Late in its life, the Frontier has received a heart transplant that should make it feel pretty spry. Nissan decided to equip the lame duck mid-size with a completely new engine and transmission. That powertrain will also make its way to the next generation Frontier when it arrives in 2021. Equipping an older vehicle with a powertrain meant for its successor isn’t exactly common. But automakers have done it from time to time.
Nissan Frontier enthusiasts should be thrilled with the new engine. Developed specifically for North America, the 3.8 liter V6 boasts 310 horsepower and 281 Ib-ft of torque. That’s a 49 horsepower upgrade from the retired 4.0 liter V6. Nissan says the engine contains 93 percent new parts. Paired with the new engine is the nine-speed automatic from the Titan. With a modern powertrain, the Frontier has reached parity with its toughest rivals, at least in one area. The new engine is now the most powerful gasoline powerplant in its class, although that isn’t as impressive as it sounds, because GM’s mid-size trucks offer a 308 horsepower 3.6 liter V6.
The update did come with some casualties though. In addition to cancelling the older V6, Nissan also excised the 2.5 liter four cylinder from the lineup. Nissan will no longer offer a manual transmission equipped Frontier either. Trim levels were also streamlined. Keep in mind that all these changes are only for one model year. The all-new Frontier is set to arrive in 2021. Nissan obviously wants to increase its marketshare in the mid-size segment, and adding a modern powertrain to the current model is a smart way to at least hold the line until the next generation Frontier arrives. That being said, the current generation still sells in respectable numbers. Since 2016, Nissan has sold at least 74,000 Frontiers per year, a pretty impressive figure given its advanced age.
Boosting an older product with a more modern powertrain isn’t unheard of, but doing it for one model year is a rare occurrence. Generally, older engines get retired when automakers cannot produce the economies of scale they enjoyed when they were new. For example, the 2012 Chevy Impala gained GM’s 3.6 liter V6 because the company cancelled the lower tech 3.5 liter and 3.9 liter V6 engines, which were equipped on a number cancelled models. Engines and transmission cannot be limited to a single vehicle unless it’s a very high volume product.
There are also polar opposite situations when automakers take away a modern powertrain from an older vehicle and saddle it with positively ancient tech. Since its debut in 2008, the Journey has come standard with a 173 horsepower 2.4 liter four cylinder mated to a four-speed automatic. The 2020 model will only offer that powertrain, because FCA dropped the 3.6 liter Pentastar from the lineup. Aside from its ample power, the 283 horsepower V6 also enabled the Journey to be equipped with all-wheel drive. From this point forward the roughly 3800 pound will be front-wheel drive only.
Comparing the Journey to the Frontier isn’t exactly a fair comparison though, because FCA has plenty of other crossovers it can offer customers. Nissan only has one mid-size pickup. And it needs the Frontier to be successful, as the Titan has largely failed to resonate with truck buyers. It’s a solid way to keep the truck in the game until next year. And it makes the 2020 model something of a collector’s item. Just make sure to keep this information in your head for at least twenty five years, when you can impress an a Frontier owner at a car show.
From Nissan’s perspective it makes sense to try the new powertrain out in the old body for a year rather than launch a brand-new truck with a brand-new engine and transmission. It’s basically a year-long beta test that isolates the variables and means that should the new motor fail to proceed for an owner the broken-down truck will look to passersby like it could be a freshly waxed ’04.
From a third or fourth owner’s POV, ten years from now, I wonder how many one-year-only parts this combination’ll need.
“I wonder how many one-year-only parts this combination’ll need.”
Other than the engine mounts and the air cleaner ducts, most everything else will carry forward to the new truck, so getting Service Parts shouldn’t be an issue.
However, I’m sure in the future techs will order parts for the older engine, then reorder when they don’t fit. Customers may end up waiting a day or more for the right parts to arrive.
This also may create a future demand for certain 2020 Frontier parts-
GM did the one year only drill with the ’87 C-10 (last year for the “Square Body”). They installed a TBI injected 5.7 V-8, which required a modified fuel tank and submerged electric fuel pump. Now anyone looking to LS swap their Square Body wants an ’87 tank, since the LS fuel pump basically drops in.
From a third or fourth owners point of view 10+ years down the road, coming from an owner of a third owner car that was 11 years old when I bought it, having a powertrain that is still in regular production is a boon for readily available maintenance items, replacement parts and even full engine replacements with low miles, and sometimes provides the ability to upgrade with newer parts if the opportunity presents itself.
In contrast, owning a 10+ year old car or truck with an engine that has been out of production for as many years often means limited parts selection at stores, backorders, waiting on deliveries, and in extreme cases, finding replacement salvage engines or parts that have twice the miles your bad one has.
This is vaguely what happened when the Frontier was first introduced. Back then they started with 1 body style, 1 engine, and a couple of trim levels.
I am curious about why FCA is discontinuing the V6 Journey. The V6 is used in some many other vehicles…it would seem to be more logical to discontinue the 4 cylinder. Is the Journey going away and this is how they use up the hoary old 4 cylinder?
I agree it seems odd to not do the opposite instead: homogenize around the mass market Pentastar. I had a rental Journey equipped as such (FWD), and honestly it wasn’t a bad car to drive for 8 hours out to Iowa and back. The only odd thing was the power steering randomly getting a case of groaning “morning sickness.” Only happened once, random air bubble in the system?
Wow, your comment made me realize that there are still new vehicles out there using hydraulic power steering.
As for the discontinuation of the Pentastar V6 in the Journey, perhaps it’s a production capacity constraint. That engine is offered in just about everything in FCA’s US-built lineup. Interestingly, when that engine was in development (under Daimler’s ownership) there was talk of offering it in a 4.0 liter version, which to my knowledge was never produced.
