As for an "activity sized" truck, it fits a whole lot of gear in the cab and the bed. An acquaintance and her friend were coming back into town and needed to be picked up at the airport in a relatively large automobile, or
at least one that would fit her surfboards and gear from traveling around Asia. Sure enough, I volunteered to pick her up since the Frontier is designed for a plethora of sports equipment and more. Plus it makes for a good story and puts its cargo capacity to use.
Even with the bed loaded with gear, and the cabin filled with people, the Frontier has quite a bit of get-up-and-go power due to its increased engine size. With a new VQ40DE, 4.0L, 24-valve, DOHC V6 engine under the hood, it produces 265-horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 284 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm, an increase of 85-horsepower and 82 lb-ft of torque, making it the most powerful V6 not only in its class, but on the light truck market today. The new engine is based on the award-winning VQ engine series that powers everything from the Altima sedan to Infiniti's M35 sport sedan, although it was specifically modified to meet the demands of truck use with a longer stroke, reinforced block and revised camshaft profile for notable torque response.
Attached to the powerful 4.0-litre engine is a 5-speed automatic transmission, standard with the NISMO (meaning Nissan Motorsport) equipped 4X4 pickup. Also unique to this trim level are a few off-roading
accessories, such as locking rear differentials, skid plates, a roof rack with cross bars, P265/75R16 BF Goodrich rugged trail tires with 16-inch alloy wheels and NISMO-spec Bilstein high performance off-road shocks. It's a fully-loaded and fully capable off-roading machine, too bad I'm not a fully capable off-road driver. Maybe one day.
But as much as I like being on the trails, I prefer the concrete jungle. Besides, many truck owners never step a wheel off the pavement. It is, however nice to know that the Frontier can tackle the trails with the flick of a switch, literally. In NISMO trim the Frontier comes with a switch-operated 2-speed transfer case, which takes all of half a second to shift into 4-wheel mode.
 |
| An acquaintance and her friend needed to be picked up at the airport in a relatively large automobile, or at least one that would fit her surfboards and gear from traveling around Asia. (Photo: Alexandra Straub, Canadian Auto Press) |
Even with the bed loaded with gear, and the cabin filled with people, the Frontier has quite a bit of get-up-and-go power due to its increased engine size. With a new VQ40DE, 4.0L, 24-valve, DOHC V6 engine under the hood, it produces 265-horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 284 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm, an increase of 85-horsepower and 82 lb-ft of torque, making it the most powerful V6 not only in its class, but on the light truck market today. The new engine is based on the award-winning VQ engine series that powers everything from the Altima sedan to Infiniti's M35 sport sedan, although it was specifically modified to meet the demands of truck use with a longer stroke, reinforced block and revised camshaft profile for notable torque response.
Attached to the powerful 4.0-litre engine is a 5-speed automatic transmission, standard with the NISMO (meaning Nissan Motorsport) equipped 4X4 pickup. Also unique to this trim level are a few off-roading
 |
| A new VQ40DE, 4.0L, 24-valve, DOHC V6 engine under the hood produces 265-horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 284 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. (Photo: Alexandra Straub, Canadian Auto Press) |
But as much as I like being on the trails, I prefer the concrete jungle. Besides, many truck owners never step a wheel off the pavement. It is, however nice to know that the Frontier can tackle the trails with the flick of a switch, literally. In NISMO trim the Frontier comes with a switch-operated 2-speed transfer case, which takes all of half a second to shift into 4-wheel mode.