Sweetums
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I'm new to the forum and currently looking for a JT to replace my 17 year old 204,000+ mile Nissan Xterra. I thought I might share my assessment of the Midsize truck segment and why I've decided to buy a JT.
The competitors:
Honda Ridgeline: I mean, it's a Honda. It also has best-in-class payload and good towing; unfortunately, it's lightly built and not intended for anything harder than a gravel road, so it's out. I never drove this because it was never in the running.
Ford Ranger FX4: I have a friend with a Ranger, the interior is decent on the surface and it's comfortable. The engine pulls hard and the transmission is fine. I'm not a fan of turbos since I tend to keep my vehicles for a long time and a lot of miles, it's an extra point of failure. I would prefer an understressed NA motor than a high compression small displacement motor being pushed to the limit all the time. I also have concerns about the transmission, having had problems with Ford transmissions in the past. Both the engine and transmission have been having reliability issues. I'm also not convinced the interior is going to hold up to abuse as well as my old Nissan, which after nearly 20 years of hard off road abuse and countless miles of washboard roads still is free of squeaks and rattles. Our Taurus was already rattling inside with a quarter of those miles on smooth pavement.
Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro: There are some actual problems with the Toyota, but the biggest issue is I physically don't fit in the driver's seat. Well, I can, but not comfortably and not for very long. It also has a miserable payload of only 900 lb and the frame is flexy as hell and riveted rather than welded together. It is available with a manual transmission, which is a big plus. Worst seating position in the class for me. Comes from the factory with a rear locker. Seating position aside, my main issues with the Toyota are the chassis. The back half of the truck is c-channel rather than being fully boxed like every other truck on the market; the Tacoma has notable frame flex (you can actually see it if you fully articulate the truck). I think this will be a problem down the road because the back end of the frame is riveted to the front boxed section. This will allow for play, but if (when) the sealant they goop on there breaks down, water, salt, and dirt will get in and start sanding that joint to bare metal. That will mean frame rust and eventual failure.
Nissan Frontier Pro-4X: The new Nissan Frontier has the looks. I mean, dayum it's a good looking truck. It also has the most power in the class at 310 bhp; unfortunately that sweetheart of an engine is mated to a disappointing 9-speed automatic that never seems to know where it wants to be. The manu-matic mode is more of a suggestion to the transmission that it might please consider, when convenient, swapping some cogs around. The infotainment is also frustrating and not intuitive. I've been pretty opposed to screens in my vehicles, preferring physical switches - but if I have to interact with a screen I don't want it to be infuriating. No manual option on the transmission, unfortunately. Seating position was comfortable and the seats were above average - but Nissan removed some of the height adjustment on the driver's seat, I had less thigh support than my current Nissan. Rear locker is standard. The interior quality also seems lacking, Nissan is having financial problems and I can feel it when using switches and buttons, they felt cheaper and less solid than my Xterra. They also use those printed switches where the black wears off after 30,000 miles and starts to show the base translucent white underneath.
Chevrolet Colorado ZR2: Best ride in the class, hands down. The chassis is solid, the power is there and it will easily spin the rear on dry pavement if you aren't careful with the throttle. The engine, however, is notorious for timing chain tensioner and guide issues (usually $3,000+ to repair and the problem will come back), the fancy-ass shocks are proprietary and connected to the computer, so who knows what a shock rebuild or replacement would cost and the interior quality is what I would have expected in the 1990s. The 50k truck we tried out already had switches with notable wear through the markings to the white plastic below. The back seat is nearly unusable for a human with my seat in the right position and the seating position was not comfortable. No manual, but dual lockers.
