New to our small fleet anyway.
It's a fully loaded 2017 Frontier Pro-4X that had a little under 46k km on it when I picked it up last Thursday. Bought it from the local dealer and it's in great shape with very light wear and a new set of tires. Looked for a decent private sale unit but couldn't find one locally. Can't say i got a screaming deal on it but it has been sitting at the dealer since before Christmas and they dropped the price by over $1K since. I got them to knock another $500 off the listed price, and they threw in a $500 pre-paid Visa card as an end-of-month incentative. They also gave me a 30% discount on the factory branded hitch i had them install. The factory branded tonneau cover was included. It was missing two of the four adjustable tie-down hooks in the bed area, so they gave me a brand new set of four. I've been looking at Frontiers for a while now and the price for this one was reasonable, and the sales process was relatively painless.
Earlier the same week I tested a 2019 Pro-4X and a 2019 Taco back to back at another local dealer to get a good comparison between the two. The Taco was similarily equipped and $10k more expensive than the Pro-4X but was the more substantial truck of the two, and I hated it the instant I sat down inside, but more on that later. I drove the Pro-4X first and it was immediately familiar from the last time, with a proper upright driving position and a nice airy cabin with good visibility all around. The heated leather seats were relatively comfortable as well with just enough adjustablility to accomodate my frame and had power adjustment for both driver and passenger. The ride and handling are surprisingly good for a truck with such a high centre of gravity as well. The steering feel is good with a nice direct feel to it but the turning circle is rather large relative to vehicle size imo. The cabin in the Frontier is noticeably more dated than any of the newer stuff but also refreshingly simple, with everything being instantly familiar and functional. The red backlighting of the dashboard is kinda weird though and the backup camera is a joke. The tie down system for the bed seems well designed and functional with nice chunky hooks that are adjustable and can be positioned anywhere on the track rails. There are five tracks with one on each upper side of the box rails, two in the bed area, and one at the front upper rail of the box. The tracks in the bed area are recessed and have sliding plastic covers to prevent dirt from accumulating there. The standard roof rack is really beefy too with none of that flimsy tacked on look and feel of the aftermarket units. The Yakima roof rack we had on our Fusion ruined the paint and was a pita to install every spring. It was also a pita getting the Kayaks on and off all the time. At least with the truck I can jump up in the bed to make things easier to load/unload.
I was surprised how much I disliked the Taco despite the fact it was the more substantial vehicle in almost every way. It was similarily equipped to the Pro-4X with leather seating and more modern features such as blind side assistance, radar cruise, dsp terrain control, nicer materials, and much more updated interior. It didn't have power adjustable seats though and that was a major fail and the main reason i discounted before even driving away. The seats were downright awful with no adjustment other than travel, absolutely no thigh support, which was made worse by the sprawled out driving position. The low roofline and the high cowl of the hood with that stupid scoop made the cabin feel like a bunker in comparison to the Frontier. The standard seats in the lower model Frontiers weren't great either but not nearly as bad as the Toyota. The Taco also felt sluggish as hell compared to the Frontier even when pinned. It just took too long to respond to commands from the business pedal. They really need to recalibrate the firmware of the transmission imo. The Taco wasn't all bad though as everything had a nice solid quality feel, decent ride quality and steering feel, and a quiet cabin. It also had a larger six foot box compared to the Pro-4Xs five footer. The Taco also had a noticeable quieter cabin than the Frontier. I kept checking for an open window when I drove the Frontier. The Frontier is not irritatingly loud though and it had no rattles.
Anyways, I think we should get some good utility out of this thing and might get something to tow around in the near future, which is why i had a hitch installed right away. Besides, what good is a truck without a hitch? I think the only other things i might add later would be a sliding box extender and possibly a LED light bar to enhance the standard halogen lighting.
A few pics...
