“What truck should I buy?” It’s a question consumers ask themselves every day, but what would online editor Alex Nishimoto drive? Keep reading for the answer, and see other editors’ picks here.
I don’t expect to change careers anytime soon, but my fantasy fallback plan has long been buying and selling antiques. If the TV show American Pickers has taught me anything, it’s that a cargo van is a great choice for that line of work. But full-size vans can get pricey, and somehow the idea of quitting my day job and dropping $30,000 or more on a new vehicle for a venture in the volatile antiques and collectibles business doesn’t seem like a smart financial move. That’s probably still true even at $20,000, but if I had to buy a new vehicle I’d go with the most affordable truck on the market: the Nissan Frontier S. Is it the best pickup I could buy? No—not by a long shot. But for my needs, it would work just fine.
Starting at just over $20,000, the base 2019 Nissan Frontier S offers reasonably good value for the money. That price gets you a King Cab body style, rear-wheel drive, and a five-speed manual transmission. You also get a 6-foot bed, which would come in handy for transporting all the priceless lost Rembrandts I’m sure to find in my new profession.
Power comes from Nissan’s tried-and-true naturally aspirated 2.5-liter I-4, which provides 152 hp and 171 lb-ft of torque. With the five-speed manual, that engine is EPA-rated at 19/23 mpg city/highway. That’s short just 1 mpg city of the base Toyota Tacoma’s I-4 and six-speed automatic combo, and 3 mpg highway behind the Chevrolet Colorado I-4 with the six-speed manual and Ford Ranger turbo-four with the 10-speed auto.
If there’s one big downside to the base Frontier, it’s the truck’s limited payload capacity. The King Cab S manual is rated at just 900 pounds, nearly 500 pounds less than the base Colorado and 720 pounds less than the base Tacoma. I’d have to keep that in mind before loading the bed up with solid oak furniture from 18th century France.
There’s no denying the Frontier’s cabin looks as old as it is. Nissan’s design language from the early 2000s is alive and well in the truck’s dash, instrument cluster, center console, and door panels. But even if Nissan has ignored its midsize pickup’s interior styling, it hasn’t completely neglected feature content. The Frontier received a rearview camera and Bluetooth connectivity as standard for 2018, and recently added a 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The S model comes with crank windows, manual sideview mirrors, and manual door locks, which might be surprising to find in a new vehicle in 2019. But do you really need everything to be powered in a work truck?
The 2019 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab model has a four-star overall safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but the King Cab has never been fully tested. A 2018 Frontier King Cab RWD scored three stars in NHTSA’s rollover test but remains unrated in the side and frontal crash tests. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety awarded the King Cab “Good” scores in the moderate overlap front, side impact, and roof strength tests, but a “Marginal” rating in the small overlap front: driver-side test. Head restraints and seats were deemed “Acceptable,” while its halogen headlights received a “Poor” overall rating. Those lower scores might give me some pause, but since this vehicle would just be used by me and only for work, safety ratings are less a concern than they are with my picks for an SUV and car.
Compared with its more modern competition, the Nissan Frontier S isn’t a great truck. But it’s a decent one for the money—and the only new truck you can get for around 20 grand. If I were starting a small business with limited capital, the Frontier’s low price would make a lot of sense. And I could always upgrade once the profits from all the high-end vintage goods I’m unearthing start to roll in.
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