For 2001, Nissan threw a sharply breaking curveball at the competition by introducing a redesigned Frontier. Its all-new, aggressive look came out of Nissan Design America (NDA) in La Jolla, Calif. In addition to the new duds came the availability of a powerful supercharged V6. So with 2002 in the wings, Nissan thought they'd add a new color or two and call it quits, right?
Wrong! With names like Dakota, Tacoma, S-10, and Ranger, Nissan knew that the only laurels they'd be wise to rest on would be in an arboretum. It was time for the long ball, the type of hit that demoralizes the opposing team's pitcher.
Enter Crew Cab Long Bed. With 74.6 inches of length, it's a full 18.3 inches longer than the standard Crew Cab's bed. Furthermore, it's the longest of the long. No U.S.-market compact truck crew cab can match it, and it's even longer than a few full-size crew cab trucks. By almost every conceivable perspective, bigger certainly is better here.
Nissan is no stranger to being first in the marketplace. In 1959 Nissan introduced the first compact pickup in the U.S. In 1969 it was the first half-ton compact pickup. In 1977 they debuted the first extended cab body with the King Cab. Nineteen eighty-three brought the first import brand compact truck manufactured in the U.S. (Frontier is currently assembled at Nissan's Smyrna and Decherd, Tennessee plants.) The turn of the millennium brought us the first compact truck sold in the U.S. with four full-size forward-hinged doors. In 2001, Nissan delivered the first compact truck with a factory-installed supercharger, and now for 2002, the first long bed crew cab compact pickup makes its debut.
Biggest news for haulers -- 74.6 inches of bed. The cost? Just $550 over the standard bed.
The long bed brings with it several modifications, including a wheel base 15 inches longer (131.1 inches, up from 116.1), an additional crossmember for rigidity, reinforcements to the frame's center box structure, a GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) increase of about 220 pounds, and an approximate 110-pound increase in payload capability.
What all this amounts to is the ability to haul more stuff, plan and simple. Whether it be concrete, wood chips, tools, furniture, or steel, you'll now be able to take more with you and, lest we forget, your four passengers.
We decided to challenge our maroon S/C 4x4 test vehicle by throwing more than 500 pounds of Number One Short Steel in the bed. We visited a junkyard and loaded old rotors, drums, master cylinders, struts, engine blocks, and other various bits and debris. It was our goal to find out if the suspension, brakes, and motor were up to carrying out the tasks that the long bed buyer is likely to throw at the truck.
In our time spent driving the Frontier unloaded, we noticed that the S/C's suspension was jittery and pounded our kidneys a bit. When loaded up though, the suspension pays off by keeping body lean down to a minimum while maneuvering through turns. A bit more roll is present than when the truck is not loaded, but it's far less than we expected. Just don't go hurtling down the road attacking apexes with gusto and all will be copasetic.
We were less than thrilled with the truck's braking performance even before we loaded it. Stopping power when unloaded was adequate, but not stellar, and we'd like Nissan to remove some of the sponginess from the pedal. Skepticism certainly seeped its way into our thoughts when it was time to perform the yellow light/red light test with a quarter-ton of steel parked in the rear. Our nerves were calmed when the brakes didn't show additional fade or produce longer stopping distances. They stopped the truck without appearing to be overburdened by the steel we were toting around. Long Bed 2, Short Cut Steel 0.
Of course, eventually even the stalest of red lights is going to turn green again, and so we knew we'd have a chance to test out the torque of the supercharged motor. "And they're off!" Well…not really. Though we did make it out of the gates, off-the-line pull was somewhat more sluggish than sans load. This is to be expected with the additional weight, of course, but we thought that the effects of the quarter-ton load would make themselves less apparent. That lethargy continued into 2nd gear, becoming more pronounced as we built speed. With the A/C on, much of the supercharged torque seems to be leeched away, something to think about if you're planning on doing heavy hauling in "the valley" in the summertime as we did. While the Frontier didn't pass our payload test with flying colors, when the dust cleared the victor was the Long Bed, taking away a 2-1 win over the Short Cut Steel.
