This week I have the 2023 Nissan Frontier, a mid-sized truck that was completely redone for 2022.
The truck looks great with front fenders that are built into the new LED headlights. There is a large grill borrowed from the Titan with tow hooks down low, I love the bulging hood, the 17” wheels and meaty tires.
Under the hood you’ll find a 3.8-liter naturally aspirated V6 that is putting out 310-horses and 281-pound feet of torque. It is mated to a strong-shifting 9-speed automatic transmission.
My tester is the Pro-4X, which means it is 4-wheel drive with serious off-road capability. It has Bilstein shocks, shift-on-the-fly, and skid plates under the truck in the front and rear.
Moving to the interior, the NASA-designed zero gravity leather seats are super comfortable, heated, and the driver gets power controls.
As you sit, there are colorful analog gauges and a driver info center that works from the steering wheel.
High center dash is a large 9” infotainment screen that handles the terrific 10-speaker Fender sound system, navigation, Bluetooth, voice recognition, Wi-Fi hotspot, Sirius XM, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto. It will also give you real-time sports scores, traffic, weather, fuel prices, movie times, available parking, and how the stock market is doing.
To the right of the steering wheel is the pushbutton start and 4-wheel drive selector, to the left are buttons for various things including tow mode.
This is a 5-foot bed, has a spray-in bedliner, and Nissan’s terrific Utilatrack cargo management system with 4 adjustable tie-downs, and another 110-power outlet in the bed.
This is the top-of-the-line version and is heavily equipped with a power moon roof, heated mirrors, a trailer hitch, keyless entry, remote start, and the full leather seats.
On the safety side, you get lane departure warning, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, rearview camera, rear parking sensors with automatic braking, adaptive cruise control, and traffic sign recognition.
The Frontier Pro-4X is a beast off the road, yet a very good daily driver. The off-road tires make for a bit of road noise, but it is tolerable. The ride is good and acceleration is terrific from the V6.
Fuel economy is rated at 17 city and 22 highway, not bad for a 4800-pound 4-wheel drive truck that will tow over 6,200 pounds.
Total MSRP as you see it is $46,380 which hits me as a little high and getting too close to full-sized trucks, but it does have everything you can put on one and is very capable off-road.
2023 Frontier in a few words: A much improved truck for those that are looking for a pickup that is not too big and not too small.