Driving Impressions

We picked up a Nissan Frontier Crew Cab SE in the Los Angeles area and headed north to the small town of Bishop on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Large sections of Highway 395 are two-lane; it's the kind of old-style highway where you often get stuck behind slow-moving trucks and RVs. The Frontier is a joy to drive. It has a smooth and comfortable ride, even with big 16-inch tires and an off-road suspension. The 3.3-liter V6 and 4-speed automatic provide the oomph needed to safely pass slow-moving vehicles. With the Crew Cab's rugged-looking body decked out in Solar Yellow, we felt like we were on safari as we headed through the Owens River valley for some fly fishing. The Frontier performed well. We were particularly impressed with the way it conducted itself on one road that supposedly led to a secret fishing hole, but turned out to be a series of sandy moguls punctuated by short sections of hard-packed dirt. On the sandy sections we had to maintain speed for fear of getting bogged down. While the moguls made ride rough, the truck stuck to the road and tracked well. The only real problem was that the secret fishing hole is still a secret-we never did find it. On less radical dirt roads the truck did just as well, although we did occasionally wish it had a limited-slip rear differential (a $450 on 4x4s, unavailable on 4x2s). Without it we found that the rear end had the predictable tendency to swing around when cornering on dirt, at even moderate speeds. Back on pavement, the ABS brakes held the truck straight and true in an emergency-type stop. And, thanks to the longer cab that distributes weight a bit more evenly between the front and rear tires, the Crew Cab really didn't have the bounce you get from other unloaded pickups.

Final Word

Nissan's Frontier is a solid, well-built, roomy truck. With an MSRP of $17,290, the Crew Cab 4X2 XE V6 is one of the best values on the road today. If your life doesn't revolve around carrying long loads in the bed, or five basketball players in the cab, it's a truck well worth considering. While full-sized trucks have long been available in 4-door configurations, the Frontier Crew Cab is an early entry in a new and competitive category. Some manufacturers are calling them sport-utility trucks, or SUTs. Expect to see more offerings from other manufacturers as time goes on.