 2012 Nissan Frontier. Click image to enlarge |
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Test Drive: 2007 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab
Manufacturer’s web site |
Review and photos by Michael Schlee
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2012 Nissan Frontier
There was a time when compact pickup trucks were reasonable, efficient, and comparatively liveable alternatives to their lumbering full-size pickup brethren. However, over the past few decades, full-size pickup trucks have made leaps and bounds in refinement and compact pickups have continued to grow; up to the point it might be worth calling them mid-size pickups.
Case in point is the 2012 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab SL 4X4 I had for review. Arriving with four conventional doors and a 6 foot bed, the Frontier is not compact by any stretch of the imagination. With a 3,554-mm wheelbase, it has a longer wheelbase than Nissan’s own short-bed Titan full-size crew-cab pickup (3,550 mm). Add in a 5,574 mm length and a curb weight of 2,121 kg, and the Frontier is a sizable machine.
 2012 Nissan Frontier. Click image to enlarge |
Powering all this heft is Nissan’s torquey 4.0L V6 engine rated at 261 hp and 281 lb-ft of torque. Sending power to the shift-on-the-fly four-wheel drive system is a choice of six-speed manual or five-speed automatic. In fully-loaded SL trim, as my test truck was equipped, the Frontier can only be had with the five-speed automatic. Even with this lazy-person’s transmission, power is immediate and good in an unloaded truck. For all its size and power, the Frontier is rated at a reasonable 10.4 L/100 km on the highway and 14.8 L/100 km in the city. I was able to achieve a very respectable 13.0 L/100 km over a week of driving the truck; maybe I was still in AJAC Eco-Run mode, though.
For the workers out there, the V6 Frontier as optioned here can carry 497 kg of payload and tow 2,773 kg. With the4 X2 King Cab Frontier, those numbers jump to 613 kg and 2,864 kg respectively.
 2012 Nissan Frontier. Click image to enlarge |
As can be expected for a truck with workhorse credentials, ride and handling are somewhat compromised. The ride is bouncy and the truck jiggles down broken roads, just like any body-on-frame pickup truck would. While a bit rough, the ride is not bone crushing or vomit-inducing. Tackle corners with even an inkling of enthusiasm and the P265/75R16 BFGoodrich Rugged Trail T/A OWL tires “howl” in protest. That is, of course, if you can get the truck to turn. No truck, or vehicle for that matter, with a 3,554-mm wheelbase is going to have a good turning radius, but the Nissan Frontier’s radius is ridiculous for its size, at 13.3 m. For some reference, the longer wheelbase Toyota Tacoma Double Cab has a radius of only 12.4 m. The Frontier’s turning ability (or lack thereof) combined with roughly 2.5 wheel-turns lock to lock made for some awkward arm positions when taking simple right hand turns on the street; in parking lots… fuhgeddaboutit.
On the outside the Frontier SL Crew Cab could be one of the best looking “compact” pickup trucks on the market. With its Daytona Blue paint job, gun metal 18-inch wheels and thick tube roof rails this truck looks all business. Furthering this functional theme, and adding to the truck’s usability is the high-utility bed with a factory-applied spray-on bedliner and Utili-track bed channel system with adjustable tie-down cleats.
  2012 Nissan Frontier. Click image to enlarge |
At a length of 6’, the bed perfectly takes 6-foot fence boards while 2x4x8 boards have to hang out the back. During my week with the truck I was only able to put about 100 kg of payload in the bed and didn’t even notice it was there. I have a feeling even up around its 497 kg payload limit, the Frontier would still shrug off most of the extra mass.
Inside, the function over form theme continues and you are greeted by a sea of gray plastics. All of the controls are easy to use and straightforward. The stereo is a bass-pumping 380-watt Rockford Fosgate system with a six-disc in-dash CD auto changer that still has an old-school interface and display, but also XM satellite radio. Other notables inside the Frontier’s cabin are comfortable leather-clad seats and an easy to pair Bluetooth hands-free phone system.
As it stands in 2012, the Frontier as a whole package is still an attractive truck. So why then are sales so low at just 2512 units sold in 2011? That is a bit of a mystery, but the as-tested price of $41,613 for my heavily loaded SL Frontier isn’t helping it compete against other compact pickup trucks. For instance, last year the Toyota Tacoma sold 7,711 units while the often-discounted, now-discontinued Ford Ranger moved 16,381 units off the lot. Making a bad situation worse, most full-size pickup trucks are available with huge incentives or attractive finance rates, which means that a compact pickup no longer offers the value proposition it once did. Will the Frontier follow the Ranger’s lead and disappear from our shores in the future? No one outside of Nissan really knows yet, but if you want a Frontier, I wouldn’t wait much longer.
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Pricing: 2012 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab SL 4X4
Specifications
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Crash test results
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