2009 Nissan Frontier

One of the Nissan Frontier's main downfalls is safety. Unlike the Toyota Tacoma, which aces every crash and rollover test, the Frontier falters. It lags behind the Tacoma in government front-crash and rollover tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it earns a rating of "poor" in rear-impact crash tests at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's side-impact crash test, which simulates a pickup truck or SUV hitting the Frontier at 31 mph, the compact Nissan pickup does only a "marginal" job protecting its crash-dummy occupants when the vehicle is not equipped with optional side airbags. For the driver, "rib fractures and/or internal organ injuries would be likely in a crash of this severity," IIHS finds.

Performance-wise, experts say the Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma are comparable. Both offer hefty maximum towing (6,500 pounds) and payload limits (just under 1,600 pounds) for their size and a capable off-road package. In PickupTrucks.com's off-road test -- which includes the Frontier, the Tacoma and the Hummer H3T (*Est. $30,750) -- the Nissan Frontier has difficulty climbing one hill, and it rides more roughly on the freeway than the Tacoma. But it's the steadiest on a washboard road, and reviewer Dan Sanchez finds the Frontier "sturdier and firmer on the trail than the Toyota Tacoma…The most impressive truck we tested for the money."

Cab styles, options, fuel economy

The Nissan Frontier offers no regular cab. The extended Frontier King Cab has a 6-foot bed, small back doors hinged at the rear and seats four, although testers say the forward-facing flip-up rear seats are human-adequate only in a pinch. The Nissan Frontier Crew Cab comes with either a 5- or 6-foot bed and room for five, with normal back doors and a 60/40 split fold-up rear bench. Interestingly, the Frontier's crew backseat is more spacious than the Tacoma's on every measure except for shoulder room, but testers are more likely to say the Frontier's backseat feels tight.

As with most pickups, the Nissan Frontier's fuel economy depends on how you configure it. With the base 152-horsepower, 2.5-liter, four-cylinder engine, five-speed manual transmission and rear-wheel drive, expect 21 mpg in mixed driving (19 mpg city and 23 mpg highway). That's one mpg less overall than the best Toyota Tacoma.

You can add a better-accelerating 261-horsepower, 4.0-liter V-6, a five-speed automatic transmission and/or four-wheel drive. Combine all of these and you'll get the Frontier's worst fuel-economy rating: 16 mpg overall (15 mpg city and 19 mpg highway). The V-6 is also available with a six-speed manual transmission.

The rear-wheel-drive, four-cylinder King Cab starts with the stripped-down Nissan Frontier XE (*Est. $17,460) and the step-up Frontier SE (*Est. $19,560), which adds basic features such as air conditioning and a stereo as standard equipment. If you want a V-6, four-wheel drive or choice of cab style, you'll have to start with the Nissan Frontier SE V-6 (*Est. $20,360 to $22,210). The Frontier LE (*Est. $24,840 to $29,740) adds some amenities like a spray-on bedliner, but others (including electronic stability control) are bundled into pricey option packages. The Frontier PRO-4X (*Est. $24,930 to $28,980) comes with a locking rear differential, hill ascent and descent control and more, but four-wheel drive costs $1,650 extra.

While the Nissan Frontier gets good reliability ratings in one top owner survey, J.D. Power and Associates' latest dependability survey ranks it at the bottom of the small-pickup pack. Nissan offers a three-year, 36,000-mile basic warranty and five-year, 60,000-mile powertrain warranty on the Frontier.

Edmunds.com, ConsumerReports.org and ConsumerGuide.com cover almost every aspect of the Nissan Frontier in their full reviews, and these sites also discuss how the Frontier stacks up against competitors. PickupTrucks.com concentrates on just one aspect of the Frontier and its rivals -- off-road ability -- but it covers that aspect very thoroughly. We found crash-test ratings at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and IIHS, fuel-economy estimates at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and reliability scores at J.D. Power and Associates; all of these sites helpfully rate the Frontier against other small pickups.