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I've been casually looking at the Frontier over the past few months, but over this past weekend I decided to get a lot more serious about it. On Saturday I hit up my local dealer and checked out an SV w/ VTP and a Pro4x. Nothing against the SV, but it didn't get a lot of attention after the salesman opened up the Pro.
Took the Pro for a drive and liked everything about it. Even the wife commented on how much more comfortable it was that my Tacoma. Didn't talk numbers with the salesman since I told him I needed to go home and hash out which trans would suit me best first. Here are the factors that I need to consider while making that determination.
1. I have no problems driving a stick...and actually prefer it.
2. My daily commute is 70 miles (75% highway, 25% somewhat city with heavy traffic at times) and the Frontier will be my only vehicle. My research has led me to believe that I should expect 18 or 19 mpg highway from an auto, 20 or more from the 6-speed.
3. I have an 18' boat (3000 lbs.) that I tow and will most likely step up to something in the 22' range (5000+ lbs.) in a year or two. It's about 15 miles to the ramp and I would be pulling it there and back up probably an average of once a week throughout the year.
4. My driveway is about 75' long and I do back the boat in. There is a slight incline down by the street, but nothing too serious. I've read that reverse in the 6-speed is tall and that results in about 5 mph at idle in reverse...a little fast for my liking if you let the clutch fully engage. Backing up to a ramp shouldn't be bad as most I use slope down towards the water so I could let gravity do the work for me.
5. The auto would add $1000 to the purchase price, cost me about $200 more a year in gas and would hopefully give me 200,000 miles of trouble free service. Going with the clutch would save money initially and save money every month, but I suspect I would end up putting that savings into a clutch at some point. The long term cost difference is probably negligible.
I know there is no right or wrong answer here, just looking to get some opinions. I'm really torn. My sensible side says go auto, my other side says get the manual. Thoughts?
Thanks.
Brian
Took the Pro for a drive and liked everything about it. Even the wife commented on how much more comfortable it was that my Tacoma. Didn't talk numbers with the salesman since I told him I needed to go home and hash out which trans would suit me best first. Here are the factors that I need to consider while making that determination.
1. I have no problems driving a stick...and actually prefer it.
2. My daily commute is 70 miles (75% highway, 25% somewhat city with heavy traffic at times) and the Frontier will be my only vehicle. My research has led me to believe that I should expect 18 or 19 mpg highway from an auto, 20 or more from the 6-speed.
3. I have an 18' boat (3000 lbs.) that I tow and will most likely step up to something in the 22' range (5000+ lbs.) in a year or two. It's about 15 miles to the ramp and I would be pulling it there and back up probably an average of once a week throughout the year.
4. My driveway is about 75' long and I do back the boat in. There is a slight incline down by the street, but nothing too serious. I've read that reverse in the 6-speed is tall and that results in about 5 mph at idle in reverse...a little fast for my liking if you let the clutch fully engage. Backing up to a ramp shouldn't be bad as most I use slope down towards the water so I could let gravity do the work for me.
5. The auto would add $1000 to the purchase price, cost me about $200 more a year in gas and would hopefully give me 200,000 miles of trouble free service. Going with the clutch would save money initially and save money every month, but I suspect I would end up putting that savings into a clutch at some point. The long term cost difference is probably negligible.
I know there is no right or wrong answer here, just looking to get some opinions. I'm really torn. My sensible side says go auto, my other side says get the manual. Thoughts?
Thanks.
Brian