Jeep Gladiator Rubicon: Comfortable seating position and excellent seats, but the dash feels closer and higher than other trucks. The rear seat could actually fit a second Sasquatch with my driver's seat set where I liked it. The engine delivered adequate power, the Butt Dyno says it had more power than my Xterra - and it does by about 15 BHP; not a road-burner, but no slouch either. The Jeep interior was the best of the contenders with superior fit and finish (that may be a brand new sentence). All the switchgear felt solid without any wobbles, the wheel was meaty and felt very nice to hold - pretty much every "interface point" was better than the competition. The Infotainment system, a consistent sore-spot in the reviews, was intuitive, easy to navigate, and had great functionality for off road use. The Rubicon has locking front and rear diffs, and a front swaybar remote-disconnect. The ride was surprisingly good, but I can see the complaints of it being sprung too soft for load carrying and towing. Also, it's long. Like really long. Nearly full-size truck levels of "long" here and still with a 5" bed. On the up side, you can get one in a manual, although they are hard to find. Finally, the cost. Holy shit on a stick, the Gladiator is expensive - $60,000+ for a midsize truck! But hey, you can take the roof and doors off.
Why the Gladiator?
The smart money should be on the Frontier, but I got into it and felt very "meh" - just an overwhelming sense of "sameness" despite it being a new truck. The transmission just killed it for me. I hated it, even my wife in the passenger seat hated it and she got frustrated with navigating the screen almost immediately.
The Jeep is not without flaws, the long wheelbase and overall length are detriments, but I really liked being in it. I liked looking at it. Say what you will about Jeep, they know how to make emotional and fun cars. The Jeep's 8-speed automatic was the best of the ones I drove and it's a common transmission used in a ton of vehicles; but it also has a 6-speed manual option. Although the manual is maligned in the press for being a bad fit with the Pentastar 3.6, I just didn't get that impression. Maybe it's the 4.10 diff gearing in the Rubicon that made the difference, but the shifting was light, quick, and felt very nice once I got used to not having the X-terra's heavy clutch underfoot.
The Pentastar 3.6 has been criticized for cracked heads, roller bearing failures, and cooling issues. You can also wreck the oil filter housing if you're a ham-fisted ape with the socket wrench. The engine's failure rate is actually quite low, 0.5% to 1% at the peak of the cylinder head crack issues - but when you have made over 10 million of those engines, that 0.5% ends up being a higher number. From what I've read, the engine has had several revisions and retrofit roller bearings have been available for some time - which of course were also used in production to address the problem. The cracking heads doesn't seem to be an issue in later-production engines either.
The comfort, interior quality, overall design, and the emotional X-factor sold me on the Gladiator. It's a truck that feels fun above all else.
Hopefully I can post soon with a new-to-me JT Rubicon.
The competitors:
Honda Ridgeline: I mean, it's a Honda. It also has best-in-class payload and good towing; unfortunately, it's lightly built and not intended for anything harder than a gravel road, so it's out. I never drove this because it was never in the running.
Ford Ranger FX4: I have a friend with a Ranger, the interior is decent on the surface and it's comfortable. The engine pulls hard and the transmission is fine. I'm not a fan of turbos since I tend to keep my vehicles for a long time and a lot of miles, it's an extra point of failure. I would prefer an understressed NA motor than a high compression small displacement motor being pushed to the limit all the time. I also have concerns about the transmission, having had problems with Ford transmissions in the past. Both the engine and transmission have been having reliability issues. I'm also not convinced the interior is going to hold up to abuse as well as my old Nissan, which after nearly 20 years of hard off road abuse and countless miles of washboard roads still is free of squeaks and rattles. Our Taurus was already rattling inside with a quarter of those miles on smooth pavement.
Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro: There are some actual problems with the Toyota, but the biggest issue is I physically don't fit in the driver's seat. Well, I can, but not comfortably and not for very long. It also has a miserable payload of only 900 lb and the frame is flexy as hell and riveted rather than welded together. It is available with a manual transmission, which is a big plus. Worst seating position in the class for me. Comes from the factory with a rear locker. Seating position aside, my main issues with the Toyota are the chassis. The back half of the truck is c-channel rather than being fully boxed like every other truck on the market; the Tacoma has notable frame flex (you can actually see it if you fully articulate the truck). I think this will be a problem down the road because the back end of the frame is riveted to the front boxed section. This will allow for play, but if (when) the sealant they goop on there breaks down, water, salt, and dirt will get in and start sanding that joint to bare metal. That will mean frame rust and eventual failure.
