Nissan Frontier review

It’s the Nissan Frontier, the oft overlooked pickup truck from the Japanese automaker mostly known these days as for fighting the good fight to keep affordable sedans going in the US, which isn’t currently big on sedans or affordability. Deep sigh.

Kinda forgot Nissan made a pickup, to be honest.

Oh for sure, particularly when its sports cars grab the headlines while its SUVs and crossovers are its money-makers. In general, trucks from overseas manufacturers get overshadowed, understandably, by domestic titans like the Ford F-150 and Ram 1500. Indeed, the only way they manage to stand out is by being slightly unconventional, like the Honda Ridgeline and its more car-like dynamics or the Hyundai Santa Cruz which is a low-key ute.

Toyota, for its part, holds its own with the stout Tacoma and burly Tundra, which seem like the real true rivals to the American big shots. All of this is to say that the Nissan Frontier’s got to be something special to stand out.

Well, it’s orange.

Yes, the orange helps. It’s specifically called Afterburn Orange, a new color that implies Top Gun-esque launches, but that’s more of a tangerine dream than a reality.

So what are we looking at, then?

To its credit, Nissan’s take on a pickup is a more traditional one, so much so that it almost comes off as a charming throwback to trucks of yesteryear. The Frontier is what you’d consider mid-sized these days, chopping it up with the likes of the Tacoma and Ford Ranger more than anything.

Sticking to one power unit, the Frontier is motivated by a 3.8-liter V6 married to a nine-speed automatic transmission. This gives the pickup 310hp to work with along with 281lb ft of torque. Quite modest in terms of grunt, but it’s enough to get the job done, all while the Nissan boasts a maximum 7,150lbs of towing capacity.

A multitude of configs are built around this power unit, from two-wheel to part time four-wheel drive models. A shorter ‘King’ cab will pair with a six-foot bed while the crew cab versions sport a five-foot bed, unless you spring for the long wheelbase version to get the whole package.

Speaking of packages, Nissan keeps it simple with four bundles, though calling the base model’s offerings of a couple of power outlets and a bedliner a ‘package’ is being very generous. The convenience package is essentially any and all creature comforts while the Pro version throws in a few extras like a 360-degree camera view and off-road specific modes when fitted with the Pro-X hardware.

Premium does this while adding a 10-speaker sound system from Fender – the guitar amp folks – and a few upmarket cabin accents.

What else is so ‘old-school’ about it?

It’s mostly all that inherent body-on-frame goodness. The Frontier gets everything fundamentally right without over-embellishing with gimmicks. The truck bed’s a truck bed, the tailgate’s a tailgate. No hidden workbenches or bento-box-style compartments, useful as they may be, just a place for stuff and a bunch of anchor points. The interior is nearly manual everything: knobs, switches, seat adjustments, etc.

There’s a touchscreen of course and while we’re harping on a great deal about how ‘retro’ it is, it’s worth mentioning the interior – and exterior – has been recently refreshed to give it a contemporary look. Indeed, it’s a far cry from the deliberately retro Hardbody edition from 2024 that pulled a few styling elements from its forebear’s attic.

How’s the drive?

Driving the Nissan Frontier exposes just how deliberate and analog it feels despite being a modern vehicle with mostly up-to-date tech. The V6 pulls just fine and the truck couldn’t disguise road surface conditions if it tried, so drivers immediately feel everything the Nissan can or can’t do.

An independent double-wishbone suspension from this century handles things up front while a multi-leaf spring suspension manages the back. Standard twin-tube shocks can be upgraded to more sporty Bilstein units on the more rough-and-ready Pro-X trims for those eager to put the Frontier through its paces.

The particularly heavy steering further drives the sensation home that it comes from a long lineage of ‘beaters’ built to work and to last, but little more. And that is perhaps the thing with the Nissan Frontier: there isn’t much to it, for better or for worse, which is attractive in its own right. It stands as an alternative to mainstream pickups that can be a bit much, either in size or with their glut of gadgetry. 

The Nissan Frontier is a sensible midsized pickup that nails all the typical truck fundamentals. It doesn’t break new ground in the segment but it’s kind of refreshing because it doesn’t try to – it just works as intended without going extra.

While its performance feels old-school, the Frontier’s recent glow-up gives it a contemporary style that’s anything but. Ditto for the interior which has seen a big leap forward in style, along with an updated infotainment screen that pairs well with all the physical inputs rather than wholly replacing them.

Sure, it gets lost in the sauce compared to other, more high-profile pickups, but anyone looking for a sensible workhorse should have this on their shortlist.