What a heap! The Long Bed mixes it up in the junkyard.
So now let's talk cost. The Long Bed will obviously cost more, but just how much more are we talking about here? The answer is a meager $550. That's right, for less than 6 C-notes you can upgrade to the longest bed in the class, and you can make up for the lost acceleration time by eliminating the need to make two trips. With its thrift-shop price premium, it's no wonder Nissan expects almost 60 percent of Crew Cab buyers to snap up the Long Bed. Nissan also would like you to know that despite growing longer, this truck will still fit without a shoehorn into the average garage.
If the Long Bed alone is not quite enough to push you over the top, for 2002 a fully-revised interior can also be found along with an optional 9-speaker Rockford Fosgate sound system (complete with subwoofer). Step inside, and if you've checked out the new Xterra, you'll see much that looks familiar. Both Frontier and Xterra share the new and improved interior. The big updates include a new instrument panel with round gauges, new HVAC controls, and a new console with side map pockets. Also, like the Xterra, the Frontier now employs a foot-operated parking brake instead of the dash-mounted pull-and-twist unit.
Our S/C model also included some nice Frontier-only touches. Unique charcoal fabric with distinctive red piping and S/C stitching lets you know you're in the pickup and not the SUV. Additionally, to the left of the steering wheel, you'll find a switch for the cargo light if you should feel the need to wake your sleeping buddies from the bed.
If you don't care to use illumination to wake those slackers, you might want to try out the optional 300-watt Rockford Fosgate system. Complete with subwoofer, this system really pumps out great bass. This can easily be confirmed by a rear-center passenger who will feel a steady thumping against his back thanks to a sub tucked neatly out of view. Hey, nothing beats free back massages, right?
Our Long Bed came "fully-loaded," but not without some sweat to get all the steel in.
Cranks, and rotors, and struts, oh my!
Those who want a fully loaded truck will only have to equip their vehicles with one more option in addition to the sound system. A leather package (which we didn't get to sample in this test) is offered on S/C models. It includes leather-appointed seats, a vehicle security system, and a sunroof with removable sunshade.
We were able to test out the Crew Cab portion of the truck by carrying four passengers, all of whom attested to the comfort of the seats fore and aft. Best of all,
the supercharger torque is still ready and able to briskly pull a full complement of passengers without complaint. With a full crew or a full bed we do wonder what kind of performance one would get out of normally aspirated models. For $1,500 over the SE model, we're going to have to give our nod to the supercharged model if hauling people or cargo is in your future.
On the outside, "4x4," "Supercharged," and "Off-Road" decals adorn the
sheet- metal. Since our truck was a 4x4, it came shod with P265/65R17 BF Goodrich Rugged Trail tires, as opposed to the 4x2's more street-biased rubber. Our 4x4 also came with specially tuned suspension with increased ground clearance.
Driving briskly in 4x2 mode on the street yielded an average of 14.0 mpg. The EPA figures are 15 mpg in the city and 18 on the highway. Ours was a mixture of city and highway driving, A/C on some and off some, driven hard and driven gingerly, with a full load of passengers and cargo and without. Some careful readers might notice that this figure is significantly higher than the Xterra's we recently tested, but we'd point out that the Xterra was driven in 4x4 mode off-road, while the Frontier was not.
Baseball greats like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa know that the way to ignite the home field crowd and take the fight out of the pitchers they face is to hit the long ball. It's a crippling blow that sets fireworks ablaze. The folks at Nissan surely must play a lot of ball because this new Long Bed appears to be headed for the fences. But by our estimation, less than stellar engine performance with a full load and weak brakes mean that the ball's probably gonna drop at the warning track. Not to fret, that fly ball's not going to be
caught. Nissan's turning a solid triple here.
