Dogs Love Trucks!
1999 Nissan Frontier XE
Engine: Fuel-injected 2.4 liter 16-valve DOHC inline-4 hemi
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Totalled by a drunk: 2002
I always said I'd never buy a brand-new vehicle, but here it is.
After the Hyundai broke down on the freeway at 10:00 pm in the rain, 60 miles from home, and then a week later snapped its second clutch cable in as many months, I decided that I'd had it. As I told the saleman at the Nissan dealership, "I need a toy truck to haul the engine from my real truck."
It's almost poetic that my first new car is a thirty-years-later version of my very first car.
The Frontier is a nice little truck: It was an advertising loss-leader for the dealer, so I got it for about $1600 below invoice. Not bad considering it came with air-conditioning, a bed liner, and even a rear bumper. Best of all, I unloaded the Hyundai! (Good thing they didn't notice the puddle of 90-WT underneath it.)
I doubt that I'll ever do any serious work on the Frontier: It's got more onboard electronics than the
first Gemini capsule... even the odometer is an LCD. I just hope the thing's Y2K compliant!
Airbag Test
This is what happens when a drunk driver hits you head-on with a closing velocity of 80 mph. I credit the airbag with preventing me from being killed or more severely injured.