Nissan announced plans to
build an all-new Frontier back in 2017, but the company hasn’t said much about
the redesigned pickup since then. However, new details are starting to emerge
as several dealers, who have seen the truck. The 2021 Frontier will be “much more masculine and Titan-esque” than
the current model which was introduced at the 2004 North American International
Auto Show. This isn’t too surprising and neither is the mention about the
possible death of the King Cab (Extended Cab) variant.
While Extended Cab pickups
used to common, Crew Cabs have exploded in popularity. In fact, it was Nissan
who helped to popular this trend as the Frontier was the first compact pickup
to feature four full-sized doors. Since then, a handful of trucks have gone
Crew Cab only including the Jeep Gladiator and Honda Ridgeline.
The similarities to the Titan
could be more than skin deep as the publication says some of their sources
suggested the Frontier will ride on a shortened version of the Titan’s
platform. However, that should be taken with a grain of salt as previous
reports have suggested the truck will instead ride on an updated version on its
current architecture. Regardless of which platform the truck rides on, Nissan
will finally ditch the Frontier’s ancient powertrain which consists of 2.5- and
4.0-liter engines as well as five-speed transmissions. Instead, the 2021 model
will reportedly get an all-new 3.8-liter V6 and a nine-speed automatic
transmission.
The new engine could produce
around 300 hp and will reportedly enable the truck to be more
fuel efficient than the current Frontier with a four-cylinder engine. If that’s
the case, expect the 2021 model to return more than 17 mpg city / 22 mpg
highway / 19 mpg combined. Nissan said the redesigned Frontier was “coming
soon” almost a year ago, but it appears the model was delayed. There’s no word
on what caused this, but the vehicle is still expected to debut sometime this
year and go on sale in February of 2021.
