shit.
And those are like 900 bucks or 800 more.
So I'm like, for two hundred with the light bar to figure
and I'm going to need that money.
I'm telling you right now to replace the things I need to replace.
So God, that's what I score, dude.
Well, that's a good score.
I mean, because you're right, it's it's a lot of truck.
It's a lot of rough.
It's a lot of rough truck, dude.
I mean, the tough part is even if you
sell all the super feel of stuff for being generous,
let's say another five hundred dollars,
you know, seven hundred dollars to play with, you have to do radiator.
Got to do radiator.
There I'm sure there's some other stuff that you'll need to do beyond just fluids.
Of course, that's seven dollars is going to even fluids, dude.
Just if you're going to do like if you're going to do like the front diff,
the trans transfer case, rear diff, you start adding all those specialty fluids.
You're already that's like a hundred and fifty, two hundred bucks right there.
Yeah. Yeah.
Little on gaskets for things and this and that.
It does. As you mentioned, so on that truck,
the valve covers are just water falling.
So like I told you, it's leaking coolant.
That's the other thing.
It's leaking.
And I don't want to.
I want you to get in yours first.
You're OK, your foibles.
But anyway, I have a lot to fix and I'm not going to fix it all
to be fair in the name of honesty and integrity with our challenge.
Yeah, I'm sure there's going to be some stuff I'm going to get to.
I've got way more budget to play with.
You opposite strategy this time.
You like well, both last time we went pretty cheap with our cars,
but this time you went cheap with enough room.
Yes, headroom to last time I went cheap, but I kept finding.
Oops, it turns out I need two axles.
I need stuff I wasn't budgeting for.
And then the coolant system went to pot on me.
But you still have the budget left on this one.
I don't have anything.
So if something was to happen that I'm not planning,
so I'm planning for the essentials and I'll go through my plan in just a moment.
But I'm trying to see if I missed anything here.
Oh. Oh, that's pretty.
It's nice. God, let's go.
Do I even have my it is show you?
I can't even show you what.
No, actually, I can show you on my laptop because I can.
So there's the interior.
It's all together. Oh, it's a good truck.
So here's the thing. It's really good.
There's one more, one more, one more to wet your whistle.
And we can we can add these in for those watching along.
It does like oh three, right?
So yeah, three.
You can see if I zoom in like that's the ding on the quarter
that I'm talking about, which I don't.
That's the worst.
The higher body.
You could PDR that to look better.
To get it close and then like touch up, paint it.
And then it's got the the the quarter panel flare
that goes on the dog leg and up over the quarter is broken right there.
So if I put a replacement over, it'll it'll look good.
But like cosmetically, it's really tight.
It'll need a new
like Nissan decal up on the top basket on the roof.
Is your headliner still there?
Headliners, somebody redid the headliner.
They are all of the first gens you had to do.
So somebody redid the headliner headliner in black.
It looks pretty good.
It is sagging in the rear.
But it's like not if you sit in the rear, it's not like hitting your head.
It's not OK.
But it is sagging.
So OK, so things that it needs.
So I guess let me just give you give you the breakdown
on the purchase experience because I thought I had the key with me.
I guess I was going to show you the key because that's part of what it needs.
So add on Facebook Marketplace.
Um, in Espanol, that's always a challenge.
Yes. So add an Espanol, you know,
teach your Olympia.
So he has the title. OK. Clean four by four.
You know, motor E trans BN and that's it.
Nothing else, nothing else in the app.
But I can tell. So I'm going through the photos.
I'm like, yeah, look there. Yep.
It is four wheel drive.
It is a supercharged and so I sent the guy a message.
It was like a three hour old app.
So something I messaged him like, hey,
really interested in the truck.
If you're free tomorrow, I'd love to come down and see it.
And he's like, yeah, you know, I'm free, you know, I get home from work
at three thirty. You can come after three thirties in San Jose.
So not too too far, but not too too far.
But like an hour with an hour and a half with traffic.
Can you tell your story? I found the photos. Oh, yes.
It's in there. I can go walk and see it.
You can. But I've started messing with it.
So yeah, here's the back of it.
I wasn't joking about the sticker display here.
And we'll put some videos on the video.
That's the. Oh, those wheels, my friend.
Oh, they're hard.
They're hard.
And you can't tell how bad the paint quality is.
But sure. Oh, custom plate.
Let's go. Custom plates, which I need to mail back.
It's got a two inch rough country like suspension lift.
Yeah, the actual space around top of the suspension.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's got a little bit of a lift tour.
Yeah, the stickers were a lot, but yeah, that's it.
Sick. So that's mine, my man.
And the interiors, fine.
Yeah, fine. I mean, the interiors on like how we just
we found a way to both land up in XTERRA land. We did it.
We did it.
The interiors on both of these generations of trucker.
They're incredibly cheap, but they hold up pretty well.
They hold up really good.
You get the bolster wear rate on the seat bolster jumping in and out.
That's like a XTERRA given.
Yeah, I do like how everything is like pretty much rinsed out kind of
quality right inside. Yep.
So, yeah, no, it's it's
all right, we're we're dual wielding XTERRAs, at least two different generations.
So yeah, it's cool.
And I was looking at second gens.
I had actually stopped.
I thought I was going to go in a different direction.
I was not. I had stopped.
I started looking at XTERRAs pretty early and then I kind of like
started looking in different directions.
I was really looking for a Montero sport.
That's kind of what I had settled on, because as cheap as you can get
a decent first gen and second gen XTERRA,
you can get they're a little harder to find, but you can get.
A good to great Montero sport when you do find them for under four grand.
Pretty all pretty much all day.
Yeah. Yeah.
And especially if you look for like a if you find a limited.
Oh, I guess because the limited is you got the two and a half liter
from the big boy Montero.
And I think if it's two thousand or later, three and a half liter, right?
Yeah, what I say, two and a half.
Yeah, sorry, three and a half, because they're all the three liter Vs.
That's a good motor.
The limited got the bigger motor and you got a five speed auto.
So the four speed auto.
Oh, yeah. And you got an LSD rear.
That's a big difference.
Yeah. So I was kind of looking, but I would have settled for, you know,
an XLS or a different trim.
And then I just stumbled into this one, right?
Add in Spanish down in San Jose, message the guy.
He replies and he's like, yeah, I can meet you.
He's like, I need to be.
I need to tell you, though, it does have a check engine light on though.
And I said, OK, you know what, that that's not a deal breaker.
You know, do you know what it's for?
And he said, knock sensor.
Oh, I said, OK, it's on those that generation of frontier
and anything with that VG 33 motor,
super prone for knock sensor failure.
Right. It's like what they do.
And what I've done and I've done this on the past on these is
you just like cut where the cut the wire because you have in order
to change it out, you got to pull the full intake.
