Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Nissan Frontier opinions

Was in mine yesterday[02] 225,XXX.
[bleep] a picture

Wifey had one years ago, good truck!

SUMMARY
Good mid-sized truck that will serve you well for less money than a Taco.

LONGER ANSWER
I bought new and owned a 1997 Nissan Hardbody 2WD ext cab I-4 5sp manual. Base model only option AC. Lasted me 185k miles and 14 years until a little old lady from east Texas ran into me and totaled it. Performed general maint on it and replaced the radiator when a sledgehammer mechanic busted the upper extension the upper radiator hose clamps to. GREAT compact pickup. Had torsion bar front suspension and drove wonderfully. Pushed up to 28MPG on real gas on the highway, 22 in town. Was in terrific condition on its last day. Miss that truck. Would have been a great first auto for my kiddos.

Later, I bought new a 2013 Nissan Frontier 2WD four-door V-6 5sp automatic. Base model, only options AC & AT. Put 155k mi on it thus far. General maint, plus the auto shifter busted and cost me $800 to fix. Hefty part cost, most of their parts are not that pricy. I wanted a manual, but no manuals were available at that time. Rides well, but not as smooth as the Hardbody. Strong and steady up to 110mph, when I figured I need to slow the heck down. The V-6 has some serious torque and guts and will move it out right quick. Factory tires wore like iron but were awful in every other way. I replaced them with D load rated AT tires, as I use it as my hunting and backwoods camping truck. MPG was never great, but those tires hit it for 1-2mpg. Loves real gas (without ethyl) and gets a stupid large MPG bump from real gas.

Only thing wrong with it is that now my boy is growing, it is not big enough in the back seat for a grown man for cross-country trips. Rear leaf springs got weak after 100k miles. I replaced shocks/strut cartridges all around and front springs and bumped up the rear springs with 1000lb helper/load leveling springs. The kind I got, you can dial in the amount of assist, in front and behind the axle. I did a bit of both, eliminating the "axle wrap" the leafs do when power is applied and raising the rear a bit for towing. Cheap, simple, effective.

Seats sit pretty high and this can be a problem if you are a tall man or your back is relatively long. Seating is fine, it is the getting in & out and hitting your head on the door sill.

The Frontier was designed before Renault got their mitts on Nissan and is likely the best built/designed of all Nissan automobiles. Frontier design is older and many times some seriously good deals are to be had that make it the obvious winner vs Taco for function and financial reasons.

Compared to the Taco
Taco is the standard in this class. The Nissan interiors are not as durable as a Taco. I buy seat covers on Day One and call it good. Resale of similarly-speced Tacos is better. So if you buy new and trade in or sell a lot, the Taco might make better financial sense. If you keep it a LONG while, the Nissan is fine. Some Taco snobs will look down on you, but you can use the $5000 you'll likely save as unguent to soothe the social chafing.

Compared to a Full-Size Half Ton
Similarly-specced full size trucks will cost you half again the amount of cash relative to mid-sized, buying new. If mid-size PU cost = $1.0X, full size PU = $1.5X. Ford, Chevy, Dodge have done a lot to improve MPG such that full size PU mpg is about the same as mid-size PU V-6 mpg.

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Good luck. Both Frontier and Taco are good kit, can't go wrong with either.

I don’t believe that I’ll spend my time getting that picture, but I have over 240k on my 2012 Frontier 4.0. I bought it with less than thirty miles on the odometer. I don’t have to add oil between changes. It always starts and it always goes. The 4wd has always engaged and I’ve never been stuck yet. I’ve replaced plenty of suspension parts through the years, as it’s been a hunting truck and I expect it to go everywhere i need to drive. Otherwise no repairs, just maintenance. One thing I like the best is that it’s cooling system is pretty beefy, not once has it gotten hot, Even idling in Phoenix in the summer with the AC on. I’ll buy another one if this one quits, but I don’t see that coming anytime soon.

I'd love to have a Frontier with full skid plates, sliders, and lockers for places that my Tundra won't fit. I like Toyotas, but for that purpose I'd get a Frontier.

My '04 Dodge Dakota [bleep] the bed (blown head gasket) last summer and I bought a '17 Frontier with 28,000 miles on it. So far, have zero complaints.

Dutch: The article I was referring to was about the Nissan. My fault for not specifying which vehicle.

I got that, I was trying to make the point that the “automotive press” seems to be disconnected from reality when it comes to pickup trucks and how we use them.

Here you go....

Great Oldman thanks for showing.we don't see too many old frontiers up here in the northeast usually the salt got to them.

Son bought a new Frontier in '16. Mostly because of the price. Wanted a Tacoma, the Frontier was thousands less.

2WD ext. cab, 4 banger, 5 speed. Cruise and AC are about all the extras on that critter. Roll up windows, no remote entry. 50-some thousand on it now. Only expense so far, other than routine maintenance, was a new set of Michelins last fall. The OEM Generals were crap. Gets around a helluva lot better in snow with the Michelins.

It ain't a Tacoma, but it wasn't priced like one, either. It's his work truck/travel truck and he's happy with it so far.

No love here for the new Colorado. BIL has a new one w/V6. Z71 extended cab. Like every other owner that I know, of a newer Colorado, hates the automatic tranny. It gets no better fuel mileage than my 4x4 Silverado w/5.3L that has 50 more HP and is a helluva lot better truck.

If you get the SV model, order the rubberized cup holder inserts that come on the more expensive model.

I had one years ago. Being a big, tall man, I was never "real comfortable in it". I did not get great gas mileage from mine, though it was mechanically sound. Mine was a 6 cylinder with a Turbo. I found I preferred an 8 cylinder. I was just not a good match for it, or vice versa, ha.