The Nissan Terrano II was a compact SUV produced from 1993 to 2005.
Nissan SUV History and Terrano Introduction
Nissan has a rich history filled with many multi-purpose vehicles including small city-focused options and larger platforms to handle more heavy-duty applications. Somewhere in the middle is the Nissan Terrano II. As a compact SUV with four-wheel drive, the Terrano offered a good balance between capability and drivability. It was released in 1993 and in the Japanese domestic market, it was sold as the Nissan Mistral at Nissan Satio Store dealerships. Like many Nissan models, the automaker decided to use different names for export markets, so the Mistral became the Terrano II. The Nissan Terrano II and Mistral were produced in Nissan's Barcelona, Spain plant. Nissan also entered into an OEM agreement with Ford to sell a rebadged version as the Ford Maverick in Europe.
Design and Body Styles
The style was competed by the Italian I.DE.A Institute, giving it a tall and narrow body with ample ground clearance based on a true body-on-frame platform that is rare in today's unibody world. The design was fairly boxy, leveraging some of Nissan's typical front-end characteristics from other SUVs and pickup trucks, such as rectangular headlights and a large bumper. It was available in two different wheelbase lengths, ranging from 96.5 inches (2,450 mm) in a three-door variant up to 104.3 inches (2,650 mm) in the larger five-door version. A cargo van-like version was also produced, and exclusively sold in the UK.
Engine and Transmission
At its release, the Nissan Terrano II had two different engine choices. They included a 2.4L KA24S inline-4 gasoline engine and a 2.7L turbodiesel TD27Ti inline-4 engine. The transmission options were a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. Although it kept the single-generation design, the Nissan Terrano II received some heavy-handed updates in 1996. Some of the changes were to the exterior design, including a switch to round headlights. Mechanical updates also happened in 1997, such as the gasoline engine was upgraded to fuel-injection while the diesel added an intercooler. Then in 1999, more changes came to the Nissan Terrano II. One major change is that Nissan no longer offered the vehicle in the Japanese domestic market and the Ford Maverick production came to a hault. It was now exclusively the Nissan Terrano II, sold in select markets including Europe and Australia. That same year, 1999, a larger 3.0L turbodiesel engine was used, adding a significant boost in power and performance without increasing fuel consumption too much. This ZD30DDTi diesel engine was also used in the larger and heavier Nissan Patrol, showing that it was a rare case when Nissan put a somewhat oversized engine into one of their more practical offerings.
Later 2002 Updates and the End of the Road
Although the Nissan Terrano II only had one generation of design officially, yet another round of changes happened in 2002. This marked the third major shift since the introduction of the vehicle. This follows much of Nissan's usual production line that often received complete generation changes every three to five years. The changes in 2002 included more exterior adjustments, now bringing in a slightly more modern appearance to the table. It also shifted marketing to just being called the Nissan Terrano. The Terrano was phased out in 2006 as Nissan brought in many updates to its SUV lineup, including the Pathfinder and Qashqai. The 13-year production was a relatively short run for Nissan, but with so many other SUV options and the growing desire for more city-focused crossover SUVs, it made sense to let the Terrano production end.