2007 Nissan Frontier Review

Specifications

It seems that Mother Nature and Nissan have a pretty good relationship,disregarding the whole greenhouse gasses issue. Mother Nature creates rugged challenging terrain, and the Nissan Frontier SE 4×4 jumps into it like a 5 year-old spotting a muddy puddle. It’s a truck that inspires adventure. As soon as I received my test truck I wanted to go climb a hill, or play in some mud. I wanted to get it dirty. A truck like this should never be clean. I needed to let everyone know that I was going to put this truck to work and have fun doing it. Not long ago Nissan incorporated its stylish, edgy and aggressive new look to the Frontier, but underneath the fancy skin is still an old school ladder frame truck, with a solid rear axle and a true 4×4 drivetrain. As an added bonus my truck came as a four-door crew cab, combining functionality with its fun attitude. It gives the versatility of carrying multiple passengers and cargo, and somehow adds to the truck’s Japanese look.

Nissan has lavished a lot of chrome onto the bumpers and grille, whichseems to be a theme with most trucks these days. I just can’t understand why you would cover a pick-up with shiny trim when its purpose is to be a recreation and work vehicle. Leave the bright glimmering objects for luxury cars. Nevertheless, when getting into the Frontier I noticed that the door closed softly, and didn’t make any noise. At first I thought I didn’t close it hard enough, but it turns out that the doors close as nicely as those on Nissan’s flagship Maxima. The sound a door makes is a good sign of a vehicle’s build quality, and the Frontier’s “thunk” is as good as any high-end sedan. Although my astonishment was quickly brought back in check when closing the tailgate. The gate shut with a crash, revealing a fairly loose fit. After a good shake and inspection I found that it wasn’t about to break free, but just the same didn’t live up to the feeling of quality I initially experienced with the Frontier’s doors.

Nissan’s smallest pickup uses the Utili-Track system introduced on the Titan, which consists of five aluminum channels that run the length and width of the bed, on the floor, sides and backstop. Four heavy-duty aluminum cleats can be inserted and adjusted to strap cargo down. It’s quite a cool idea and makes it much easier to keep a load in place. The box is also sprayed with a bed liner right at the factory. The liner looks much better than most I’ve seen, and should keep the bed in good condition.

The interior, however, is plain, stale and just down right depressing looking. It is a truck, mind you, so I suppose thisshould be expected. Just the same, the overwhelming sea of gray plastic was a little much for me. I kept waiting for the rain to fall inside the cabin, it was so gray. A little extra color infusion would be nice just to break it up a little. Others are making truck interiors that are approaching the quality of cars, while being able to stay rugged. Nissan will have to up its game in this area. For some reason there are some small chrome accents on the shifter and door handles, but these just look out of place in the great gray sea.

The seats. Oh the seats. They are of course gray. They also were a little uncomfortable, as they have a lot of lumbar support and no way of adjusting it. With a bad back, I was starting to feel the pain five minutes after getting in. The seats only have two adjustments, one for seat back angle and the other for fore and aft adjustment.

That’s not to say that the interior isn’t functional. As atruck, there needs to be extra amenities for those unforeseen circumstances. The Nissan battles this with three power outlets, four storage areas in the center console, eight cup holders divided equally between the front and rear seats, and dual glove compartments. Rear seats can fold down 60/40 to create a flat cargo area or be flipped up to make space for tall objects. Under the rear seats are two cargo net covered utility trays. The radio and climate controls portray the same quality as the rest of the cabin; they feel cheap and look as though they were slapped into the design as a last minute detail.

To my surprise Nissan designed the Frontier with its emergency brake in the form of a hand lever located in the center console, similar to cars. I like this very much, as foot brakes, often the norm in trucks, are useless when off the beaten trail. The handbrake also came in handy when trying to overcome the truck’s horrific turning radius. A quick 180 on a tight forest trail will make a dead end road much more humane then backing out the way you came.

It’s hard to believe that the Frontier is Nissans smallest truck, as it is a giant over thelittle trucks they used to build back in the ’90s, let alone the ’70s and ’80s. The heavy 4×4 model requires a large 4.0L to keep performance numbers competitive, but I’d like to see a smaller engine made available. With a bit of a diet I’m sure a 3.0L could get the job done and keep the fuel bills a little lower. The 4.0 does work extremely well, shooting the Frontier forward from traffic lights with amazing speed. The V6 revs like that in a sports car, quickly and aggressively, therefore drivers should keep rear tire traction in mind.

More than once I found myself leaving corners with opposite lock on the steering as the rear end came loose, its traction lost. With so many cars available with Traction Control as standard, the Frontier was a friendly wake up call to keep my driving skills fresh. I’ve been getting lazy. While fighting with traffic on city streets, the Frontier feels surprisingly planted for a truck. It still has a harsh ride, feels top heavy and drives like….well, a truck. However, I found that it performed admirably well in the corners. The brakes are a little light, mind you, at least for the big, heavy Frontier. Nissan installed discs both front and rear, but they need just a slight bit more clamping force. I also found the pedal to be quite soft.

While hurtling through nature on a road that resembled a military grenade range rather than the gravel service road that it claimed to be, the true abilities of the Frontier became clear. After two months of heavy rain storms on the BC coast, good ‘ol Mother Nature had created an abundance of obstacles and challenges for me to test the Frontiers ruggedness. The suspension and tires worked well to soak up even the worst potholes. I found that the truck was more than capable of dealing with any realistic off-road situations too, for a standard 4×4. The use of a solid rear axle and leaf springs meant it would skip over potholes, kicking out the rear end as traction was lost with the ground. Switching into 4WD goes a long way to putting forward traction down onto the ground and keeping everything on the straight and narrow. This is a truck that loves to rip down gravel roads, explore trails, shoot through fields, crawl through ditches and over hills, dive into mud pits and pretty much making its own road through whatever the great outdoors throws in its way. It’s called the Frontier after all, and it lives up to its name.

A shift-on-the-fly 4×4 selector switch is located just under the climate control panel, which selects 4WD High or 4WD Low when the 2WD system isn’t enough to get the truck out of a sticky (or rather slippery) situation. 4WD High engages the front wheels along with the rears to give added traction on higher speed surfaces, such as steep hills or mud. With 4WD Low, the entire drivetrain locks up, producing bull-low 4WD when things really get challenging.

All in all, the Frontier is a great truck to drive. It inspires adventurous detours to places I don’t always have a chance to get to. In turn, I was always having fun in it. It shows very few downfalls, and only the look and feel of the interior, which needs some work, will be a deal-breaker to some. It’s a truck that’s as rugged as I could have hoped for, as I was never concerned about breaking something off while off-roading. With a true 4WD system, rather than the AWD systems found on less capable trucks and SUVs, the Frontier can go pretty well anywhere you want to go. Anyone up for a romp in the mud?