2012 & 2013 Nissan Truck Reviews & Ratings

The first Nissan truck manufactured for sale in the US was the D21 or Hardbody truck which began in production in 1986 in direct competition to the Toyota Compact Pickup. In fact, part of the Hardbody still remains as the Nissan Pathfinder which was designed using the basics of the Hardbody. Nissan trucks have always been successful, even though they are not as well known for their trucks as they are for their Coupes, Sedans and Hatchbacks.

Given that the truck, although not necessar... (full review continues below)

The first Nissan truck manufactured for sale in the US was the D21 or Hardbody truck which began in production in 1986 in direct competition to the Toyota Compact Pickup. In fact, part of the Hardbody still remains as the Nissan Pathfinder which was designed using the basics of the Hardbody. Nissan trucks have always been successful, even though they are not as well known for their trucks as they are for their Coupes, Sedans and Hatchbacks.

Given that the truck, although not necessarily the Nissan truck, is one of the icons of the American car industry, it will come as little surprise that the competition within the truck sector is fierce with most of the mainstream auto manufacturers having several models with widely varying levels of power, accessories and designs. For parts of America, the truck is not just a tool to assist with work, it is also used to to display their personalities in a similar way that a lot of Coupe owners do. The popularity of trucks has also withstood rising gas prices and recent recessionary periods by introducing many of the amenities that cars have such as high end stereos, leather seats and larger cabs to allow the truck to also serve as the main family vehicle rather than just as a two-seater.

The truck market is largely split into two sectors, the large truck and the compact truck where Nissan trucks battle it out with their long time rivals for the top spot. The large truck sector is largely dominated by the big American manufacturers with the Ford 150, Ram 1500 and Chevy Silverado competing fiercely year after year to try and achieve the dominant market position. In the compact sector, the direct competitor to Nissan trucks is the Toyota Tacoma.

Nissan offers the Frontier in this sector which starts at just over $18,500 and has a range of 9 different trims although these can be customized further. The base model is the Nissan Frontier S Extended Cab Pickup with a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder engine giving 152 horsepower and 171 feet per pound of torque. There are only 2 trims with this smaller engine. The rest go all the way up to the Nissan Frontier Pro 4X Extended Cab Pickup which have the larger 4 liter V6 engine with 261 horsepower and 281 feet per pound of torque. All trims of the Nissan Frontier share similar gas consumption and manage about 14mpg in the city and 19mpg on the highway. Nissan trucks are also present in the large truck sector with the Nissan Titan. The entry level Nissan Titan is the S Extended Cab pickup starting at $31,000 with a 5.6 liter V8 317 horsepower engine developing 385 feet per pound of torque. Gas consumption has always been poor on large trucks with the Nissan Titan being no exception as it only manages 12mpg in the city and 18mpg on the highway. All trucks consume even more gas off road.