After 9 warranty visits to the dealer over the last 17 months, I gave up on our Armada. My dealer that services it (we did not buy it there) gave us a generous offer to trade it for a new '05. After driving the '05, I could not even believe they came out of the same factory. Where were the squeaks and rattles? Where did the poor-fitting trim pieces go?

So, the final tally on the '04 (at 16,000 miles) was:
4 sets of front brakes
2 driver's seats
2 stereo head units
3 attempts to fix booming noise from roof (was fixed) and shaky dvd screen (somewhat fixed)
2 sets of rear sonar sensors
various missing (from the factory) screws and fasteners on the interior
2 lower driver's side kickpanels
2 driver's side armrests (squeaky)

At the time of the trade on Saturday, the auto level suspension was still not working and I noticed (afterward) that the rear of the overhead console (in the rear of the truck) was hanging loose.

I think I unloaded it just in time. I think the dealer is sending it back to Nissan (they don't want it). FYI, this was one of the first sellable units in Texas when we bought it (I did not know this at the time, of course).

The new '05 is the way it should have been...tight, solid, quiet, and smooth. I'll post if anything goes wrong with this one.

Kevin Taylor
Austin, Texas
'05 Armada LE Deepwater Blue

What was your out of pocket costs for the trade?
Increase or decrease in payments?

We paid just under $1000 to get out of the '04 (cheap, in my opinion). We had a lease on the '04 and took advantage of the 2% financing on the '05. We got the '05 for invoice and did a $5K downpayment. Our payments went up by about $100, but we will have good equity in it after three years (when we will probably trade it). If we decide to run out the full 60 months on the contract, our total finance charges will be around $2K (not bad on a $37K loan).

Kevin

Sweet deal, enjoy your 2005, I'm love'n mine. Did you keep the same color?

No, the '04 was the Canteen with the tan interior. The new one is deepwater blue with the steel interior. The one thing we really like (but didn't know about) with the new truck is the rear view camera. That was a really nice touch.

Kevin