Oh, upper lower intake plenum.
All of that comes off because it's down in the V. God, that's annoying.
But what you can do is if you just go,
you just like get close to the as close to the pigtails
you can reach on the sensor side and cut it.
You can then just get a replacement knock sensor for $20, whatever,
for like an NTK knock sensor and bolt it on the manifold.
Yeah, manifold and then just like splice a new pigtail on it
and plug it in into the harness with the old one connected and you're done.
OK, so I've done that before. Great.
So it's OK, knock sensor, not I'm not too worried about it.
I was like, oh, I see in the pictures it's wearing 2025.
It's like July of 2025 for the stags on it.
I was like, are there any fees on it?
He's like, no, OK.
Well, I look up and I notice there's like four hundred and sixty dollars
in back to you on it. OK.
He says, no, might be language barrier.
I don't know. Right. But fine.
I can deal with that.
So I get down there.
I meet him. He pulls up.
He's like, he's like, I'm dropped.
He's like, I'm commuting in this thing every day to work.
Oh, that's actually a good sign. Sure.
I like to see that. So he's like, yeah.
So he's like, I'll just come right off work.
So I meet him. I get there like five minutes early.
The address he gives me and then he pulls up
and he just he pulls up, just put right behind me, leaves it,
run and hops out and he's like, all right, check it out.
So OK.
So I go around it and we drive it on the block.
I don't beat on it, but just like, you know,
go through the first couple of gears, not making any weird noises.
It seems to drive pretty good.
Nice. Not running hot.
You know, it was at operating time when he came in because he just came from work.
So I didn't really get the cold start it.
I look around the engine bay, cars clean, like it's been cleaned.
Like it's not like he washed it inside and out and that there's the the tires
have been dressed and the engine bay is clean.
I notice there's like a couple of rags stuff behind the headlight.
OK, whatever.
I look around, everything looks pretty good,
but I notice that somebody has already relocated the knock center.
Oh, but one of the wires is going to it's broken.
I'm like, OK, well, hopefully that's as easy as he possibly gets.
Yeah, fix a busted wire.
I look around, it's all OK.
Like everything's like remarkably clean in the engine bay.
Like the the water pump looks new.
How much was he asking, by the way?
Thirty five hundred dollars.
OK, got it.
And so.
Which seems cheap for a supercharger, for sure.
Yeah, that's pretty under market, even with the issues right now.
In the ad, he didn't say I had a check engine light or that had back to
these on all this stuff and they sluss it out.
He seems pretty honest.
OK.
Key is broken off in the ignition.
Fuck.
So he's just got like, now you hit the fob and it locks and unlocks.
Oh, OK.
So it's not like he's like broke a screwdriver off in it
and that's broke a random Nissan key.
He was like, this is the key.
And then the spare he had was like an unprogrammed fob and an uncut.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I'm like, OK, that's a little weird, but whatever.
And then he's got the title.
OK. And then so whatever.
So I'm like, hey, like here's the deal because I brought and I brought my scanner.
I scanned it, sure enough, knock sensor code
and then also neutral, neutral safety switch code.
I'm like, OK, well, I clear it and they both cleared, didn't come back.
So I'm like, OK.
And I shut it off and restart it, check engine light still didn't come back.
I know on those, it takes a few cycles for the knock sensor.
Yeah, yeah.
But at least the neutral safety switch code wasn't coming back.
Yeah.
So I say, hey, look, man.
Oh, and he's like, oh, it's got brand new tires on it.
I put tires on it like last year.
So I look and they are they're newer.
They're like end of 2023.
But they're just like Kumo Street tires, OK, which is kind of a bummer
because I hate to like throw out like seemingly decent tires,
but like they kind of won't cut it for what you'll sell.
I might be able to sell for a couple of hundred bucks.
Oh, absolutely.
So, you know, I say, hey, it definitely looks like it's got a bit of an oil leak.
Just from underneath.
Engine bay, again, looks really clean.
Maybe it's been cleaned.
I don't know, but superchargers all there.
Everything looks great. OK.
So I say, hey, you know,
if you don't want to have to deal with getting it smogged
or dealing with the check engine like I can I can I can manage all that.
That's fine.
If you don't want to have to deal with any of that right now,
I can give you twenty five hundred cash right now.
He's like, OK, hmm, OK, sure.
OK, I'm like, all right, let me get the cash from my car.
So I go to my car and I'm twenty five hundred and go sign the title.
And he just like all caps like prints just the last name of the name
on the title and then hands it to me.
I'm like, close. OK.
He's like, yeah, it's in my wife's name.
And I'm like, hmm, I don't know that that's fine.
Whatever. Yeah. Yeah, just which is completely different last name
than the user I was messaging on on the.
I think I think he bought because I asked him, I said, hey,
like when did you buy how long have you had it?
He's like about a year.
I said, OK, did you get like locally or was it like someone far away?
He's like far away.
OK, and broken English.
There's a little bit of language barrier, but I can understand him well enough.
He can understand me well enough.
There's a couple of like case and like not really understanding one another.
So I'm pretty sure he just bought this thing like a year ago.
Couldn't smog it. Never registered in his name.
Had some.
He probably bought it cheap because of, oh, I can't smog it.
And then he's been driving it.
And now the tags are like 10 months out.
Sure. And it's like, shit, like what am I going to do?
And then I just show in like, I'll give you twenty five hundred dollars
to like make your problem go away.
Yeah. And he's like, here's the title.
This is my wife and it's probably just somebody.
It's in like Riverside County down in like.
Oh, OK. It's in Paris.
Like out of Paris. OK.
Like P E R R I S. Right. Right.
And so I'm like, OK, well, whatever.
And so I have it with a busted key and I and a questionable title.
But I ran the DMV fees.
It's it's in the system.
It's not like a DOJ DOJ stop.
And clean title.
The title is clean. It's it's there.
I've got all the things.
And so, yeah, now I've got it at the house.
It seems to start and run just fine.
I got to take care of the the knock censored thing,
because if it's not getting right signal, it it pulls boost.
Oh, OK, one.
So I have to deal with that.
So I got to deal with that.
I've got to deal with Mystery Oil Leak.
I have no clue of the timing about history.
The water pump looks pretty new.
I don't want to roll that.
There's no stick or anywhere in this engine.
Oh, fuck. No, I don't roll every 100,000 on these.
Yep. And I'm at 180.
I'm sure that I'm going to find some other things.
AC does not blow cold.
OK.
And yeah, keys off in the ignition.
We'll see.
The good news is I've got a good amount of money to play with.
I've got another 2,500 bucks. That's the best part.
Yeah.
You know, I guess really 2000.
We're going to I got to eat.
