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I didn’t really expect Nissan to deliver. The last Frontier was among the most dated vehicles currently on sale, stubbornly persisting without a redesign until it was the least comfortable, least refined, least luxurious truck on the market. The supposed “new” one makes use of a modified version of the same platform, which naturally I thought would doom it from the start. But despite all this, Nissan stuck the landing. The 2022 Nissan Frontier is, at first acquaintance, the nicest full-frame midsize truck you can buy.
Turns out the core of the last-gen platform is pretty strong. Midsize trucks as a segment are pretty dated, each with architectures reaching far back in time. And the previous Frontier’s problem was not its foundation, but the total lack of substantial updates to that foundation. This redesigned model attempts to make up for 15 years of stagnation–a period that'd see two to three redesigns from other manufacturers–by carrying out countless improvements in one swoop.
That means a larger front stabilizer bar, a new rear stabilizer bar, jounce bumpers to smooth out big impacts, hydraulic cab mounts to reduce vibrations, and a revised hydraulic steering rack with a dynamic damper. Sound deadening has been added in key locations throughout. Nissan promises significant improvements: An 80 percent reduction in cab vibration, a five-decibel reduction in engine noise, a three-decibel reduction in road noise, and a 2.5-decibel reduction in wind noise.
Forget the numbers. The real story is that the Frontier has leapfrogged the pack, going from the sloppiest ride among its peers to the most refined. Its cabin, once the most raucous and unpleasant, is now shockingly quiet at 80 mph. Compared to a Toyota Tacoma, the Frontier feels like a Lexus.
Body control is also top of class. The Tacoma that Nissan provided for comparison flopped and wallowed around corners, but the Frontier Pro-4X was composed even on technical mountain roads. Off-pavement, the Frontier’s Bilstein shocks allowed me to tackle a rock-studded dirt climb at a stunning clip. The Frontier likely cannot match the rock-crawling ability of a Tacoma TRD Pro or the articulation of a Jeep Gladiator, but its ability to soak up a beating over high-speed obstacles with world-class wheel control and zero rattles proves it can handle some serious weekend truck duty.
The 310-hp V-6 deserves some credit for powering up muddy, rock-infested slopes without complaint. In 4-Lo with the rear differential locked, a trick available only on the Pro-4X, the all-terrain-tired Frontier was tough to slow down. And for the rain-slicked descent, the Frontier offers a hill descent system that, unlike in the Tacoma, is not accompanied by a symphony of violent crunches suggesting the truck is about to snap in half. Turns out that ruckus is the result of the rapid-fire ABS pump straining against the frame; the Frontier team solved this issue by isolating the pump from the rest of the structure.
On pavement, the class-leading horsepower figure and nine-speed automatic make easy work of two-lane passes. Kickdowns sometimes take longer than expected, and there’s a hint of confusion as the nine-speed occasionally struggles to find the right gear, but the cabin is so hushed that you’d have to go looking to catch it. Even under full throttle there’s very little engine noise, and it’s never enough to be annoying. That’s helpful when towing, as a 5700-lb boat trailer had the Frontier spending a lot of time on the right side of its tachometer. Stability and handling were great even with a trailer, but a 6720-lb max tow rating is low even for the class.
But the Frontier is also on the small side of its segment, something Nissan emphasizes in its marketing. The company wants the truck to be easy to drive in the city, refined for daily driving, and simple to park. I’m not entirely convinced that the slightly smaller size fundamentally changes anything, but the Frontier feels like a better daily than any other body-on-frame mid-sizer. The Honda Ridgeline may be more refined, but it fundamentally feels like you’re driving a crossover.
The Ridgeline is also the only competitor with a better interior than the Frontier. The cabin is not particularly nice, in the way that no body-on-frame midsize truck is nice, and there’s still a decent amount of cheap, scratchy plastic. There’s no auto-down or -up function for the passenger or rear windows, no telescoping steering wheel, no lumbar support on the base model, and the door panel, steering wheel, and dashboard all seem to hail from different eras of Nissan design. In any other segment, it’d be a problem, and it all makes the Frontier sound bad.
Until you consider the competition. Everything in this class suffers from interior cost-cutting. You may not be wowed by the Frontier at first, but the great seats, large infotainment system, simple and pleasant controls, and well-integrated tech features put it far ahead of Toyota’s segment king. The Colorado, once heralded for bringing the segment into the 21st century of interior design, looks dated and uninteresting by comparison.
The same is true for pretty much every other truck’s exterior design as well. Forget the constraints of the midsize realm; I can’t think of another mainstream truck that looks as handsome. Sure, a Raptor, TRD Pro, or TRX would carry more presence on the road, but that’s more due to ridiculousness than smart design. As everything else gets more absurdist, the Frontier looks smart yet tough, capable yet humble.
Which are fair characterizations of the machine as a whole. For the most extreme buyers, there are probably better options. Rangers tow more; Tacomas will survive to the end of human civilization as we know it (ETA: 35 years or so); Gladiators can conquer that Rubicon. But for the vast majority of buyers, the Frontier is the one to get. More capable than the Ridgeline and more refined than anything else, durable and proven at its core, it’s a deeply charming truck wrapped in a superb design. And at $28,990 to start, or $38,390 for the fantastic Pro-4X, it’s also the best value in the segment. Deliveries begin in early September; Nissan’s ultimate goal is delivering 70,000 units in 2022. I never expected to say this, but if I were in the market for a truck, I’d make it 70,001.
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