My girlfriend is getting a Frontier, makes my Tacoma look bad...

As another former Nissan fanboy I can say this with all honesty..... Nissan makes incredible vehicles.... in Japan. The day they moved their truck production to the US they went down hard. Even though they changed many things (like bigger engines and the frame issue) they still are just not as good as the old ones were. They took a serious step back in longevity and fit and finish.

Toyota on the other hand has been building vehicles in the US for a long time and their switch over to building trucks in the US hasn't hit them nearly as hard in fit and finish as it has on Nissan. This is clearly visible when looking at resale values.

I owned a 96 Maxima (we still have it in the family... possibly the best vehicle we've ever owned all things considered... cost $24,500 new and has had one problem. It needed a new window regulator last year). A 96 Altima (drove for over 220,000 miles, and was finally done in by a collision with a deer at 80 mph on the freeway). The thing still ran after the accident, but the insurance company didn't feel it was worth fixing... I should have fought harder. And I drove a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder SE, which was the finest SUV I've ever owned to that point. However, I owned 2 FJ Trail Teams and a 2007 4Runner Sport V8 since, and although the Pathfinder was a beautiful vehicle, I bought it factory certified used with 20,000 miles on it, just as I did my 4Runner (both were about 18 months old). I loved them both, but the Toyota was superior in a few key areas (mainly fit and finish, but that Nissan 3.5 was a better all around engine in my opinion than the 4.0 they are currently using, and the Toyota 4.0 is miles better than the Nissan 4.0).

So if the Xterra, Pathfinder, etc. of the current generation had been made in Japan like the previous generation I think you would have seen a step forward. But resale on them is not good, and the fit and finish just isn't there like on a Toyota Tacoma or Tundra.

Don't get me wrong... I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Nissan, but as somebody who either drives his cars for 2-3 years or 10+ years, resale is actually a pretty big deal to me. Now if I were buying a vehicle for my son when he turned 16 I'd have no problem buying him a Nissan since it will have taken a massive hit on value and I am comfortable fixing them. But for me... I'm a Toyota guy now. We had our first Toyota in 1977 (Corona wagon) and each child in my family drove it as their first car. The funny thing was we bought it when my mom found out she was pregnant with the youngest. He drove it until he was 19 and sold it for $500 still running fine, but wanted to help out a family in the neighborhood in need and they were happy to pay $500 for a car still in such good shape.

A lot of guys I work with are in construction and drive Nissans. They like them due to their size and the price they got them for off the lot, but they all comment that they wish they had the money to get a Tundra or Tacoma, but felt they came out ok because they paid less upfront which helped offset some of the depreciation issues.

 

FTW

 

Frontier are nice but I love my Tacoma more.

 

A girl in a pickup truck doesn't look good. A SUV much better!

 

Really, look at the photos, it's an ugly truck. If we were debating the F-150 raptor vs the Tacoma then theres something to debate.
Tacoma has looks handling on and off road, resale value and a millions other ones on the road to vulture off of 30 years down the road. Just my opinion.

 

they look so little side by side

 

Shall I put on some make up then? I used my SUV to tote around kids from the basketball team. I use my truck to crawl. The mall.

 

The Frontier is a great truck as well, and is probably equivalent to the Tacoma. In terms of looks though, I think the only feature I like on the Frontier over the Tacoma is the tubular steel roof-rack and ferring....thats about it. Really wish that was an option for our Tacoma.

 

TacomaWorld

 

how are you going to fit a truck in the kitchen, anyway?

 

Z car maybe, not over any Supra tho. Camry over Altima. Corrolla over Sentra. Matrix over Versa. Tacoma over Frontier. Tundra over Titan.

 

I examined the Nissan Frontier and the Toyota Tacoma in depth before I purchased a Tacoma. I literally spent hours in both trucks and nearly drove the salesman from both dealerships crazy. I looked at everything from top to bottom and I can say without a doubt that although a Frontier is a nice truck and would have served me well, the Tacoma is just a nicer vehicle from a quality standpoint. The most obvious thing is the interior. Nissan cut corners on the interior to save cost. The padding and cloth used on the seats is clearly cheaper on the Frontier. Now that is not to say it is bad, but Toyota is clearly better. Just by rubbing my hands over it I could tell it was more porous and spongy to the point that I could feel the support bars. I can only imagine how it would have felt after my fat ass sat on it for 50,000+ miles. Also the dashboard on the Frontier was more spartan. Now that might not be all bad to some, but the Tacoma was more busy and seemed to have more highlights. The biggest factor for me was the fact that Toyota offered a Tacoma Doublecab with a four cylinder and Nissan did not. With gas prices going up by the day I wanted to get every mile I could out of it. By my calculations, I get an extra 90 miles out of my four cylinder Tacoma on every fill-up compared to a comparable Frontier Doublecab with a six cylinder. That's makes a big difference over the life of the truck.

 

i traded in my nismo for the tacoma...
like the nismo but not nearly as much off road ability as my toyo.....
had much better power and interior.....bed n tailgate you could drop a bomb in that thing and not dent or bbend it....
then i blew the motor at 34k...had it replaced under warr. and then 2 weeks later tranny started slipping.....and then drove it to toyo and got this pos

not true much better then ours.....

 

Pretty much exactly the same for me. Big factor was also new baby on the way and the back seat of the double cab Frontier is almost vertical. Wife didn't like the thought of sitting back there with the baby. Frontier costs a little less and there is more haggle-room at the dealership.

In the end, I couldn't be happier with the Tacoma - especially now that I've got a touch of the mod bug.

 

The only thing I miss about my Frontier was the gas mileage. I was getting 24 mpg but that was because I could program it. Hypertech, spacer and exhaust. Avg 21-24 mpg.
Tacoma 18-20

 

LOL!
You funny!!

 

I like driving trucks. In fact, I have two of them.

 

My girlfriend has an 09 Frontier Pro4x and it has some nice features but I dont like the way it drives. Rides harsher then my Tacoma with a lift and 33 inch tires. The worst thing is the turning radius, you can hardly pull into a parking spot without using reverse to square yourself up to park in a spot. I've never liked the shape of the steering wheel either just because of where I like to hold one. My girlfriend had a Xterra before that and liked it more. I've told her if she wants to sell the Frontier, we gonna go look at 4 Runners. She said the new ones look nice so maybe we will be adding a 4 Runner into the family soon.

 

you have a steel front diff vs aluminum the nissan has,