Nissan's new Frontier pickup, available as a regular, crew or King Cab, features all-new body styling and upgrades of interest to performance-oriented consumers.
The Frontier's provocative new exterior, created at Nissan Design International Inc. in La Jolla, California, offers a simple, tough, modern "industrial" look with a powerful front grille and bumper, tall hoodline, oversized headlights and large fender flares (featuring visible divot holes and rivet-type caps). Additionally, the fog lamps and tailgate are new, and a tailgate lock is standard.
The Desert Runner is among Nissan's special-equipment models available this year. It's built on the heavier-duty four-wheel-drive (4WD) chassis, which gives the 2WD Desert Runner the same rigidity, ride height, ground clearance and rugged look as the 4WD model. Standard equipment on the Desert Runner is the 3.3-liter V-6 engine, and, at roughly 500 pounds less weight than a 4WD King Cab, the model offers the best power-to-weight ratio of any Frontier pickup, according to the company. It is also equipped with larger tires, fender flares, skid plates for the engine and fuel tank, a full-size spare tire and the four-channel, three-sensor, four-wheel anti-lock braking system. In addition, all Desert Runners are King Cabs and are distinguished by special badging.
Nissan has a history of providing firsts in this market segment, and this year marks the first factory-installed supercharger in a compact truck.
The Frontier supercharger is designed to operate under "boost" when there's a need for extra power, but during normal driving, the engine operates like a naturally-aspirated V-6. According to Nissan, this helps maintain good overall fuel economy with power on demand.
Supercharging the engine provides 40 more horses and 46 more lb-ft of torque, but towing capacity remains the same. Combined with the four-speed automatic transmission, the approved tow rating for all V-6 models is 5,000 pounds. Frontiers equipped with the V-6 and five-speed manual transmission are able to tow trailers up to 3,500 pounds.
Changes inside the Frontier include an instrument cluster with reversible gauges, new seat fabric and steering wheel. Factory-installed leather-appointed seating is optionally available on some models. For improved tunes and news reports, a new lineup of audio systems, including an available in-dash six-disc CD changer, has been added to the option list.
By Jim Brightly
Back to the top
|
|