Oh, yeah, it's mis-registration.
Yeah.
And I look, $200 of those fees are like
like bridge toll violations.
Oh, cool.
One's like a one's like a parking ticket.
You know, the one's a Golden Gate Bridge violation from 2024.
Yeah, damn it.
But I'm pretty happy with where I'm at.
I've got a lot of truck with a good with good bones.
Yeah, I just.
There's a very much a non-zero percent chance
that there might be some skeletons in its closet
that I just haven't discovered yet.
There's going to be right at this price point.
Yeah, because it's like the buyer
wasn't completely shady, but like mildly shady.
You seem like a good like a good dude,
but like a shady transaction.
All the best deals are like that, though, right?
Well, you got to take the risk history.
I got to put car facts on it and see.
Hopefully there's some service history in there
that'll give me a good baseline.
I think you're in a good spot.
I really do.
I think I'm in a really good spot.
That much meat still left on the bone
that you can spend for your budget.
I think I think you can overcome the issues you listed, man.
Yeah, I think that's I think if you had,
if that truck had its title sorted and all that,
you wouldn't be getting it for twenty five hundred bucks.
Correct. Yeah, right.
Yeah, it's well above.
I got a deal because of circumstances,
because if all like I could probably turn it around immediately.
If I just make the check engine like go away and get a smogged,
it's a fifty five hundred dollar truck.
Yeah, but when you get it sorted and.
Yeah, you're only not much into it.
It's kind of a hang out if you really enjoy it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is cool.
How about you?
What what what skeletons are in this thing?
So other than like the sketchy paint?
Who knows yet?
So first off, we start communicating.
I see all the stickers, a lot of veteran stickers,
Afghanistan stickers.
So I go, hey, man, you know, I was in Afghanistan in 2003.
Yeah. What's that?
What did you go over there for a bit?
And he comes back and he's like, I wasn't in the army,
but I was a he was an interpreter.
Oh, I thought you were going to say it was going to be like full stolen.
I'm a huge fan.
I'm a huge fan, man.
So he was an interpreter that looks in his always buddies now
are like former like special forces guys and everything.
So it was one of his buddies who was a SF guy that sold it to him.
So that's kind of cool little lineage there.
But he was like super cool.
And I told him and he's like, dude, I'm in.
That's why he gave me the good deal.
Yeah, it's because he's like, oh, no, I'm a huge, you know,
it was hard to get out of there.
A lot of my friends didn't make it out there
because interpreters were like the most dangerous job, right?
And he didn't get sent back.
No, he's still here recently.
Yeah, he's like, no, literally when I bought the truck,
not too long ago, he was still here.
So real cool guy, like super cool,
but I could tell he wasn't like a mechanic minded guy.
So a lot of the maintenance had fell by the wayside.
The biggest issues with the truck,
like I said, the cosmetics are not the best.
Maintenance hasn't really been done.
I don't think he had done an oil change for a year and a half.
He didn't know anything about the strawberry milkshake of death,
which any second gen exterior owner knows about.
Yeah, exterior, frontier, pathfinder.
Yep, exactly.
And I think they were even in the, what was the big guy?
Armada with the four liter.
Same issue because the radiator has a transmission cooler part of it
and it can rot inside and you get coolant in your transmission,
which go figure isn't good for an expensive automatic transmission.
So it's the original radiator in there.
It's like borrowed time, dude.
It's like 180,000 miles.
That would like, that's a note, like the first thing I got to do, right?
Is swap that out.
But he didn't know that money.
Dude, I don't even know if he was ready to freaking sell it
because all his personal blogging was one of those deals
where you showed up and yours was like detailed.
No, dude, this guy had all his stuff, like a can of soda and like just
just garbage in it.
And he's like, oh, cool.
And then he's like, I can't find the title.
So two things.
At first I pull up and I think this is going to go well,
but it didn't go as well as I thought.
He's like, I can't find the title.
Right. Oh, fuck, here we go.
He's like, I'm very sure I have it.
And I'm like, oh, let me get them in.
I just did the car facts when he was looking for it.
Yeah. On top of that, what was the other thing he said?
Well, that was a big issue, right?
Because I'm like, it's clean. He's like, yeah, yeah, it's clean.
And I'm like, fuck, these are the scenarios.
And then he was like, we can just do like the, you know,
dupe title, dupe title thing.
And I'm like, but if it's salvage, I could get fun.
I get fucked real hard.
But he ends up his wife comes running out.
I found it.
She had been looking for like the entire 30 minutes we were there stalling.
Nice. But as I checked out the truck,
I mean, it's it's clearly just something he put some mileage on,
didn't maintain, just didn't give a shit.
Hydrophied.
But it drove well.
It drove well enough, man.
It's that the four liter VQ is pretty beefy.
Like over the base three, that's like a almost hundred horsepower jump.
Oh, yeah. Like it's it's a big difference.
So good power and the fuel economy went up a little bit, which is kind of cool,
I guess, but it's a bigger truck, right?
Like it's it's a bigger it's built on that Armada platform.
Basically, yeah, the Titan.
So it's it's it's so fucking cool.
I love and like you said, the interior is Spartan,
which is hard to find on a more modern truck.
Yeah, hard plastics.
The whole back is hard plastics that throw heavy stuff in.
I'm trying to think if there's anything that really jumped out about the truck.
It's it's all original AC works.
It does have the the was it the something.
What is it? Rockford Fox?
Yeah, I got that baby.
You do too. Hell yeah.
So I got that that audio package
because the off road was like more pricey.
Yes, there was the SCU was priced above it
because it was like a premium model, right?
I didn't have like there was no other options for second gen.
I think first gen you could get leather, which is really interesting.
I think I've seen it, but I always thought it was like a dealer install.
You could get it on the top of the line.
SES, I think I saw that.
But with mine, the off road was like
once I found out there was an off road, that's what I was gunning for.
But they were quite a bit more significant.
They're like six to seven to eight.
Yeah, usually for the locking diffs and everything.
So I'm like, yeah, I want that.
There was there was one with like, I think I had like 160,000 miles
that I sold for car donation on cars and bids.
It was, I think, like an oh, oh, eight or own.
Maybe it's an oh, nine. The white one.
No, silver silver.
I think I looked that one up and it's sold for 9500, right?
No, this one's a little bit less.
I want to say it's all for like eight.
It was a speed, though.
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, I did weigh that out.
I'm like, I did to get a manual off road.
They're really rare.
First off, they're hard to get.
And you don't get the strawberry milkshake of death, right?
Bonus. Yeah, that's a huge.
That's a fucking huge bonus.
But I was like, man, if I keep this as the family adventure rig,
the, you know, anyone can drive it and off roading.
I kind of like an automatic. Yeah, I'm not going to lie.
