All-New, Third-Gen Nissan Xterra Looks Quirky Enough to Scare the Ford Bronco Sport

Some of them are already trying to occupy every niche – at least the lucrative ones. For example, the Blue Oval Company recently amassed its sole passenger car and SUVs on the same page inside its online portal – the Mustang now lies next to the Escape and Bronco Sport crossovers, the big Bronco, as well as the massive Edge, Explorer, and Expedition, plus the all-electric Mustang Mach-E.

Interestingly, Ford also ditched the EcoSport model from its lineup and is now focused on offering both sleek and rugged crossovers and SUVs, with the Bronco Sport and the Bronco 2-Door plus 4-Door serving as the adventurous members of the family. That might give others some lovely ideas for replicating the trend – even if only across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators.

And there's no need to take our word for granted as we have an eloquent example coming from Dimas Ramadhan, the virtual automotive artist behind the Digimods DESIGN channel on YouTube, who has taken up the task of revealing a nice little Nissan SUV revival. Thus, meet the Xterra rebirth that no one asked for – all after stealing the body (and perhaps even the soul) of the Ford Bronco Sport.

Nissan created the Xterra nameplate as a truck-based compact SUV sharing most underpinnings with the Nissan Frontier D22 pickup truck and then – for the second generation – with the Frontier and Pathfinder on the Nissan F-Alpha platform. The model's stint wasn't too short-lived – production lasted across two iterations from 1999 to 2015, but the model was retired without a successor for the boxy design.

Interestingly, now the automotive world is seeing a resurgence of this rugged styling – especially from Asian automakers like Hyundai and Toyota if we consider the latest Santa Fe and Land Cruiser models. But in America, the Americans need to be bested at their own game, so this pixel master envisioned Nissan bringing back to life the Xterra nameplate for a quirky, adventurous compact SUV that could easily brawl with the Ford Bronco Sport.

It's not without logic – Nissan currently sells the Kicks, Rogue Sport, Rogue, Murano, Pathfinder, and Armada SUVs. Still, they're all too curvy for some tastes that prefer ruggedness over other styling values. However, this virtual Nissan Xterra revival design project looks mostly unfinished as it strives for that daring, adventurous feel that was nailed perfectly by so few models – like the Wrangler, Bronco, G-Class, or Land Cruiser. No worries, though; we bet this will remain wishful thinking forever, as Ford won't give its Bronco Sport underpinnings to a direct rival anytime soon!