Talk me out of a Frontier

I've always liked the chrome beauty rings, usually only see them on police cars.

The only Fronteir current gen, I 've been in was friends rental. The frontier seemed to have more room than my second gen. Someone else I knew had a last gen frontier, I guess that was a 1st gen, I thought it was a decent truck.

When I was a kid it was always do I want a Nissan, or a Toyota pick up. Some things never change.

 

Depends on what you want to do I guess. I've put mostly ARB and OME stuff on my Tacoma and all that is available for the Nissan, too. Bilstein and FOX also support the Frontier with some stuff. Pretty sure there's some stuff, the Xterra was pretty popular for bumpers and sliders, so perhaps there's Frontier. I dunno. Toyota has always had more aftermarket, though, that's true.

 

As long as Nissan does not turn it in to a current gen Pathfinder. Which would be a Nissan Ridgeline.

 

People put drop bracket lifts on Tacomas, too.

 

The biggest reason to buy a Tacoma is TacomaWorld! Sure you can still hang out here without a Tacoma, but it will never be as fun if you can’t waste all your hard earned money and max out your credit cards on all the great mods you see here.

Seriously though, Nissan’s aren’t bad. Just don’t buy a Colorado/Canyon. GM sucks.

 

I have friends with Nissan trucks. If it is the same money, for a comparable truck I'd take the Toyota. But if you can get a newer truck with fewer miles for less money then the Nissan would have to be considered. The Nissan's are a little more spartan, but I don't necessarily consider that a bad thing.

The only real negative in my mind is that the back seat on the 4 door Nissan is smaller. But that may not be a factor to you.

I could be happy with a Nissan truck, but there is one other thing to consider. My son has a Nissan Sentra that had some issues. I wasn't happy with the way they handled the problem. Actually they didn't handle it at all. Toyota on the other hand has gone above and beyond with excellent CS.

 

I know Dirt King has UCAs for the fointeer and maybe a few other items.

If you want exclusivity, a properly modded Frontier would be more rare than a TRD Pro.

 

Yeah, but how about the resale value? If that type of thing is important to you... I see used Toyotas retaining their value more.

 

I'd like to see GM midsize truck sale exceed GM wildest expectations, and they badge one as a Cadillac, so I can talk about how ugly and overpriced it is.

 

I chose the Tacoma over the Frontier due to reliability and crash test ratings. (I live in KC where everyone's car gets hit at some point.) Plus the Taco looks cooler.

 

The Toyota would probably yield a higher resale value, but I never see cheap used trucks for sale.

Lexus RX, seems to hold it's value, if resale is an important factor get one of those.

Saw these two Pros on a lot today. I don't think the resale value on say a 3rd gen TRD Pro, will be that great in my region. I could be wrong.

 

Nissan frontiers have weird bolt pattens, so wheel shopping is hard.

They have transmission problems with the radiator failing and coolant getting into ATF.

The resale isn't as strong, but they are cheaper to start with.

Not many other big issues with them when I worked at Nissan for a year.

Heres a big thing most people don't know, they have the legendary VQ engine. They sound awesome with exhaust. Unlike Tacoma.

 

Here’s my thoughts. I have a frontier as one of my work trucks. First thing is I ABSOLUTELY hate the side view mirrors. They just plain suck for me. I find that my Tacoma is much more comfortable to sit in. The frontier seats seem so hard to me and just not comfortable. I wouldn’t want to go for a road trip in it at all. But I am also 6 foot 7. The leg room is not as good as my Tacoma. I have also accidentally shifted into 4wd multiple times by bumping my knee in the dial. I don’t like that because it did get stuck in 4h for a while. But I do like the motor in the frontier, it does feel like a rocket compared to my taco but I also have 285s on stock gears. The frontier is a solid truck but I like my Tacoma much more. I also do not like the look of the frontier nearly as much. I do feel like there is a much larger Tacoma community for mods and stuff then with the Nissan. I’m no expert but there’s are just my views on the frontier. But test drive both and let us know how you feel.

 

You make a good point about getting a deal. If you find one for 5 or 10 000 less than a Tacoma then git er done.

 

The OME kit is 2.25" and doesn't use a drop bracket.

FWIW, ToyTec had a companion company called NissTec that used to be in the same shop back in like 2011. I think they are different companies now. But they show Radflo has suspensions for Nissans.

http://www.nissteclifts.com

Forgot about Calmini, they do a lot of Nissan parts and their lift is a drop bracket 5".

I didn't think so. They used to be 6 on 5.5 like Toyota but just did some searching you're right, it's 6 on 4.5. That's kind of odd.

 

You may have just met one. Nice to meet you! The Toyota has been great, too!

 

Nissan has an available manual trans for the the Frontier, therefore they get the same respect I give Toyota for doing the same thing still. Even though the trim options are getting more and more limited...it's nice to know there a couple options for a mid size manual pickup out there.

I also find it funny that some people rag on 3rd gens for having too much tech and fancy electronic gizmos, yet they bash on the Frontier for being outdated and not keeping up with the times.

The lack of aftermarket support is what ultimately puts the Frontier behind the Tacoma for me....that and I've always loved Toyota pickups' styling more.

 

They are cool trucks. My dad had an 05 or 06 Frontier with the 4.0 v6...same motor they put in the 350z at the time if I recall correctly. That truck hauled ass, and they had a supercharger option for it too.

 

I personally do not have any experience with a frontier so just drive as many as you can and look over them inside and out. I was almost dead set on buying a Ridgeline and only test drove Ridgelines for 2 months. Then I decided to drive a Taco so that I could at least have something to compare to. I decided that I needed a real truck!

 

There's plenty available for the nissan. Not as much as the tacoma but there's a ton of shit.