Nissan Confirms Xterra Is Coming Back This Week — Under $40K, V6 and Hybrid Options

Nissan just put an end to one of the longest-running debates among off-road enthusiasts. The Xterra is officially returning. Last week, the SUV made a brief appearance in a teaser video, and now Christian Meunier, the head of Nissan Americas, turned up the heat by posting a silhouette of the vehicle on LinkedIn.

The shot shows the 2027 Nissan Xterra parked in a desert setting, and it looks exactly how fans hoped — generous ground clearance, a boxy, upright stance, rugged proportions that put it in the same league as the Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler, and a rear-mounted spare tire on the tailgate.

But the real headline isn’t just the design — it’s the price tag. According to Meunier, the starting price will come in under $40,000. He pointed out that the average transaction price for a new vehicle in the U.S. has already climbed to $48,000, which, in his words, is getting out of hand.

With the new Xterra, Nissan wants to land right where buyers stop dreaming and start doing the math on what they can actually afford. To put things in perspective: the base Bronco starts at $40,495, and the Toyota 4Runner is even pricier at $41,870. The Wrangler is cheaper in its two-door form, but the five-door version also bumps up against that $40K mark.

Meunier admitted that in recent years, Nissan got carried away with "technology for technology's sake," loading up vehicles with features and driving the price higher. The new Xterra, he says, will be the opposite of that approach — everything you need, nothing you don’t. In fact, he thinks it’s time to bring back the tagline from 2002 that captured that exact mindset.

There’s also solid info on what’s going under the sheet metal. The next-gen Xterra will ride on a body-on-frame platform that it’ll share with other models. Under the hood, buyers can expect a regular V6 along with a hybrid V6 option. Production will be based in the U.S., most likely at the same Mississippi plant that currently builds the Frontier.

If Nissan can stick to that promised price point and resist the urge to pile on options until the deal stops making sense, the brand might just have a real shot at winning back the kind of excitement that’s been missing for the past several years.