I've owned my 2004 Nissan Xterra since ___ - my sophomore year of highschool. It's beena a bit of a love-hate relationship (mostly love), but it's caused me to learn a tremendous amount about car maintenance and repair. My parents & I went together to buy it off of Craigslist from a college student a few towns over. She was an equestrian,so of course there were large, girly horse girl stickers on the back glass that I took way too long to take off & was made fun of by all my friends for. On the plus side, though, it smelt like saddle leather for a couple year after I bought it.
The xterra had about 80k miles on it & had been well taken care of. As a young highschooler & first time car owner, I knew virtually nothing about car maintenance; I thought all I had to do was get it rinsed & put gas in it.

Some work I had to do on it over the years:

• Changed the spark plugs & plug wires
• Numerous battery replacements
• Changed the oil every 3-5k miles (I started doing this way too late)
• Full brake jobs
• 2 radiator replacements
• She's on her second starter
• Whole steering wheel has been replaced
• New horn
• Belts
• Half a dozen tie rods and sway bar stabilizers