With a creation run that began back in late 2004 for the 2005 model year, the present Nissan Frontier pickup is a living car fossil from a period before iPhones and when new Oldsmobiles were new-mobiles on merchant parts. Disregard Game of Thrones—we were all the while pondering what might happen to Tony Soprano when this second-era fix hit the roads. But then Nissan’s average size dino-truck has endured as a simple instrument of common sense.
The last time we tried a Frontier was for a five-truck correlation test in 2005, in which the Nissan completed second to the then progressive original Honda Ridgeline. In spite of the Frontier’s negligible refresh for 2009, a major, torquey 4.0-liter V-6 (261 drive, 281 lb-ft) is as yet found in the engine of most models, including our team taxi Pro-4X test truck. (Just some littler King Cab variations with raise pivoted half entryways can be had with the 152-hp 2.5-liter inline-four.) A standard six-speed manual or, as in this illustration, a $1050 programmed transmission—with only five forward riggings—handles moving obligations on V-6 variants. Dissimilar to fresher average size trucks, there is no full-time all-wheel-drive setting for the Pro-4X’s low-run four-wheel-drive exchange case. Furthermore, the Frontier’s energy guiding is still supported by old-timey water driven help, which loans the wheel a firm, straight activity, if very little feel.
There is nary a surface inside the Nissan’s hard plastic lodge that we would consider delicate to the touch, and its main event is made of coarse, rodent hide like material. An Apple Watch resembles a 4K TV beside the straightforward computerized readout in our truck’s simple instrument bunch. Also, regardless of highlights, for example, route, versatile applications, and Bluetooth gushing through our illustration’s unassuming 5.8-inch focal touchscreen (a 5.0-inch setup is standard), the interface seems dated and chintzy beside more current frameworks.
The Frontier’s age likewise is clear in its full-measure hunger for fuel, which is not helped by the Pro-4X’s thick Hankook Dynapro AT-M off-road tires (estimated P265/75R-16) and our illustration’s colossal rooftop rack—included with the $2100 Pro-4X Luxury bundle (control sunroof, warmed outside mirrors, cowhide upholstery, warmed eight-way control flexible driver’s seat, and a warmed four-way control customizable traveler situate). Contrasted with EPA evaluations of 15 mpg city and 21 mpg thruway, our test truck returned 20 mpg on our 75-mph parkway test and found the middle value of 16 mpg whatever remains of the time. For reference, those figures are near what the burlier Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 accomplished with a 308-hp V-6, and the most recent Honda Ridgeline has found the middle value of 21 mpg in our testing and returned 28 mpg on our parkway circle.
In any case, push the Frontier regardless it absolves itself genuinely well for a moderate size pickup. Our 4616-pound test truck overshadowed 60 mph in 7.3 seconds and shrouded the quarter-mile in 15.8 at 87 mph, making it somewhat speedier than a large portion of the group taxi Toyota Tacomas we’ve tried as of late. It’s not terribly outpaced by a comparable Chevrolet Colorado or Honda Ridgeline, both of which pack impressively more steeds. The Frontier’s 189-foot prevent from 70 mph and 0.70 g of hold around the skidpad, while not extraordinary, are adequate for a moderate size truck with a rough terrain bowed, which Pro-4X models strengthen with standard four-wheel drive, Bilstein dampers, defensive slip plates underneath, and an electronically bolting back differential.
The Frontier’s completely boxed step outline feels bounty solid, and it rides on an autonomous front suspension and an ordinary leaf-spring live pivot toward the rear. Its dynamic reactions are unmistakably moderate and trucklike, giving it a shortsighted appeal when you’re not in a rush. Be that as it may, this Nissan likely will put off a larger number of customers with its utilitarian trappings than with how it really goes not far off. Ride quality is modestly created and shockingly smooth on everything except the roughest asphalt. The abrupt V-6 likewise gives sufficient passing force as it moans through the broadly divided proportions of the five-speed programmed.
As a workhorse, our team taxi Pro-4X case would have possessed the capacity to tow a strong 6290 pounds in the event that it had been fitted with the accessible $580 trailer hitch. It likewise could haul up to 1039 pounds in its short five-foot load bed. (A more drawn out, six-foot-one-inch bed is standard with the broadened taxi and accessible on certain team taxicab models, the last likewise accepting a more drawn out, 139.9-inch wheelbase.) We’d select the trailer hitch only for the overlap out bed extender that accompanies it, which would augment the convenience of the Pro-4X’s payload hold past its standard shower in bedliner and flexible rack arrangement of tie-downs.
Our different issues with the Frontier depend on the way that its plan is more established than YouTube: Despite phenomenal outward perceivability, its halogen headlights are woefully diminish, and the driver’s seat is roosted too high for a few drivers to sit easily behind the non-extending guiding segment (which tilts). The Frontier’s 60/40 split crease up rearward sitting arrangement is straight as an arrow and squeezed for legroom. We’ve never sat in the back of a littler expanded taxi model, and we would prefer not to. We’d likewise lose the cheap rooftop rack and our truck’s $465 decal bundle, which included grandiose tire-tread illustrations and extra Pro-4X logos to the body.
The present Frontier is offered in a few taxi and undercarriage arrangements relying upon the trim level, which incorporate S, SV, raise drive-just Desert Runner, 4WD-just Pro-4X, and best spec SL. The Nissan’s senior status for the most part procures it a rebate at the business counter versus more up to date contenders, with costs beginning at only $19,365 for a base back wheel-drive broadened taxicab S form with the 2.5-liter four banger. That count can assemble rapidly—our team taxicab Pro-4X began at $34,365 and moved to more than $37,000 with two or three choices—however even the fanciest Frontier undermines the $40K stamp that its more up to date adversaries can outperform. Nissan says it is focused on keeping the Frontier aggressive in the U.S. advertise, despite the fact that whatever remains of the world as of now gets the reexamined NP300 Navara show that in the long run will be fettled for U.S. obligation, as well.
In any event the resurging moderate size truck showcase helps finance the advancement of the Frontier’s update: The 12-year-old Nissan’s respectable 50,097 deals through August of this current year are inside sight of the Chevy Colorado’s 71,763 and more than twofold the offers of the Honda Ridgeline (23,792). While the 2017 Frontier on occasion feels sufficiently old for its own particular Smithsonian display, it is a long way from out of date for those looking for a fit pickup truck and little else.
