First Impressions:
Outside:
A strong-looking truck, but not overcompensating. The bright red looks good, and the NISMO decal stands out with a seriousness of purpose. Up close, however, the sticker itself looks a bit cheap and pasted on as an afterthought.
Inside:
Cloth seats are comfortable and you can slide in and get cozy without a lot of adjustments. All of the dials are simple and easy to reach. It also has several small compartments for glasses, cell phones, etc., although they are all hard plastic and anything set in the slots slides around mercilessly. It’s a nice idea, but poor execution. The back seats look small but fold up out of the way easily. The third door is convenient for quickly tossing bags and laptops behind the driver, and they don’t have a lot of room to slide around.
Driving:
Very quick and nimble for a truck. The 265-hp/284 lb-ft torque V6 is really excited and ready to go. Get a little frisky with the pedal and this truck makes a huge lurch forward. It’s almost a little hard to drive smoothly through neighborhood streets, as tiny adjustments in the foot position make a big difference in the truck’s attitude. Very comfortable at freeway speeds, although changing lanes is slightly hampered by the third door’s double thick pillars.
Full Review:
With the exception of the low rider, trucks have been fairly consistent over the years: versatile, tough, capable machines for hauling and handling through rough terrain. And while the mid-size truck has gotten more and more refined in recent years, it’s remained true to its truck nature. The Nissan Frontier is attempting to dislodge that notion from your mind and set free the boundaries of stiff, hard driving vehicles that don’t corner well and drift on the freeway. The NISMO (Nissan Motorsports), with it’s superior handling to any other truck I’ve driven, is the first truck I wouldn’t flinch at driving cross-country. It’s almost even “car-like.”
From the outside, this is definitely all truck. When viewed from the front, the Frontier’s strong chin is almost menacing. It’s masculine and stands with broad shoulders, begging to be taken off road. The small NISMO sticker near the back of the truck reminds you of its off-road racing heritage, which promises to gobble up dirt roads without needing to slow down over potholes and fallen logs. It reminds you that, maybe, if you ask nicely, it’ll even get a little air. Just a little.
My truck was Red Alert Red. I’m not sure what was Red Alert about it, but it was a nice color. Doing my best to test this truck in all ways, I took it down about 100 miles of freeway, veered up some old, twisty highway roads, and finished it off with a good 15-mile section of dirt road. By the end, it was Fire Road Brown, with just a hint of red. But in all those instances, the truck handled remarkably. From the freeway to potholes three inches deep on a dirt road, the truck never made me want something else. I never felt ill prepared.
Inside, the truck was almost as good. The seats were very comfortable and even the back fold-down seats allowed enough room for an adult male to sit in “reasonable” comfort for two hours. I wouldn’t want that opportunity, but he said it wasn’t that bad, and better than any other truck he’d ridden backseat in. The dash and instrument panels were a little plasticky and a little cheesy, but easily forgiven considering it’s a truck and made for people to work in, not drive to the ballet. The steering wheel felt nice in the hand, however, and everything made logical sense and was easy to figure out. No intermittent looking at the manual to see what something did or to find an obviously needed feature. Everything was as it should be.
Another very nice addition was the treatment to the bed of the truck. Included in the NISMO package are sliding tie-downs along the bed rails, a factory-coated bed liner, and sliding rails along the bottom of the bed to facilitate pulling large loads out the back. I could easily see how hauling anything in this truck would be better thanks to a few simple but thoughtful additions.
Bottom Line: If I had to have a truck, I’d be very happy to have this one. 4.5 stars.
Album: 2006-Nissan-Frontier-NISMO