I don't. Yeah, same with this one.
Then you can get a supercharger in a four speed or sorry, in a five speed.
I think it was one year only you could get the manual supercharger.
I think I saw somebody say there's some weird, like XTERRA trivia
floating out there and I do know, I do know the auto.
You get an extra 15 pound feet of torque for whatever reason.
Is that true?
Compared to the five speed with the supercharger.
Yeah, I don't know if it's just, I don't know.
I'll take it.
But besides that, I'm trying to think what else was really gnarly.
It just, it just needs a lot of stuff.
Oh, the valve covers.
So I saw the oil and it like just absolutely just water falling
from the valve covers.
And on these, I don't know if the design is the same
with the first gen, but the second gen's have the spark plug,
you know, the O-rings for the spark holes.
Yeah, not removable from the valve cover.
Oh, fuck.
I pressed in.
So you have to replace the valve covers.
That's I hate that kind of shit.
But at the same time, they're not expensive.
It's like 50, 54 bucks for two of them.
Yeah, whatever, dude.
I think is it a plastic valve cover?
They all are. Yeah, there are.
You can buy a metal one, but at that point I'm like, it's 50 bucks.
I'll do it every like what?
One hundred and twenty thousand.
Yeah, one hundred and eighty thousand miles.
Yeah, yeah, it probably let go quite a while ago.
You're right. But just it's kind of, I hate that stuff.
I hate those kind of engineering choices.
I get why they do that.
And it is kind of a pain in the dick.
If that was the original valve cover,
trying to pull those rubber O-rings out is a pain in the ass anyway.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I got to do that.
I got to do the whole coolant system really should be addressed
with that strawberry milkshake of death.
If I pull everything I might as well do the thermostat,
because that's all original thing though.
You're going to have, you're going to have to start making some
business decisions to keep under five grand.
I got to sell parts.
I know, but even like you're sitting there like, oh, I got to do.
I have half the coolant system apart and I want to put like a new thermostat.
I found out the thermostat housing needs to go or something like.
Oh, no, they're super easy on this one.
So the like an ACIN is like 28 bucks.
Yeah. So I've already priced out the essential.
So plan of attack, right?
Like I've already come up with that in my head.
Since I have technically $200, I'm going to sell the wheels and tires.
I'll get at least 100 to 200 because it's a full set of matching wheels.
And then the definitely for the brush guard, are the tires are the
the other set of wheels and tires are the tires and everything mounted on them
already? No. So yeah, you've got to budget
mountain balance that pay that that's going to be a couple hundred bucks.
Yeah, or 120 bucks, I think is the shop.
Yeah, I got last time.
So I'll do that, but I should get at least two, two plus for the brush guard.
It's in good shape with a good life bar on it.
Yeah. And it's made specifically for the vehicle.
It's like 880 bucks everywhere else and people love them.
They love to slap them on there.
400 bucks. Can we get it?
Yeah. So that that gives me 600.
The radiator is like 80 bucks.
Yeah. No labor because I'll do it all myself.
Right. And then the only thing I really need to do is I'm going to do the fluids.
Tires mounted balance.
I'll probably get in alignment just because they're new tires.
Yeah. Do all that.
I've got to obviously look at the cooling system stuff.
So thermostat, new coolant, like $50 worth of coolant.
I'm going to be right up against it with that.
I'll be able to do like an oil change.
I won't be able to touch the driveline fluids.
Yeah, which sucks.
And I guarantee that transmission fluid is 180,000 mile transmission fluid.
I put I put 100 bucks on that right now.
Yeah, like it looks like fucking root beer.
Yeah, you know, it does.
Fuck, I know that that's the thing that's coming.
But I think the coolant system is an absolute no option
with the risk because that's complete.
And you're going to have the radiator
around anyways is just like you're halfway there.
Yeah, do it all, do it all.
And then how is the rubber on like hoses and belts and all that?
It's pretty good. It's it's been a California car its whole life.
So the rubber I test, everything's really they use really good materials
for these trucks, like there's not really too much cheap going on.
There are the plastic heater core hoses, which I kind of mentioned earlier.
Yeah, what a fucking nightmare.
Why did automakers ever think about that?
But the cool thing is like they're both like $10 metal aftermarket, no name, whatever.
Yeah, yeah. Geeks.
So I'll I'll get under the budget.
Am I going to do everything I want to do? Absolutely not.
Yeah, right.
Like the cosmetic stuff will have to hang out
because I can't get like a I don't even know how you get egg out of that paint, dude.
I mean, you just you what you got mud on it.
That's what you do. You get mud and dirt and splash some shit on it.
Yeah. Yeah.
You get some light scratches down the sides from bushes and stuff.
And then you just it doesn't matter.
It just fades into the into the void. True. True.
But yeah, so maintenance stuff I have to pass.
Driveline fluids.
Yeah, I need to talk about it.
I haven't really spent any time with mine.
I might have an opportunity to do it tomorrow.
It's to just like baseline, like go through and a see if I can get a car fax.
Figure out what service history around it.
Because again, looking under the hood,
somebody has spent some time and money on this thing.
The guy bought it from he was like, oh, I replaced this.
And he pointed to like the passenger side exhaust manifold.
I'm like, oh, I was like, did you do it?
Do you have a shop to it? He's like a shop.
I was like, he's like, yeah, they charge me $300.
It's like, OK, probably just like random, you know, barrio shop in San Jose.
Yeah, yeah, because that's a pretty good deal.
That's a really good deal.
And that's what made me think like, oh, he actually had has had this car for a little bit.
That's a common fail point on those is they crack exhaust manifold.
Oh, yeah, hell, yeah.
And like someone who just like is selling their like
cousins car or like stole it from the neighbor when they're out of town
and found the title in the glove box or something like that, they wouldn't know.
Yeah, yeah, they wouldn't and also wouldn't know like.
Oh, yeah, it's a knock sensor code.
And then I plug it. Oh, sure, shit. Yeah, knock sensor.
Yeah, that's legit.
So it's all it's above board, even if like
you probably title jumping it from the person you have before.
So are you are you thinking you're going to do time about water pump right up front?
I'm it seems like that's a have to do because that's those are interference, correct?
They are. So if it depends because it's
if I can find any history of it being done at least once,
it's going to come down to probably age.
So the title was issued in twenty twenty four.
OK, or twenty three or twenty four.
And on the title, they had the mileage at like one hundred and fifty five thousand.
OK, so he's been driving it.
It's been it's been seeing you.
So what I'm curious is the actual service interval for the time
about water pump is one hundred and five thousand miles or seven years.
So if it was done at one oh five.
In whatever in twenty
fourteen, I've got a problem.
Yeah, it's got it's got to get done.
