New Nissan Frontier Finally Confirmed

The poor, old, tired Nissan Frontier just got some much-needed good news. The midsize pickup truck segment has been heating up in recent years with entries like the recently refreshed Chevy Colorado and Toyota Tacoma and a new Ford Ranger on the way. The Nissan Frontier which was last updated during the Bush administration is by far the least competitive player in this segment, but hopefully not for long.

Nissan has at long last confirmed the Frontier is getting a thorough update. According to Car and Driver, the new truck will continue to be built at the Canton, Mississippi plant alongside the bigger Titan and several other Nissan models. We don’t have many details on when we can expect the new Frontier to hit the market or what we can expect from the truck itself. The fact that we’re finally getting a long-overdue third generation is enough good news for us.

The current Frontier is the only midsize pickup on the market with an MSRP starting below $20,000. That’s a bargain for a new pickup truck, but the price makes sense considering its antiquated design that's been mostly unchanged since 2005. There’s no word yet on the price of the upcoming third-gen Frontier, but we expect a slight bump in MSRP to reflect the updated model.

Nissan does have a newer midsize pickup that it’s selling in different parts of the world including Europe, Mexico, and South America called the NP300 Navara. The Navara was introduced in 2014 and it’s since been rebadged as the Renault Alaskan and is the basis for the Mercedes-Benz X-Class. This Nissan is powered by the same aging QR25DE 2.5-liter inline-four engine as the current Frontier along with three different diesel options.

There are currently no signs showing that our third-gen Frontier will be based on the Navara, but that’s our best guess so far. We hope that’s the case because that means we might even get the X-Class in the States.