I recently had the chance to drive the 2026 Nissan Frontier in Pro-4X trim. If you’re not familiar, that’s basically targeted directly at Toyota’s TRD Off-Road trim. And on spec, the trucks are mighty close. Both have over nine inches of ground clearance, and the most popular trim for each is a two-row cabin with a five-foot bed.
But if you eyeball the market, Toyota absolutely dominates with the Tacoma. Add in the car-based Maverick, and you could kinda squint and say Ford trails Tacoma sales by a two-to-one margin. Pair up the Maverick and the Ranger together and? The Tacoma, all by itself, still comes out ahead by 20 percent. And Nissan? Well, like everyone else, they’re way off the back. Toyota sells four Tacomas for every Frontier. So why argue against the all-world-beating Taco? Because: Money. It costs less to get an eerily similar truck from Nissan, and also, because some of Nissan’s specs might be more to your liking.
- Base Trim Engine
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3.8L VQ V6 ICE
- Base Trim Transmission
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9-speed automatic
- Base Trim Drivetrain
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Rear-Wheel Drive
- Base Trim Horsepower
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310 HP @6400 RPM
- Base Trim Torque
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281 lb.-ft. @ 4400 RPM
- Base Trim Fuel Economy (city/highway/combined)
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18/24/21 MPG
- Make
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Nissan
- Model
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Frontier
- Segment
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Midsize Pickup Truck
I Could Have Had A V-6!
The first factor in any buying process has to be what’s under the hood. And the deal is that unless you’re willing to spend $47,035, you cannot have your ‘Yoda with off-road goodies that come with the TRD package and Toyota’s powerful i-Force MAX hybrid engine. For the record, that powerplant boasts 326 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque. Meanwhile, pitting the $41,870 Pro-4X Frontier vs. the $44,115 TRD Off-Road Double Cab is a more honest food fight. At that tier, Toyota gives the Tacoma a far less potent 2.4-liter four, with 278 horses and 317 pound-feet of torque. And the Nissan? It features a 3.8-liter V-6, and its grunt is a somewhat more worthy 310 horsepower, even if torque actually trails the Toyota four-cylinder’s at 281 pound-feet.
Loafing vs. Revving
The truth is that neither engine makes its mustard until way up above 6,000 RPM, but the V-6, because it’s naturally aspirated, is simply smoother at mid-range power delivery. Yes, Toyota’s turbocharged 2.4-liter is actually quick-witted, but there’s still a beat of delay to get that engine to spool. This lets the Nissan loaf more, rather than dig for propulsion.
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Off-Road “Enough”
Both the TRD Off-Road and Pro-4X Nissan offer, respectively, 9.6 vs. 9.3 inches of ground clearance. I got to test the Nissan in two feet of unpacked snow, up an unpaved forest highway. The Frontier barely broke a sweat. About a year ago, I took a non-lifted Frontier SV with less than eight inches of ground clearance on some truly gnarly desert terrain. That meant for some very nervous skittering down barely-there desert two-track—but the Frontier handled water crossings, mud, and sand without any drama. Okay, I scraped a bit of axle and had lots of engagement of four-wheel low range, but the TLDR is that if you have a dedicated 4WL-range and decent torque, driving off-pavement is more about technique than extraordinary capability.
Multiple Off-Roading Modes
The big deal with the Pro-4X trim is that you get a rear locking diff, Bilstein off-road shocks, and terrain modes for sand, rock, mud and on-road. The only function I found especially necessary in deep snow was hill-descent control, which allows you to set a default speed and the truck takes over by activating ABS and throttle so you just steer through the muck. It’s especially handy for off-roading on really steep descents, and in this case, it eliminated any “pucker” factor crawling down a decline that was covered in pretty slick snow and ice. Nissan also equips the Pro-4X with off-road tires on 17-inch wheels and protects the mechanical jewelry with skid plating for the oil pan, fuel tank, and transfer case.
