Used Nissan Frontier Car Parts

Nissan Frontier

The Nissan Frontier was introduced to the market in 1997 as an effort to salvage the brand as the pioneer of the compact truck market. Since its introduction in 1997, Nissan had used the Frontier platform to deliver innovations to the compact truck market. The Frontier was the ideal platform for small truck innovations and Nissan has exploited that very successfully over the years. Designed as a replacement for the less popular Nissan Hardbody, the Frontier was initially manufactured in the Smyrna, TN plant. Over the years the Frontier has gradually increased in size to a mid-size truck but in 2000 Nissan introduced a Crew Cab model which became the first compact pickup truck sold in the U.S. with four full-size hinged doors, a first for the small pickup market segment. This innovation really helped Nissan because when the Frontier was introduced small pickup truck models at the time did not offer consumers a variety of cabin sizes or trim levels. Over the years the Frontier has won many safety awards as well as multiple honors from Edmunds.com in 2011 and J.D. Power and Associates for highest ranked pickup truck in initial quality. In 1997 Thomas H. Eastwood, VP, Nissan Division said, “Nissan Trucks continue to be a versatile vehicle for consumers seeking the utility of a truck paired with the comfort and amenities of a car.”

Today, the Nissan Frontier continues to lead the mid-size truck segment by combining a premium level of hardware, extraordinary power options and a high level of on and off-road performance. These attributes have garnered a loyal fan base through 3 generations of the truck. This is probably a good thing because the 2018 Frontier is a decent enough truck, but it faces very stiff competition due to it’s age being one of the “oldest” new trucks on the road today. Now don’t get us wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but you really need to search hard to find its strengths because they are not obvious. However, there is one exception, it offers the largest array of crew cab options ever offered for one truck, it’s amazing but true. One other note is it does not offer the advanced safety features found in many of the competitive models today and the marginal crash ratings are a reminder that it has been around for 15 years and it has not been substantially updated since. That said, the Frontier is a very reasonably priced and it offers a lot of bang for the buck, you just need to appreciate it for the fun drive that it is.

Fun fact:
The Frontier was not only the first to offer four full-size forward hinged doors but was also the first to offer a factory- installed super charger in a compact truck. In addition to these firsts, today the Frontier offers a total of 13 King Cab and 14 Crew Cab models, that’s a lot of choices for any truck.

So, we have reviewed the history of the Nissan Frontier from the early days to present day, but how does it compare to the competition? Let’s take a deeper dive:

As you can see from the table, the Frontier is not the leader in every category, but it leads the pack where it counts. If you measure your vehicles based on overall quality, attention to detail, comfort, dependability and off-road toughness then you cannot do better than the Nissan Frontier.