AURORA | Two things in life are compulsory, that I’m aware of so far: military service in Switzerland and moving duty if you own a pickup truck. The two cannot be avoided, so I’m told, and I submit those to the pantheon of immutable universal laws.
Of course, there are other laws to think about when one has to move with said pickup truck. How many stairs are between this bed’s final destination and me? How many books did you put into this box? How much longer will my back hold out? And was that crunching sound expensive?
Because of the truck, a 2015 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X, my moving fate for the weekend could not be avoided. A simple couple coming together in one apartment — two sets of the same crap in half the space — and a mid-size, off-roading pickup to bring the two worlds together in pre-marital harmony.
It’s a nice place to be — the truck, I mean. Nissan made its bones in the pickup business with small trucks like this particular model. Well, maybe not like this model actually — Nissan made its bones with this exact model.
Excuse me for mentioning this in mixed company, but this Metallic Blue girl here is more than a decade old underneath its exterior. But my, she wears it well. (And all joking aside, blue is really the best color for this truck.)
Nissan’s Frontier skeleton may actually be one of the longer running “new car” chassis on the road today. Like the Toyota Tacoma it competes with, the Frontier is a small-volume, big-idea truck that’s thankfully stuck with us through two presidential administrations.
Consequently, nothing is very new in the Frontier here. A 4.0-liter V6 funnels power through a 5-speed automatic transmission; much like the forefathers drove at the beginning of this great nation. An electronic locking rear differential and two-speed transfer case offer varying levels of false confidence when plunging through rivers, gorges, canyons and blizzards, near and far. I should tell you now that although the V6 is adequately powered (261 horsepower, 281 lb.-ft. of torque), one gets to feeling like a brawny sailor in a tired saloon behind the wheel of a Frontier. You looking at me, pile of bricks? Let’s take this outside.
Of course, with the Pro-4X’s added high-pressure Bilstein shocks, thicker plates guarding the Frontier’s vitals — gas, oil and transfer case — there are very few places this truck actually couldn’t go — short of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. That’s not supposed to be a knock on the truck’s very functional, utilitarian and purposeful exterior. Rather it’s an observation that this truck should live and breathe in the mud. That’s all I’m saying, Mr. Nissan. Honest.
I could go on and on about the gears, spray-in bed liners and 5-inch color navigation screen with NissanConnect as standard for 2015, but the question you’re all asking me anyway is: “How does it move friends, family and people I barely know, Aaron?”
Very well, actually. I would imagine distant relatives and friends of friends of friends can’t wait for you to plunk down $36,000 of not-their money to buy one and give you something to do every weekend. Did I mention I love moving? Oh, I didn’t? It’s because I don’t.
I made haul after back-stiffening haul until it was time to haul some more. The Nissan Frontier handled all of the loads very well, and if I were a smarter man I would have put the V6’s 6,500 lbs. tow rating to good use. If driving across town multiple times exploited one of the Frontier’s weaknesses, it’s this: the Frontier can be thirsty. The Nissan’s V6 manages only 15 mpg in the city and 20 mpg on the highway. To compare: the much newer full-size Ram 1500 V6 gets 18/25 mpg in city highway and the Ram’s 5.7-liter V8 gets roughly the same fuel numbers as does the Frontier. Time for some fuel pump yoga.
But fuel quibbles glaze over what the Frontier does very well. And that is to be a competent, fully capable truck with a smaller footprint than the titanium, Country Western-clad titans that are hogging the roads these days. The Frontier is incredibly durable, despite being a little long in the tooth, and new Nissan Truck head Fred Diaz has already made clear that he’d entertain plugging in a diesel engine to realize better mileage in the Frontier.
That’s not bad for a truck that’s as predictable and useful as a Swiss Army knife.
Aaron Cole is managing editor of the Aurora Sentinel. He enjoys hearing from readers. Reach him at acole@aurorasentinel.com.