No-Cost Options That Cost More From Toyota
Toyota charges extra for heated front seats at this tier. Nissan includes them, gratis. Nissan also includes a heated steering wheel, which you can only get in the Tacoma as part of a $9,220 package. Let’s be fair: that package is pretty much a kitchen sink upgrade. However, even dual-zone climate control isn’t standard on the TRD Off-Road truck, and this is also standard on the Nissan. The Frontier also has standard power front seats for both front passengers, and again, Toyota makes you opt up to get these goodies.
Easy To Love Character
Part of why I argue that Tacoma buyers should test out the Nissan, too, is that it’s just a very livable, comfortable truck. The seating position suited me, a shorter driver, as well as friends who are well over six feet tall. Plus, the ride quality is great. It’s not as plush as what you get in the Maverick, which lives on a car-based chassis, or Honda’s likewise unibody Ridgeline, but compared to trucks like the GMC Canyon, the ride is decidedly more precise on pavement.
How Much Capability—And For What?
Ah, yes, that’s the rub, right? The more capability you want off-road, the more that detracts from the placidity and, to be clear, acuity on pavement. Lane changes and other quick inputs with giant knobby tires are just going to be harder to achieve when the gist of a setup is built for a huge amount of suspension articulation at under 5 miles per hour. So, as always, this comes down to compromises. What are you really doing with your truck, how often do you venture off the tarmac, and just how brawny do you need your daily driver rig to be?
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Towing Costs Less
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the reason you’re purchasing a truck at all is that you need to tow a boat or some side-by-sides every so often. In that case, the Maverick probably comes up short. That Ford truck-let’s maximum towing capacity tops out at 4,000 pounds; the Frontier’s is 6,880, which also bests the 6,500 pounds the Tacoma offers. You can do even better with the Ford Ranger, which tops out at 7,500 pounds of towing capacity, but to do that, you need Ford’s V-6 and their towing package, and that bumps you over $50,000, again making the Nissan feel like a steal.
Go Bigger?
Let’s say you still want the lifted brawn that Toyota, Ford, and GMC offer—but don’t want to roam into $60,000 territory. Nissan’s got you with their Roush R package. This biggest-bang-for-buck upfit runs $47,960—well below the $59,395 of GMC’s AT4X AEV Edition. Okay, the Nissan “only” offers 11.3 inches of ground clearance to the GMC’s 12.2 inches, but Nissan’s addition of Öhlins suspension with remote reservoirs, revised front upper control arms, 17-inch titanium wheels, A/T rubber and R badging, plus some mild interior accents costs a mere $5,000 extra, vs. north of $17,000 to get all of GMC’s goodies. On the Nissan, you could turn to the aftermarket for that lift kit. But going the Roush route means you retain the integrity of Nissan’s warranty while adding something close to the capability of that GMC or Toyota’s $63,000 Tacoma Trailhunter.
TopSpeed’s Take
So if the Frontier offers a much better value, why does the Tacoma outsell it by a factor of 4 to 1? Simple: It retains awesome resale value. Definitely hit that link for a deeper dive on why. But if you just want the gist, know that CarEdge’s Best Resale Value Ranking gives the Tacoma one of the highest indexes of any vehicle over five years, with the ‘Taco holding 78.4 percent of its original value. But if there’s a silver (or dollar) lining, it’s that the Frontier’s 63.3 percent isn’t awful. That’s well above the 45-to-50 percent mark of the industry average, according to both CarEdge and Nerdwallet.
The Frontier V-6—On A Discount
Flip this math around, and there are a few ways to consider why the Frontier still makes sense. If you get the Pro-4X, it’s costing you less than alternatives, and if you’re paying a loan over 72 months, financing a $60,000 truck vs. one at $44,000 is going to wipe out any ROI on the higher-original-value Toyota. But if you want an even cheaper route, consider a just-off-lease Taco, GMC, or Frontier. In that case, someone else took the depreciation hit for you. And on the Nissan, since the Frontier received its last major update in 2022, you could still get the V-6 while stepping into a pretty new, baller ride that rocks—and doesn’t bust your wallet.
Sources: Nissan, Toyota, CarEdge