” perhaps it’s a production capacity constraint.”
+1
Nice, so Nissan is making their new owners test mules for the next redesign. I wonder how the spanking new tech will hold up and if they’ll offer a secret warranty for the inevitable defects that occur with a new engine. Remember the SE-R Sentra Spec V with the 2.5 Four? One defect that didn’t pop up for awhile was the butterfly valves in their dual runner intakes had screws that worked loose and caused engine damage. The fix is to use loctite on the screws…and Nissan didn’t do that. They also only covered certain years even thought earlier years had the same defect.
One rule of buying a new (or recently new) car is never buy the first year and sometimes not the second. I suspect this Frontier will quickly become a ‘not recommended’ in the Consumer Reports auto buyers guide.
I read an article yesterday about a man who put a million miles on his 2007 Frontier V6/4WD/Manual transmission pickup. He replaced the clutch at 801,000 miles and has needed no other transmission work. Nissan is rewarding him with a 2020 Frontier. At the time I was concerned that he’ll be seeing serious down time at in years two and four as his car eats CAFE bicycle transmissions, but maybe an engine built to suffer behind a V8 will last a while with a V6 in a lighter truck.
FWIW that million mile frontier had the 2.5L 4cyl
Good point. The article I read compared the 4.0 to the 3.8 while dancing around the topic of what engine Murphy’s 2007 truck has.
That Frontier had a 4 cylinder engine, and not the V6. There is a video on YouTube that details the truck.
Jeez, what a bunch of haters in the comments today. What are they supposed to do? If they leave the old engine and trans in there for even longer everybody complains that they never update the engine and it’s so outdated. Then they decide to put a new powertrain in this truck for its last year and people complain about that. Next year when the new body/chassis debuts it’ll be why would they update it, what was wrong with the fifteen year old one but the chorus for years now has been how could they possibly leave this ancient thing on the market…
As far as engines go, Nissan has had WAY more good engines than ones with issues. As far as transmissions go, some of the CVT applications have had less than sterling results, this isn’t one of those. And the one CVT from Nissan I had was treated to a massively extended warranty (to 120k miles) while we owned it in year three (’04 Murano). Yet everyone seems OK with Dodge Minivans seemingly still having (conventional) transmission problems…
My vote is if you don’t actually ever purchase new cars, then you don’t get to complain about what’s offered. If you do think the new engine is a mistake, then go buy a leftover 2019.
I purchase my cars new for cash and then keep them for so long that it is painless for me to buy another new car for cash. Direct injected engines and transmissions with a plethora of automatically deployed ratios are not compatible with my ownership pattern. if you are going to read other people’s opinions, they might not be the same as your own.
Sort of like when you publicly state your opinion, others may not have the same one? Got it.
I’ll complain all I want about what’s offered, because there is no longer a market for what I want to cast my vote as a consumer.
Otherwise I 100% agree. Unless the new engine is a complete basket case, which I think is unlikely given Nissan’s pretty solid V6 lineage, this will probably be the most sought after Frontier of the generation, not the most avoided.
Plus It’s bizarre to me the prevailing attitudes that a new engine in an older platform is something unheard of and even undesirable. Ford replaced the fathead with the Y block in the final year of the 52-54 body, and Buick replaced the nailhead in 1967 during the final year of that A body style to name a few. Countless less sexy things than engines start on late prior generations too, transmissions, brakes, differentials, gadgets, etc. I’m far more wary of the latest trend of constant software updates than mechanical changes for a model year.
More strange, the Y-block wasn’t available yet in Canada for 1954 Fords. Canadian Fords soldiered with the old flathead for one more year.
Whoa, a one year only drivetrain change!? I am kind of surprised Nissan did not do this for two model years instead. Forgive me for being a pessimist, but I worry about future headaches with the 2020 Frontier and would rather have a 2019.
Yeah, that’s why I don’t really get it. An outdated truck with an unproven engine seems like the worst of both worlds, especially when the next truck is only a year away. If it was for two years it would make more sense. Will be interesting to see how it works out for them. Who knows, maybe there’s a lot of people looking for something like it.
I can see a rolling change that would spread out the “new”. And I could see that focusing attention on an engine plant’s changeover now and other changeovers next year would eliminate many woes common to a new model.
About 2000 I looked at the Frontier when it was a bit smaller. I liked it then. But, I wanted a nice interior and that meant I had to get the V6 and it’s milage wasn’t that great. So I got a Silverado V8, which is about the size of the current Frontier. It wasn’t very reliable so maybe I should of gotten the Nissan. Anyway thanks for letting me rant a bit.
All the negative Nancy’s will be saying 5 years from now how desirable this Frontier with its clean lines, lighter weight and hot engine is.
I don’t see how it’s any more beta testing or unproven using it in this body than it would be debuting this engine in the “all new” generation. If there’s fault with it it’ll face the same accusation, but at least with the current generation the rest of it is proven.
I can just picture the Curbside Classic post from 2040:
“…and here we have one of the rare 2020 Frontiers, the best model year according to many Frontier collectors since it features the classic body style, but with the upgraded V-6 of the 2021-2035 models.”
For what it’s worth, the Frontier is by far my favorite current Nissan. Actually, it’s the only current Nissan that I like.
Here’s a million mile Frontier, timing chain replaced at 800k miles, 2.5 5 speed base truck, original engine/trans, one clutch.
I considered one of these in base trim with radio and AC, but would have paid the same as I would up paying for my new base ’04 Titan! Decided to keep Jetta for around town, and use Titan for longer trips.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D4Cc3AgIy4vw&ved=2ahUKEwiBwfGc2sLnAhVRPn0KHYfxCr8QjjgwAHoECAkQBA&usg=AOvVaw0IjDE3ApCDAFhaire8q8jl