I know that Nissan doesn’t get a lot of love around here, but after test driving all of the mid-size offerings, we decided that the best fit for the best price was a Frontier. This little truck came home with us over the weekend.
We really had to buy something new because dropping our daughter off at college meant that the Outback is no longer available as a second car. I know there haven’t been many changes in the Frontier in a very long time, but I see that as a good thing. Parts should be plentiful and cheap. Being a relatively simple design, there’s not much to break. Being a fairly late model, it has bluetooth, backup sensors, and a backup camera. It had a bit over 50k miles when we bought it. It’s a long bed (6 ft, hah!) with a spray-in liner and the fancy tie-down system. It’s so clean it looks like it’s never carried a load of anything.
The trip back from Texas was as we hoped - non-eventful. The little truck is surprisingly quiet, even if it rides like a truck. We tried out everything and it works fine.
There are a few flaws as one would expect with a used truck. We have to put in a new windshield and the tires have a year, maybe two, left in them. The windshield would have been replaced at the dealer today, but we needed to be back in Louisiana, so they knocked a few hundred off the price to cover the cost of a new windshield. It has a few minor paint scuffs and one door ding. Neither are a big deal.
Overall, it’s just about everything a kid could want in his first vehicle. It’s a hell of a lot nicer than my first truck!