Stuck in the competition for the week

This week (Wed thru Fri) I had to travel to Spokane WA for work. While there I rented a Nissan Frontier. I was excited to try it out for an extended period, so I could compare it to my Taco. I never considered purchasing the Frontier, because in my personal opinion, it's uglier than sin. Plus I'm not a huge fan of Nissans interiors.

After 3 days and excessive mileage, I've come to the conclusion that I love my Taco and I made the right choice. Immediately from the rental agency, the frontier had a low tire warning light, despite all the tires being properly inflated. Later that day I got a warning about a loose gas cap, even though I never touched the gas cap. The next day the check engine light came on for no apparent reason. On Friday the check engine light finally went off on its own.

Aside from random warnings, the interior felt cheap and lacked any comfort. I understand this is a base model rental, but it even felt cheap for that.

As for of comparing power output, the frontier did feel more peppy, but I think that's attributed to the five speed transmission and maintaining a high rev count. To get any fast acceleration you certainly had to wind out the engine.

For all the hate I hear on here about the third generation, if this is the competition I can't see how anyone could complain about the 3rd gen.

 

I had a Frontier for a rental for a while. It's a good solid truck, but does need a refresh. First thing I did when I got in it was try to move the seat back, and then realized it was all the way back.

The Nissan 4.0 is solid, and I believe its faster than the 2nd and 3rd gen taco's. Pro 4X's can be had for under 30 (so I'm told), so for many it fits the bill nicely.

 

You realize the Nissan platform is just as old as 2nd gens?

Not sure how it can even hold up as direct competition at this point. Only fair comparison is to current Colorado and Canyon. (And I guess Ridgeline...)

Edit: and you were driving a likely poorly maintenanced rental agency beater...

 

I have a base Colorado 4x4 as a rental currently and although it is a bit more peppy off the start the interior is sooooo far behind the tacoma it is insane. And the ride comfort for me is terrible in the 2018 colorado. Very happy with the decision to go with the tacoma.

 

They gave me a 17 frontier during 38 diff recall fix.
Seats were more comfy and a little more pep on power, but that's it. The interior configuration really sucked with all the little trays and such.... what the heck do people put there anyway?
I love my Tacoma.

 

The one thing I’ve never understood about some of the domestic truck offerings is the interiors are either decked out or no frills. The problem with the Chevy is they took the interior lines of yesteryear and combined them with fancy buttons and touch screens so it really just ends up looking like a hodgepodge that had last minute design in mind.

But for what it’s worth the switch layout on the left of the 3rd gen wheel, and the 4x4 switch design looking like any other knob is hot garbage.

 

I would really like a twin stick and manual hubs, but then no AccessCab.

The Taco works for me.

 

Yeah I end up hitting my 4x4 switch trying to turn the truck off allot.

 

Nissan is the ugly sister to the Toyota & Honda

Seriously, quality is nowhere near as good. I run a fleet of vehicles at work, and they need repairs right after their 3 year warranty. I'm talking A/C, ($1600) Exhaust, ($1800) & front coils, just to name a few things.

That's on the Altima's & Versa's. I have no data on their trucks.

 

I drove a Frontier PRO-4X M/T a couple of months ago while my son was truck shopping. Mechanically, it felt a lot better in the low end and the clutch started to grab much closer to the floor than my Taco. Throttle was predictable and seemed linear. In other words, for an OLD platform the driveability was miles ahead. In every other way though, I prefer my Taco.

 

I had a pro 4x for over a month and I put it through its paces. It was loaded and I liked it. Now comparing the interior to a 3rd gen isn't really fair, it's dated.

The exterior doesn't look as nice either imo

It handled all the rough off road use of my work (drove it pretty hard/really hard) and it could handle rough roads imo better than my 2nd gen with new bilsteins. Here's a picture to show it was put through the wringer

 

Motta!

 

I don't think so, they are all like less than a inch deep, on the top of the dash and center console, plus the arm rest console was just a giant bucket like think for hotel ice.

 

Beers? And Blow?

 

I found no practical use for them. Once armor alled they were greasy and like ice.

 

Armor All is made out of used cooking grease do not use it!!! Sure shit looks nice when you're done using but it fuck stuff up! use something else made by Meguiars!!

 

Wtf do I care.... it was a rental and they did it to their own truck. My truck would turn almost any liquid to mud considering it's seen a year worth of dirt and 3 washes and 1 vacuum in that year.

 

I owned a frontier for 10 years. It was the first year of the latest body style. Tacoma has it beat on looks. Nissan wins on power and delivery. Taco has it beat on comfort and reliability.

The frontier has 3 catalytic converters and I had to replace them all twice. It had a defect where the radiator leaked into the tranny cooler and roasted the tranny. The heater stopped working and the front speakers went out.

That said.... I lived with it for 250,000 miles.

I prefer the Toyota.

 

Hahaha

 

I still own a 04 frontier and its showing its age even though it only has 80000 miles on it. Egr valve is loose I believe causing issues. just had to have head gaskets replaced and valve covers with timing belt and water pump kit. This was all related to the damn knock sensor on the bottom of the engine.