Review: 2022 Nissan Frontier Is Big on Off-Road Comfort

The 2022 Nissan Frontier goes on sale in September, and it is been 15 a long time in the making. If that sounds like Nissan’s been running in tortoise years, you’re not wrong Typically, car– and truck-makers revise and update a great deal. Nissan’s only nibbled all over the edges since…George Bush Jr. was in the White Residence. That’s suitable, little ones could’ve been conceived in the bed of the final model-new Frontier and be having their driver’s licenses just in time for the new truck’s arrival.

 

 

Luckily, to extend some of that metaphor to the breaking stage, the new Frontier is damn pretty. Designer Hiren Patel pressured that having the proportions and the search of the truck just proper was critical. He bought associated in the layout process after he noticed some interior experiments of in which the Frontier could go (he’d currently had excellent success with Nissan’s other vans), and pushed for the increased refinements you will see on the 2022 product. In particular when it arrives to the “face” of the Frontier, which has the suitable equilibrium of ruggedness with out seeming brash or necessarily mean. It appears to be confidently challenging, but not in an in-your-experience, brandished upper body hair vogue that’s become a very little as well common in the truck space.

We bought to exam the Frontier in the wilderness of Utah recently—with a large swath of freeway and a bunch of legit off-roading gnarl—and found just about absolutely nothing to whinge about, which really should definitely make the opposition get proper back again to the drawing board.

Here are a few large takeaways.

The 2022 Nissan Frontier Packs Legit Chops for Off-Road Churning

Nissan engineers had been gifted a 9-velocity transmission and great 3.8-liter V-6 with 310 horsepower to function with for just about every product. That is a most effective-in-course mojo and drivetrain—and they manufactured certain the transmission works efficiently each on- and off-street. We downshifted at will for passing on street, and clicked down for additional climbing muscle mass on dirt, as very well as for much more engine braking and handle on descents.

On 4×4 guises, you’re finding 4-Wheel Very low for extra rock-crawling functionality (up to 9.8 inches of floor clearance), and you can use the close to-see digicam screens to see the corners of the truck for delicate maneuvering. What is extra, all 4×4 designs have a much larger metal skid plate and popular, easy-to-arrive at tow hooks.

Buy the Pro-4X version (we would!). The nose has been scalloped for a ideal-in-course strategy angle for clearing undercarriage hazards. That model also boasts Bilstein off-highway shock absorbers and much more skid plates, but all 4×4 variations have hill-start off assist, as effectively as hill-descent handle.

They Crushed it With On-Street Comfort

Other trucks in the space, like the Toyota Tacoma, are also great on dirt. Nissan burned previous rivals, although, by busting further than the prior (mediocre) chalk line for on-road comfort and ease. For instance, the seats are more supportive over extensive miles than the Toyota’s and they make it possible for shorter or taller drivers to healthy extra easily, with much better views of the truck’s corners. Furthermore, the cabin is like a sedan’s—quiet and reasonably refined. Also numerous mid-dimension vehicles sense like financial state autos on stilts, with wandering journey high quality and cruddy plastic surfaces—almost like the brands ignore the actuality that these are every day drivers. Nissan bought pretty shut to the Honda Ridgeline in terms of trip consolation, which is astounding, because that rides on a passenger vehicle chassis.

They also included stuff you really don’t assume about till it’s not there, these as loads of cabin storage (you get a large, 4-liter heart storage console) and 8 cupholders, which includes numerous that can hold a 32-ounce water bottle.

There’s a Ton of Good Tech

Get the Fender audio procedure. Period. It’s not just loud this 10-speaker technique is crisp and resonates with outstanding small notes, as well. In a truck cabin—which is a significant, sq. box with a lot of reflecting surfaces—nailing clarity is brutally challenging, but Fender did. If you treatment about new music, it is likely to be well worth the up grade each and every time you push the Frontier.

Also note the greater-grade trims feature LED headlamps that are extremely-shiny, and you can get security features like lane-trying to keep (automatic unexpected emergency braking arrives conventional). Automated rear crisis braking is also course-distinctive, and which is a crucial safety feature that helps prevent you from hitting a different auto when backing out of a parking space—or hitting a baby who’d be far too low to see with your rearview or sideview mirrors.

We should notice the 2022 Nissan Frontier offers a WiFi hotspot, wireless phone charging, twin USBs, as effectively as two front 12V stores, in addition gratis Android Automobile and Apple CarPlay.

Nitpick

The Frontier’s bed comes in two sizes: A 40.1-cubic-foot of volume model (5-foot bed) and a 49.2-cubic-foot, 6-foot-lengthy model. The struggle for loads of mid-sizing truck consumers is wanting the utility of a function truck, but not wanting the meh gasoline financial state and substantial, garage-obliterating measurement of an F-150 (or of Nissan’s possess Titan).

So: Whole size or enjoyment size? The Frontier could be wonderful, but it hasn’t fixed that conundrum.

[$27,840 for RWD and $31,040 for AWD; nissanusa.com]

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