But if it was done like a little bit late, it wasn't done on time or it was done,
you know, at one hundred and five, but six years ago, five years ago,
then OK, like I'm good by time and I'm still good by mileage because it's got one eighty.
I've got another twenty five thousand miles in theory.
Unless they use not a gate or a continent on you, some no.
Right, I don't know.
But that's the thing, the water pump looks pretty new.
So this is what I need to.
I need to get a wire brush and did it right before you got there, you know.
So but yeah, I can't just look at the water pump and go
and walk away. Is that motor different than the regular three three?
It's got to be basically the same motor.
Really? Yeah, they might have dropped a little bit of compression,
but it's still it's still well, you don't want to pay for a motor, though,
if you don't skip on time.
I bet time about water pumps pretty easy on that truck.
You pull the radiator, you get all the space in the world.
AC already doesn't work, so I can just pull the condenser too.
And it's yeah, I would I would do it.
I would you know me.
I love if there's no you know me.
I love doing time about if there's no history at all
on a car fax to point me in a different direction.
I'll kind of have to do it.
Can't be expensive. I have to do.
I can get so I can get a replacement
ignition cylinder with keys from Rock Auto for like 200 bucks.
That's not bad.
I have to drill.
It's the kind where you drill out the security bolts and put the new
shear bolts in and do the thing.
I did symbol.
I did the exact same thing on the center SDR that I had.
Yep.
What I the only problem is I then won't have keys for the doors
because the only cut key is stuck in the ignition cylinder.
So I might I'm going to call Nissan
and see if they can get me a set of keys by Vin. OK.
That way I can get like one or two and at least I have keys to the door.
So if I kill the battery and it's locked,
I'm not just like have to call triple A or something.
Yeah, you can get a locks with the do two different door cylinders,
too, though, and get new. Yeah, I know.
It's a pain in the dick.
I have a pain keys. Yeah.
So we'll see.
As of now, you just like start up the screwdriver or whatever.
Oh, yeah.
That I'm going to have to figure out tires.
I could, in theory, the sizes are close enough.
I can swap tires with my suburban.
Oh, shit. And because the suburban's got two sixty five seventy
seventeen and it's wearing two sixty five sixty five seventeen.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm on it right now.
I was just like Kumo street tires.
Yeah, that wouldn't cut it.
I'm going to want to figure out what's going on with the AC.
I'm going to have to baseline some stuff, fluids and all that.
And I don't know where this leak is coming from.
It's it's could be the covers, dude.
It's not burning anything off, though.
It's like just like leaving.
So it's been parked in in a spot for two days.
Oh, it's actually dripping.
And there's there's a there's a puddle about the size of a silver.
So it's it's coming down.
It's yeah, it's there's something there.
And it's maybe it's like rear of the motor.
So I'm hoping it's not a rear main seal that would be annoying.
I can live with it, but I don't want to like drop in some of the BLM land
and dump a quart of oil on Mars.
No leak in there, right?
Yeah, filled the crankcase with sawdust.
But no supercharger like that.
Yeah, the knob for the Rockford Fosgate
stereo is missing for that for the volume lob knob.
They're on eBay for like six dollars.
I'll get one of those.
But if I have if I get decent tires and I and I get it all
mechanically sorted and I'm still well under budget,
which that's a big if.
But let's say I am like, do I do?
You can I can do like a modest lift where you just do
rear, you can do shackles in the rear for this the leaf spring
and it's torsion bars in the front.
So you can just crank the torsion bars up like two cranks.
Yeah, yeah, you get about two inches total.
You can get a really good deal on a deeply used
rooftop tent for like four hundred dollars on Craigslist.
Oh, you're going all the way to so many people.
So many people want to get rid of those.
Yeah, they're getting rid of them.
Yeah, yeah, because they're like, oh, we used it once.
And so if I can scoop one for like, you know,
find one that's been listed for four months, like hell, yeah.
Two hundred and fifty dollars to take that shit off your hands.
Dude, you'll be able to do everything you've listed
could should easily fall within your budget.
I know. And there's going.
I'm sure there's going to be some mystery.
Oh, yeah, like I'll probably want to do shocks front and rear.
See, I can't do any of that.
Right. I know. I've got this is the opposite approach.
I usually I just wanted because I know I kind of wanted to get the off road
because I know that's the one I'd keep long term because they are very.
It's like a tear the off road version of a, you know, forerunner.
So I really wanted to keep it long term.
I'm going to have to suffer through the challenge.
Yes. And hopefully can make it doable.
But long term, I can put a little more into a proper lift
and go over all the stuff I can't do.
Yeah. It's my objective.
Mine would be really cool to keep long term
because it is the supercharged because it is the supercharged.
It's it's it's pretty much like the spec you want.
I don't know. I don't know.
We'll see. I don't know if I would use it enough.
Are we going to drag race?
Oh, we might have to.
I think yours is going to be faster.
Well, yeah, but it still may be fun.
Yeah, supercharged versus I don't want to say the supercharged one.
Like it gets like 10 miles a gallon.
They're barely.
Oh, good.
We should compare fuel economy on the adventure part.
Yeah, we'll have to put some rubric together on, you know, how do we judge?
I like that because it shouldn't be just did we make it.
I hope I hope we both put a yes in that column in that column.
But I hope I hope we can look at some other like factors to look at.
The other thing is, too, before I looked at this, this one here,
I did price out tires just in case I got a regular XTERRA.
And we have I think they're the same size, by the way.
I think what is it, too?
I think I run two sixty five seventy five sixteens.
Yeah, mine what's on it?
Yeah, two sixty five sixty five seventeen.
Oh, so mine are a little taller, but the off road came with a taller knobby tire.
Yeah.
But just so you know, you can get tires for good brand name under eight hundred bucks.
It's such a common tire size.
Yeah, it is.
So like it just budget to you can find like people that like
like decent like take offs from there.
Like, oh, I bought this new Tacoma and I put twenty five hundred miles on it
before I put this fucking silly.
Oh, true. And got some like, you know, it's such a common size, too.
Yeah, that they're out there or even just like I was kind of looking like,
oh, I could just find some of like wheels and everything.
But like I like the supercharged wheels online.
Like I feel like it's kind of you got to keep the original wheels.
Yeah, to paint the center caps and stuff because they're flaking.
But like, yeah, dude.
Yeah, I'm really I'm really jazzed.
I think as long as I don't find like an actual human skeleton.
Like in the I might.
I might have one of my yeah.
No, it's cool.
I think they're it's neat because we'll have the supercharged
and then we'll have the off road version of the second gen.
So we'll be first gen, second gen compare and then two kind of neat trims on each one.
I almost ended up there was a second gen I was going to look at.
It was in Walnut Creek, so close to me.
