At the same time as the all-new Nissan Pathfinder, Nissan USA presents a new Nissan Frontier. In line with expectations, the ‘midsize pick-up truck’ leaves the direct relationship with the Nissan Navara delivered elsewhere in the world for good.
Normally we start with the actual news now, but this Frontier deserves some introduction. Until now, a Frontier in North America was identical to the Nissan Navara, a model that is also a fixed value in the pick-up segment in Europe, among other places. However, with the introduction of the current Navara in 2014, it became clear that something would change in that area. The Americans did not participate in this model change and kept the old Frontier to this day, the model that has been around since 2004 as Navara.
Rugged
Last year, Nissan even gave away such a ‘new old’ Frontier to a customer who drove no less than a million miles with its previous copy. This Brian Murphy might have preferred his new ‘truck’ this year, because the new Frontier looks a lot more serious. As with the SUVs in this class, off-road capabilities and, above all, an off-road-worthy appearance play a much greater role than before. The press release is therefore full of news about four-wheel drive that can be switched on ‘on the go’, a ‘rugged’ design and all kinds of helpers for when things get rough.
To make the detached Frontier more suitable for the American car landscape, the ‘truck’ has also become larger than its predecessor, although of course it remains smaller than the unprecedentedly successful class in which the Ford F-150 and Nissan Titan, especially in the US. to operate.
Nissan Frontier
Storage space
Just like the exterior, the interior looks pretty tough and unyielding. The dashboard is clearly more functional than that of the more fashionable Pathfinder, which is of course no surprise for a ‘company car’ like the Frontier. Yet the Frontier also gets a large touchscreen. In addition, Nissan promises that the car will be a class leader when it comes to storage space in the interior, an area where pickups often score very well. There is also no lack of space in the rear, thanks to a spacious double cabin.
Pathfinder
Although the Pathfinder and the Frontier are clearly linked by the marketing department of Nissan, they are also really different beasts under the skin. The body-on-frame Frontier even gets a different engine, a 3.8-liter V6 that offers more torque than the Pathfinder’s 3.5.
With the arrival of this generation, the Frontier has not only completely separated from ‘our’ Navara, but also from the Pathfinder. The previous Frontier was a direct brother of the third generation Pathfinder, a car that was in showrooms worldwide between 2004 and 2012. The cars were even up to the front door.
Nissan Frontier
Mid-size
Pick-ups are clearly positioned differently in America than in the rest of the world. The larger classes, so from the F-150 and higher, are, except in North America and a handful of countries elsewhere in the world, actually only available through gray imports and thus remain a largely American phenomenon. The class below, the one in which the Frontier operates, is a more global affair. Cars such as the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and thus the Nissan Frontier / Navara are the workhorses that make a good impression in Europe, Africa and Asia, but are sometimes also available in the US and Canada. However, Toyota soon realized that the American car buyer also has different requirements in this segment than the European or Asian and already in 1995 came with a Tacoma, an American alternative to the Hilux. Nissan now seems to be following that example, while the Ford Ranger has recently been available again in the US.