Ain't nothing easy about buying a truck...

Buying a vehicle is never cut and dried for me. Of COURSE it's between the Tacoma and the Frontier.. My eyes say Tacoma but my mind says Frontier. I've had a Silverado LTZ for the past three years so it should be obvious I like all the bells and whistles. The Frontier SL has more of those such as Homelink, trip computer, leather interior, heated mirrors/seats, Fosgate stereo readily available... The Tacoma generally gets better gas mileage, LOOKS better, probably better quality, smoother working controls, back-up camera...

No sir...ain't nothing easy about buying a new vehicle.

 

Ive always had full size trucks, last one was a ram quad slt with a hemi. I couldnt pass a gas station with the dam thing. These trucks lack the bells and whistles, however, your getting a dam good quality truck. Id go Tacoma, I looked at frontiers, and felt the quality was here.

 

Agreed, it is pretty cut and dried.

 

I am the same way as you in that i like all the nice comforts. But when the time came i couldn't justify buying a nissan and watching the resale value drop rapidly. I bought the taco and just added the things i wanted. Wasn't a very large cost at all.

i added a homelink for $30 bucks
i added a trip computer(ultragauge) for $55 bucks
I will be adding leather at a cost of about $800 bucks

Buy the taco and do the same! Check out my build thread for the homelink info

 

I agree with the resale value comment. Tacoma holds it's value way better than the Frontier.

You will find out how important this is soon enough...wait until the dealer tells you what a 3 year old, top-of-the-line Chevy is worth!

 

The tacoma in my eyes is unmathced in qaulity, I was previously a dakota guy... went and sat in a 4 door 4wd dakota... with a v8 mind you, drove it and was dissapointed. Thank got my dad is a toyota guy and told me about my truck now lol I love my tacoma the v6 is more powerful than the v8 in the dakota the offroad ability stock is great, qaulity of the inside is so nice especially with the orange lighting (reminds my of my buddies g35) Overall if your lookin for a truck tacoma wins. I never cared for chevy but perfer them next in line after toyota, they are giving alot of discounts in my area trying to move trucks... and its just not happening.

 

Our lil community has lots of folks who like Tacomas.
I have driven a toyota truck since 1987 soi yes I am alittle bias.
The only Nissan I owned (2000 Pathfinder given to my sister) is dead at my mom's house. My old 95 pickup is still on the road today, yes a little rusty, but Toyota has stepped up to the plate on replacing those too..(96+). What other mfg has done that? The Nissan is rusty too.
Soo given that yes the tacoma does not have as many creature comforts standard. I agree with a couple of the gripes living in snow country (heated seats & mirrors)
You can alway go up to 2011 4.6 Tundra, those are little engines that could & have more creature comforts standand that you speak of. Not half bad gas mileage too compared to my tacoma and might consider that as my next truck myself.

FWIW, my BIL has a nissan truck as a company vehicle. Its not too bad and would drive one if someone bought it for me.

 

I drove the Nissan and it felt like a tin can. The doors felt like I could bend them with my hands and the rear seats were like sitting on a picinic bench. The overall build quality of the Toyota was very evident to me.

 

You can get the GPS head unit in the Tacoma, leather in a truck is the worst idea ever IMO.. We are all biased here, but there's a reason why we went with the Tacoma instead of the Frontier.

 

My friend's brother has a new Frontier. We've driven each other's trucks and he wish he would of bought a Taco instead. The frontier feels kind of gutless and not built very solid. I'm not biased by any means. I'm actually a Honda guy, but Honda built the ugliest truck alive, so I went with a Taco and love it.

 

Whatever you do stay away from the Nissan Xterra with a stick. My friend purchased one new. Experienced with driving a clutch (over 25yrs) the clutch in his truck didn’t even last 15,000 (1yr old). He is fighting with Nissan because they will not warranty the truck. Wearable part

If you search the web there are hundreds of complaints about this issue on this truck, the clutch being too small for the vehicle size.

Stick with the Tacoma.

 

hahaha that they did, can you even call it a truck??

 

lol it sure isnt..i spent 4 months before my purchase of the taco and i have regrets but it was the best choice for me at the moment. The tacoma has some of the best looks in its class IMHO but while i was looking into the tacoma i was also looking into the 2007 silverado and sierra either in the 1500 or 2500 class.

Something just made me feel at home in the tacoma..Its a great truck at a great price. Dependable, reliable, and has the power there when you need it for light duty jobs. Everyone on here knows the tacoma can handle 6500lb but if you're planning on towing often, i'd have to say stick to the Chevy.

Out of curiosity, Did you have any issues with the Silverado?? I've been in the market for a bigger truck and i maybe lookin into the silverado and sierra again.

 

Its the odyssey with the top of the back chopped off..but it does have a fully boxed frame

 

Have both in the family, Frontier has crappy turning radius but the bed system is awesome, perfect match would be Tacoma with a Frontier bed. Plus you can add all the bells and whisltes to the Tacoma for fairly cheap and easily.

 

Look at the consumer reports for used vehicles to get an idea of how reliable the vehicle will be down the road. Even if you only want to keep the vehicle for a few years, resale value is related to the reliability of the vehicle. Here are the used vehicle reports for Nissan and Toyota. Solid red = excelent, Solid black = poor.

 

My brother did the truck trade in during the cash for clunkers program. Picked out a 2010 silverado and wasen't happy from the get go. Problems with a serious vibration. dealership tried everything, reshimming the carrier bearing, replaceing the harmonic balancer, new front 3rd member assembly. new front wheels. They still couldnt find the vibration, verified by a GM rep that flew up here to check it out. Gm rep said it wasen't that bad and basically said that they were done trying to fix the problem. A brand new $37K truck with zero miles on it shouldnt have shook as bad as his did.

BOOM,,lemon law enacted, he ended up getting all his trade in money back ($12K)

 

Not a tough call for me at all. But my priorities are longevity and economy.

If you're in it for a shorter haul, you might consider resale value - I'm amazed by how little these Tacomas depreciate.

 

I really wished the Tacoma had some of the amenities that the Frontier offers like defrosting side mirrors and a cargo lamp. Unfortunately due to the looks of the Frontier there is no way I would be happy driving it every day.

 

Go with the tacoma. I had a nissan 350Z and that was the biggest piece of junk ever.100% stock. Radio was replaced 3 times. Airbag light went off every other week. The interior rattled like a go cart and the suspension squeaked and had to be lubed every time I bitched and complained about it. Ohh and the best part, the right rear wheel cracked at 38k miles. Ohh and of course they wouldn't replace it because I was out of the original warranty but I had extended warranty. My friend also had a Armada which was another rattle box and squeaked in all 4 corners. Finish on the wheels started coming off, and the wheels had never seen a day of acidic wheel cleaner. Bottom line,both my experience and my friends experience with nissan cars and service was extremely shitty. I will never own another nissan and I sure as hell would not recommend it to anyone.