It was like an oh, seven.
Just, you know, I think it was an XE and it was anything crazy.
But it was it was there.
It seemed to be complete.
The paint on the hood was kind of gone.
He was like it was like forty four hundred dollars firm.
And I'm like, it's just not that cool.
Like, yeah, for just a regular night.
I think you said like it had, you know, rebuilt motor at like 90,000 miles
or something like that, which whatever.
Interesting. It doesn't really have not a big value
at as far as I'm concerned.
It's like, why the fuck do you blow that motor up?
Yeah, why?
But I was like firm.
I was just like, I'm not.
If the guy was open to negotiate, I would maybe work on it
and like whatever.
So I bought this one and I saw it today.
He dropped it on the thirty nine hundred dollars.
It's like firm by ass.
Yeah, right, right.
For a couple of days.
Yeah, because if it wasn't, honestly, I was like looking at it.
I was like, I should message the guy.
I was like, nah, a lot of these, a lot of these aren't four by four.
If I know this one was for sure, sneaky.
Also, people wrote off road, you know, the trim in almost every one of these
and none of them are actually off road models.
There were a lot of supercharged listings and supercharged.
You see and you're like, what?
Yeah, sports coupe.
Yeah, explain to me.
And it's like, yeah, XE two wheel drive.
Yeah, yeah.
So I saw a lot of that.
I'm excited.
I'm glad I got the off road because I think that's what I wanted for the package.
I'm glad I got a first gen.
And I just say that because I think the second gen is the superior vehicle.
Like as a thing, it has some.
I don't think it's quite as Achilles heel attributes.
Oh, yeah, I like how it looks.
I think it looks more.
Oh, I think they they it definitely is a little brawnier.
Yeah.
But like it's the original one.
There's it's just got like a I don't know.
Yeah, but you're here's the thing, man.
You know, a square headlight original one guy is going to look at yours.
And look at you.
I round headlight.
I bro. I prefer the square one.
I just the square headlight.
I'm with you. I'm with you on that one.
Yep. Yeah.
Kind of recess square.
It looks it looks really good.
Yeah, the bumper, the front bumper isn't as good on those.
There's like a weird filler panel that that part is like like a weird gray color
because I was looking at nothing but first gen's.
But the second gen is in the VQ 40 is like kind of nuts.
That's what I mean.
Like it's that motor.
It's a more it's a far more substantive vehicle for not that much more money.
No, if I didn't just get off road like in infatuation,
like you could get a four by four SE for like four for thirty four.
Yeah. Yeah.
Might have two hundred thousand miles on.
There was one another second gen in San Jose.
The blue one was a blue.
I thought it was black.
There was a blue one with a cool tan interior.
One hundred ninety nine thousand miles on it.
Yes. And it had that kind of tan like color.
It was like a really cool interior.
And I think they were asking like forty three little hot for the mileage.
Yeah. Yeah.
But it had been on there for a few weeks.
I was like forty three.
I bet I can go in there and like thirty eight.
The paint was good too.
It looked really good.
No, it looked good.
It looked good.
I had those like five spoke wheels.
None of us got a yellow one.
That's the goddamn shame.
I wanted a yellow second gen off road so hard.
So hard.
Gens are toped too.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And yellow if you got a yellow manual supercharged,
I feel like that's the one for the money.
Yeah, that's the one.
That's the money.
Yeah, I'm excited, dude.
I'm ready to lock the rear diff and fucking deal descent control.
Maybe the gearing's different.
It's it's kind of cool.
It's kind of cool what they put in that skid plates, bro.
Skid plates.
Yeah, I don't know.
I think I got like one of the cheapest off road trims you can get.
But yeah, for a reason.
Yeah, yeah, for a reason.
And I got my I'm hope I'm just hoping the reason I got such a good deal
on mine is because of the title and the admin kind of.
Yeah, the paperwork shenanigans that might not even be.
Honestly, maybe it was his wife's.
I don't know that it wasn't like wife.
Very she might not speak English and just like, I'm not dealing with this.
You bought this stupid thing.
I told you to register it.
Now it's got a check engine that you fucking deal with it.
I don't know that the story is not legitimate, but the fact that he met me
and then was just like, oh, I actually live up the street.
I'll see you later.
And he just like get a bag with him.
He said, oh, this is mine.
And you like walked away.
He threw a little bent over his shoulder and like basically.
Yeah, he's like, oh, I live in the.
He's like, oh, I actually live in the apartment complex down the road.
I'm like, oh, OK.
Have a nice day later, dude, because he didn't just like walk into the house.
We were like transacting in front of.
Oh, man. Yeah.
It's cool that we both arrived and like I do want to say something.
I think the XTERRA is an insane value as a vehicle right now.
I think it's purpose built.
I think it is meant to do what we're going to do with it.
Yeah.
And I think it's a it's a cool it's a cool vehicle in its own.
Right. Yeah, we both came away with cool trims.
Like you got the supercharged version.
I got the off-road trim two different generations.
It'll be fun to like look at them.
Right. It's kind of like the ultimate trims for each.
It definitely is generation.
I would say I know they made like, I think in the first gen
and the later ones, they made like an I think of like enthusiast package
or something where you could get.
I think it was an LSD rear.
I don't think it was a lock.
Yeah, they never had the locking with LSD rear.
And I think some other I think like slightly taller gears.
That's cool.
But superchargers definitely the the flavor you want with the first gen.
That's so cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because I think the regular three three had 170 horsepower 170.
If I think maybe in the last year, it got like 180 or something like that.
But still pretty underpowered.
Yeah, the reliable motors.
They are very reliable.
But yeah, a little underpowered.
And so I'm trading, I think, fuel economy for coolness and some more power.
Yeah, dude. Yeah.
I think we did well.
Yeah. I'm excited.
Our XTERRA challenge.
The XTERRATHON.
Dude, it is. Oh, boy. Oh, God.
Well, should we not celebrate by doing PCP?
And in fact, kind of this whole thing is PCP.
It is. It is a project car progress.
Yep. Or unprogress.
Yeah, we've added we've added to our progress list.
That's for sure.
So I think what we should do is celebrate by me whizzing you.
Oh, shit.
So I have something here.
OK, it's let me.
So I'm going to like breast my cards, so to speak.
Let's see it. I'll explain the cards.
I'll explain to the wonderful viewers and listeners,
viewers first, because this is an in person episode.
Tune in on YouTube to check this out.
Guys, this is the automotive print ad quiz game show.
It's a lovely little game that we play.
Frank is about to read a magazine
advertisement from a magazine, a digital magazine at this point.
Featuring in 80s, 90s, mid 2000s car.
He's going to read it omitting most things that give it away.
I get three guesses to figure out what he's talking about.
