The doors are, of course, the most notable feature on the Crew Cab. Full-sized trucks with four forward-hinged doors have been around for decades. And compact crew cabs have long been available in other countries. But they have just caught on in the U.S. this year.Unlike most compact SUVs (including the Nissan Pathfinder), the rear wheels are behind the back doors. Without the intrusion of the wheel well, the rear windows can be rolled all the way down. There are some tradeoffs in the Crew Cab design. The bed is about 20 inches shorter than the standard Frontier's. A Regular Cab has a bed volume of 45.7 cu. ft, where a Crew Cab has a volume of 33 cu. ft. and a bed length of just 4.7 feet. The short length is a problem if you use your truck for serious work. There is a solution for people who need more cargo room. Nissan offers an optional Bed Extender ($299), a tubular aluminum cage that mounts at the end of the cargo bed and flips out on top of the lowered tailgate. It increases bed length by 16.5 inches to about 6 feet. As a bonus, the Bed Extender forms a secure caged area when it's flipped over into the bed. It is fairly easy to remove if you need the entire bed area. It can also be mounted on all King Cabs and most Regular Cabs. It's a compromise, however, and not like having a full 6-foot bed. All Frontier Crew cabs are built on a heavy-duty four-wheel-drive Frontier chassis, as are the Desert Runners. This gives the 2WD the same rigidity, ride height and ground clearance as the 4-wheel drive pickup. This chassis is fitted with a double-wishbone front suspension with stabilizer bar and rear rigid axle with multi-leaf springs. Moving under the hood, the base twin-cam 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine is a nice powerplant rated at 143 horsepower and 154 foot-pounds of torque. It's a good, economical engine, and well suited in a 4X2 Regular Cab (EPA city/highway mileage of 22/26 mpg). It compares well against the 2.2-liter (120 horsepower and 140 foot-pounds of torque) GM puts in the Chevy S-10 and GMC Sonoma. For anything larger than a Regular Cab, the overhead-cam 3.3-liter V6 engine is a better choice. With 170 horsepower and 200 foot-pounds of torque, it a great engine for freeway and offroad driving. It's comparable to the 3.9-liter V6 (175 horsepower and 225 foot-pounds of torque) Dodge puts standard in the Dakota QuadCab.
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