Educate me on the Frontier

[SnowedIn]

Interior - the Nissan interior is nice, but a bit more utilitarian than the Toyota. It's still a nice place to be though. The Nissan feels more like a truck to be in, with a more upright seating position. The Nissan also has a quite a bit bigger back seat. If you're a bigger guy, the Toyota seat can be adjusted a lot more, but I've never been uncomfortable in my Frontier. The Frontier dash layout is nice and there is a ridiculous amount of storage inside. Giant door bins, a cavernous center console, and two, yes two, glove boxes.

I had no idea there were two glove boxes, and I've been driving mine for 14 months now. !

I can't speak to the latest Tacoma interiors, but 2015 and earlier, I much prefer the control layout of the Frontier.


I think Nissan's Utilitrack is much more useful than Toyota's offering. You get rails in the floor of the bed, not just the perimeter.

They're obviously both great trucks. 16k miles on mine so far, only 3 issues:

- Some paint flaked on the bottom front of the lower control arms (cleaned and kryloned those spots, has held up)
- The tab holding the cab air filter in place broke off. There is a spot you can stick a bolt and a wingnut on there to secure it, though... I suspect the tab is an assembly shortcut
- Front and rear breathers suck, each in their own way. By the time I got to plumbing the rear to the taillight housing around ~7k miles, it was already leaking gear oil. It appears the front breather is just an open hose under the airbox; I put a filter on it.

 

[edsd90]

Cody - I should give a plug for my previous 2007 Frontier, which is discussed in another thread -http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/150860-07-Frontier-to-be-available-mid-December. I just recently sold it to a dealer in the Portland, OR area while waiting for my new Canyon to arrive, and it is on his web site now with lots of details and photos. It has been one of the favorite vehicles I've ever had, and served me extremely well for the last 8 years. I would drive it anywhere right now, cross country on the Interstates, or border-to-border on technical double track trails. Mine never had the SMOD issue, along with many other Frontiers of my generation, and overall was an extremely reliable truck. It has been maintained by the book, with service records going back to the first oil change.
The thread shown above, especially my last post, has much more information.
I parted with it only because my needs have changed, and for the last few years have not been using it the way it was intended.

 

[ludeykrus]

I had no idea there were two glove boxes, and I've been driving mine for 14 months now. !

Holy *******, had mine 7ish now and had no clue... going to run down and test the second one out! Had to google it to find it!

 

[KelticXJ]

The Trans/Rad contamination issues were resolved in 2010 ... so no sense in worrying about that one ...

I've also been looking at Frontys. Just want to be clear, 2010 is when Nissan changed the radiator? I thought it was 2011+

 

[dustyrusty]

Holy *******, had mine 7ish now and had no clue... going to run down and test the second one out! Had to google it to find it!

Same thing...and guess what, previous owner had left a swiss army knife and a flashlight in it! Totally made my day!

 

[Obrianmcc]

My understanding is 2010 ... you can confirm by checking the P/N on the rad. There have been two revisions since 2005