I get some hints dropped in if I fail miserably.
I have 10 minutes.
Jesus, I'm doomed.
Frank, just roll that beautiful bean.
We are rolling the bean footage.
OK, so this is a two page ad. OK.
It's a very of its period looking ad.
OK.
It's in the bottom half is the vehicle in question.
We're looking at the driver side, not quite broadside,
but mostly a little bit of the front angle.
And behind it is like a like a watercolor painting,
like a giant watercolor painting on like a wall.
And then there's a man who kind of looks like.
Did you ever watch God?
You ever watch Perfect Strangers?
Of course, Belki, Bartokimus.
Yeah. So you remember Cousin Larry?
Yeah, he looks quite like Cousin Larry.
Oh, he's got the mustache.
He's got the like the kind of balding in the front,
but then kind of long curly in the back.
Good. He's got his arms crossed.
The year is 1987. It might be.
There's there's some like and then he's like there's some like
illustrations of paint brushes over here above his head.
And then over here, there's some illustrations of paint buckets.
Like I'm a stir stick in one of them.
And then it says the name of the vehicle in like a script.
OK, a lasting impression for the 90s.
Oh, OK. OK.
The all new blank.
We asked California artist Ed Lister to capture it on canvas.
Did he? And that's presumably this painting behind the car.
OK. You decide.
But when you see the completely redesigned blank,
we think you will make a strong and positive impression on you.
Impressive control.
An all new adjustable ride control system
lets you select the ride you desire, soft for a comfortable ride,
sport or automatic setting that selects the best suspension feel
at varying speeds, quality and convenience.
Blank is evident through the new.
Oh, sorry. Blank quality is evident throughout the new blank
in thoughtful touches like rear seat ventilation
slash heat dots and the extensive use of two sided galvanized steel
to fight corrosion.
I don't want that like MC Escher style one sided steel.
Yeah, yeah, it's just like this.
Like, yeah, can we be honest?
You turn the sideways.
The rear AC and he is a fucking duck down to the the front seats.
Let's be honest. That's what it is.
It's like a ball cooler on like a Toyota truck.
Yeah, right. It's nothing.
You're not getting anything.
Well, this quality feature is backed by a six year
hundred thousand mile rust through warranty.
Several asterisks.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. No, we're serious.
That's a statement. Advanced safety.
Every blank gives you the smooth stopping control of anti lock breaks
and the security of power door locks.
Powerful performance.
The standard fuel injecting fuel injected
thirty three hundred V six in the blank delivers one hundred and sixty
horsepower and one hundred and eighty five pound feet of torque per smooth
confident power for more information on our latest work of art.
Call one eight hundred four three five five five five two or better yet
is it your blank dealer and take a test drive?
Let me see if I can read these asterisks.
Hold on.
See your dealer for terms on this limited warranty.
And then there is a I'll save that maybe for a hint.
There's a saying, a slogan for the manufacturer.
OK, for later.
And then there is also just one random superfluous
tiny image of like the steering the two spoke steering wheel
and the gauge cluster.
I don't I don't want to blow the spot up,
but I think we've done this exact ad my halfway.
Yes. Is there a splash graphic on the side of the car?
No. Is it white? No.
Is there a lot of neon in the ad? No.
OK, maybe we haven't.
But I remember that at Lister.
There was another one where there was an artist that did something.
Sure. OK, maybe.
Very RC type of time of time of the it was.
Yeah, not like the early 2000s print ads, which have like five words.
Right. OK, so 3,300.
Yes, V6 V6.
No mention of front wheel driver, wheel driver, anything like that.
I don't think I got a door count.
You did not get a door count.
3,300 immediately goes to my homies at GM.
Mm hmm.
Pretty good V6 there was a 3,300.
I think I can show those watching at home.
Don't blink twice back into my cell phone.
Am I still recording?
That's actually the point. Check that out.
All right. All right.
You're wasting time.
So let's go.
3,300, it has to be GM.
But that 3,300 was kind of special.
So most things got the 3,100.
And then that was later supplanted by the 3,400.
I hate that I know these things, Frank.
The 3,300 we're talking about.
3,300 was legit.
I think it had like 205 to 215 horsepower was the spread that that era.
And your ad didn't say shit.
No, it said 160 horsepower and 185 pound feet.
Oh, fuck. So this is the early iteration of that motor.
It's a lasting impression for the 90s, after all.
God damn it.
Because you could get it in the Grand Prix GXP.
It was a lot more than that.
It was like two 10.
It was a twin cam, though, yeah.
Yeah, it was. This is the single, right?
Probably did not say it probably is.
This is the early one.
So so it really doesn't hint
whether it's like an economy minded car.
It doesn't sound like it is.
It doesn't hint that it's like luxury.
There was no tones of luxury.
A lot of artistic interpretation.
Artistic stuff.
It's got ABS adjustable ride control.
It's got ABS.
It's got a ball coolers.
It's got power door security, power door locks.
Is this a.
God, it could be so many things.
They stuck that motor in everything.
What would a California artist at Lister Drive?
A fucking science, science,
XB later in life.
He drove the Lolita Express.
What? He was one of those.
He became a pilot.
The Me Too movement.
Is this a 1990s?
Yes.
A lasting impression.
I don't think it's Pontiac
because it really didn't hint in excitement.
You said there's a slogan,
but you would you you would definitely not say
we build driving excitement
because that would be a slam duck and a half.
So I is this a to have to guess
the special trim in this case?
Or is no, it does.
It does.
It does state the trim,
but this is this ad is not trim specific.
OK, is this a 1991 Buick?
Skylark.
Final answer by Buick,
the new symbol for quality in America.
This is a 1992.
What a freshly redesigned for 92.
OK, Buick Skylark.
This one specifically is a coupe.
It does have, I think, as pictured as the GS.
GS would be the sports trim.
Right.
Because Buick, yeah, OK.
OK, that's not at all what I was thinking.
It's the first year
where they got the really pointy beak.
So they so they also were the first car to get the three three.
So the later three threes had way more power.
The do overhead can bear this was basically
just like a punched out three three one.
Yeah. So cool car.
I like those a lot.
They're very.
I don't think they've ever been attractive.
But now that we're whatever,
40 years down the line, they look good.
Almost. They look really good.
They're very like they look very much of their era,
especially in this.
It's like this like teal over silver with a red stripe.
Very cool cushy interiors, too.
They had really nice seats, quality and convenience.
So that's what weirded me out at first
when he said the horsepower with that displacement.
And I remember that the Skylark did have the bigger motor
and that was to put it above the other GM offerings
that came with the three one. Yes.
Because the price difference, if I remember correctly,
those were priced like considerably more
than what you'd pay for a Grand Am.
Kind of see if there's any.
