Abstract. We study a nonlinear parametric elliptic equation (nonlinear eigenvalue problem) driven by a nonhomogeneous differential operator. Our setting incorporates equations driven by the p-Laplacian, the (p, q)-Laplacian, and the generalized p-mean curvature differential operator. Applying variational methods we show that for λ > 0 (the parameter) sufficiently large the problem has at least three nontrivial smooth solutions whereby one is positive, one is negative and the last one has changing sign (nodal). In the particular case of (p, 2)-equations, using Morse theory, we produce another nodal solution for a total of four nontrivial smooth solutions.