Nissan Frontier Pro-4X: The new Nissan Frontier has the looks. I mean, dayum it's a good looking truck. It also has the most power in the class at 310 bhp; unfortunately that sweetheart of an engine is mated to a disappointing 9-speed automatic that never seems to know where it wants to be. The manu-matic mode is more of a suggestion to the transmission that it might please consider, when convenient, swapping some cogs around. The infotainment is also frustrating and not intuitive. I've been pretty opposed to screens in my vehicles, preferring physical switches - but if I have to interact with a screen I don't want it to be infuriating. No manual option on the transmission, unfortunately. Seating position was comfortable and the seats were above average - but Nissan removed some of the height adjustment on the driver's seat, I had less thigh support than my current Nissan. Rear locker is standard. The interior quality also seems lacking, Nissan is having financial problems and I can feel it when using switches and buttons, they felt cheaper and less solid than my Xterra. They also use those printed switches where the black wears off after 30,000 miles and starts to show the base translucent white underneath.
Chevrolet Colorado ZR2: Best ride in the class, hands down. The chassis is solid, the power is there and it will easily spin the rear on dry pavement if you aren't careful with the throttle. The engine, however, is notorious for timing chain tensioner and guide issues (usually $3,000+ to repair and the problem will come back), the fancy-ass shocks are proprietary and connected to the computer, so who knows what a shock rebuild or replacement would cost and the interior quality is what I would have expected in the 1990s. The 50k truck we tried out already had switches with notable wear through the markings to the white plastic below. The back seat is nearly unusable for a human with my seat in the right position and the seating position was not comfortable. No manual, but dual lockers.
Jeep Gladiator Rubicon: Comfortable seating position and excellent seats, but the dash feels closer and higher than other trucks. The rear seat could actually fit a second Sasquatch with my driver's seat set where I liked it. The engine delivered adequate power, the Butt Dyno says it had more power than my Xterra - and it does by about 15 BHP; not a road-burner, but no slouch either. The Jeep interior was the best of the contenders with superior fit and finish (that may be a brand new sentence). All the switchgear felt solid without any wobbles, the wheel was meaty and felt very nice to hold - pretty much every "interface point" was better than the competition. The Infotainment system, a consistent sore-spot in the reviews, was intuitive, easy to navigate, and had great functionality for off road use. The Rubicon has locking front and rear diffs, and a front swaybar remote-disconnect. The ride was surprisingly good, but I can see the complaints of it being sprung too soft for load carrying and towing. Also, it's long. Like really long. Nearly full-size truck levels of "long" here and still with a 5" bed. On the up side, you can get one in a manual, although they are hard to find. Finally, the cost. Holy shit on a stick, the Gladiator is expensive - $60,000+ for a midsize truck! But hey, you can take the roof and doors off.
Why the Gladiator?
The smart money should be on the Frontier, but I got into it and felt very "meh" - just an overwhelming sense of "sameness" despite it being a new truck. The transmission just killed it for me. I hated it, even my wife in the passenger seat hated it and she got frustrated with navigating the screen almost immediately.
The Jeep is not without flaws, the long wheelbase and overall length are detriments, but I really liked being in it. I liked looking at it. Say what you will about Jeep, they know how to make emotional and fun cars. The Jeep's 8-speed automatic was the best of the ones I drove and it's a common transmission used in a ton of vehicles; but it also has a 6-speed manual option. Although the manual is maligned in the press for being a bad fit with the Pentastar 3.6, I just didn't get that impression. Maybe it's the 4.10 diff gearing in the Rubicon that made the difference, but the shifting was light, quick, and felt very nice once I got used to not having the X-terra's heavy clutch underfoot.
The Pentastar 3.6 has been criticized for cracked heads, roller bearing failures, and cooling issues. You can also wreck the oil filter housing if you're a ham-fisted ape with the socket wrench. The engine's failure rate is actually quite low, 0.5% to 1% at the peak of the cylinder head crack issues - but when you have made over 10 million of those engines, that 0.5% ends up being a higher number. From what I've read, the engine has had several revisions and retrofit roller bearings have been available for some time - which of course were also used in production to address the problem. The cracking heads doesn't seem to be an issue in later-production engines either.
The comfort, interior quality, overall design, and the emotional X-factor sold me on the Gladiator. It's a truck that feels fun above all else.
Hopefully I can post soon with a new-to-me JT Rubicon.
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