There's no pricing in here in the in the fine print.
I guarantee that's like at least four to five
grand more than a Grand Am with the three one.
Probably.
Yeah. So what were the stable mates?
Because you had the Grand Am.
Grand Am was almost this far.
Pretty sure that's a Grand Am chess or platform.
Olds. Was it the Olds Achiva?
The Achiva was the little guy yet.
Yeah.
And then Chevy was it Lumina?
Lumina or was Lumina a size up or was it Corsica?
It might have been.
Did they make a two door Corsica? Yes, they did. Absolutely.
OK, they made it like a Corsica.
They made a bunch of no, they didn't because the.
Yeah, they did. They called it a Beretta.
I thought the Beretta was a two door Lumina.
No, Beretta's two door Corsica. OK, OK.
Lumina was kind of a little bigger.
Right. And then there was no Caddy stable mate.
I think that was it. Those are the ones that was it.
Should have been a Saturn. That would have been sick.
This is my wheelhouse, my friend.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, from that period.
Yeah, the Beretta was super cool.
But I love how 90s this ad is.
Oh, dude, a lasting impression.
The 90s and all you needed was like the was it.
Is it Gary Larson?
Who's the guy that painted all like the 90s?
Like like circular stick figure, guys.
Why didn't I think Gary Gary Larson did Farside, dude?
Oh, OK, that's what I'm thinking of that is great.
There's like a lot of like Gary Paulson, like pro AIDS.
Oh, shit, pro AIDS.
Like, oh, but just like, I suppose AIDS awareness.
Magic Johnson says getting a slam dunk.
Yep, yep, yep.
You want to be cool like me, kids?
Mm hmm.
You know what I was thinking of is we did do an early,
I think it was an early RAV4 where it had an artist
and it had like the splash graphics on the side of the RAV4.
That's the ad.
Yeah, so it's like stopping.
And then you said three, three.
I'm like, yeah, we're out.
Yeah, no, this is a different this is a different piece.
Buick, Buick, Skylar, Skylar.
I'd like to see one of these on the road.
You don't. This might be the better.
I haven't seen a good Beretta.
Oh, I don't.
Those early Timber Sports Grand Ams with a quad four
kind of do it for me.
Yeah, that's kind of it.
Yeah. And they look good.
Yep. Good ad, my friend.
So should we just not do PCP?
We kind of we've kind of done it for time.
I'm paying attention.
We're about to get real loose in here hour and one.
OK, yeah, we can fuck it.
Just say send it.
Send it.
Because we get like we did progress.
It just was bringing more strength.
Dude, we got XTERRAs, man.
We're XTERRA bros.
Yeah, we were Galant Boys.
Now we're the XTERRA boys.
I like it. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so good.
But yeah, what's after XTERRA is going to be, I don't know,
Bondi all men.
I don't know what's it going to be.
Before we close out.
Prelude, let's guess what we thought each other was getting.
I'm going to guess that you were going to tell me you got an LR3.
That's where I thought you were coming with.
I thought you were getting another first gen XTERRA.
I was I was I was I thought you were going to pick up.
Wasn't that red one that was in like Modesto?
That was a good one.
Yeah, I thought it was going to I thought you were going to like show up
with that and like, hey, I was still there.
I beat him up.
I got it for like twenty eight hundred bucks.
I thought that's what it was.
That one sold really the two I sent you when we started playing the blue one
and they sold immediately when I sent that.
So I think I think people are catching on.
But yeah, I had you know, I'm curious.
I'm curious now that we're nipping at the heels of seven dollars a gallon.
If some people are going to be like unloading some of these cars,
have they been like, I've been using this as a daily.
But like, really, this is going to be I'm at a pain point and like,
you know, I'm just going to there's this other car I have.
I'm going to start using or whatever.
So maybe it's the time to buy your it might be.
It might be we might be just rolling into the time unless we critically fail
and disprove that you should or prove the fact that you should not buy next era.
I mean, I think that I think they're going to be pretty good.
I think they're killer.
I think they've been slapped on, especially in like off-roading
overlanded communities.
Yeah, I think these things have been slapped on like I really thought
I really thought I was going to end up because I like the LR three
and there was that one I reached out to I looked to and you end up
you end up flying really close to the sun as far as budget.
And so I really thought I was going to end up with a Montero or Montero sport.
Montero, I looked hard at Montero's.
God, they're rough.
Oh, a lot of them.
There are some ones out there, but they're yeah, they're they're
they're due for a timing belt.
They're due for tires.
They're probably some other skeletons in its closet and you're at four grams.
Some shitty I think there were a third gen.
Yeah, four runners.
Pretty. Yeah.
And then those are right up on the budget too.
Yep. And they were rough.
That's why I thought I was like, OK, it's going to be Montero sport
or maybe like a trooper or a pass for second gen trooper.
The SLX would have been cool if I could have made that one happen.
But I'm super.
We kind of ended up in a really good spot logically.
Hell, yeah.
Until it goes terribly sideways.
Yeah. Stay tuned.
Yeah. For our impending demise.
It should just follow us here.
You don't need to follow any of us elsewhere.
No, check us out.
It's all right.
Also, join our Patreon because we're about to drop two new soads.
Oh, God, we're about to get real shitty, drinking some Rainier's
and just talking absolute mess.
And so if you want to unlock that, go to Patreon.
Patreon.com slash APA pod.
It's six letters. It's really easy.
Yeah. And I think our lowest here is like five bucks a month.
Five bucks and that goes only to buying the world's shittiest beverages.
And so, yeah, you can participate and so go check that out.
So otherwise, keep finding us here.
Thanks for following along.
Take care, guys, as always.
We'll see you next time.
Deuces. Oh, Rainier.
About this episode
Chad and Frank reveal their $5,000 “budget overlander” builds after a prior cheap rally-car challenge. Frank scored a 2003 Nissan Xterra SE supercharged (auto) for $2,500—clean body, but with dents, a broken ignition key, a knock-sensor issue, possible oil leak, and AC not blowing cold. Chad bought a 2008 Xterra Off Road for $4,800—rough paint, likely cooling-system risk (original radiator), valve-cover leaks, and questionable maintenance—yet he lucked into OEM wheels/brand-new AT tires and a brush guard. They also debate Xterra value, compare first- vs second-gen strengths, and play an 80s/90s print-ad quiz game.
Original notes
The fellas have actually done it, they have each bought a vehicle for their budget overland challenge and have not shared their purchases with each other yet. Until now! Did they do well? Tune in to find out!
***Want to support the pod? Join our Patreon for insultingly bad perks, including unlocking the APA Pod "Late Night Confidential" Episodes!***
Another Pointless Automotive Podcast
Frank Harrington IV and Chadwick Atkinson
0:00
65:30