In the past year, the automotive industry has had considerable focus on full-size pickups. Toyota’s all-new Tundra, Ford’s Super Duty pickups and supercharged Harley Davidson F-150, and GM’s Silverado/Sierra have all but stolen the spotlight away from the smaller haulers that these manufacturers offer. We often forget about the Tacomas, Frontiers, Canyons, Colorados, and Rangers of the world, so it’s nice to be reminded about their presence every now and again.

We have just spent a week with Nissan’s offering in the baby pickup segment, a 2008 Frontier outfitted with the Nismo off-road package. Complete with a 261-horsepower V-6 engine and six-speed manual transmission, we’re happy to say that the Frontier left smiles on our faces.

Click through the jump for our driving impressions and click the images below to open a high-resolution gallery.

Chris Paukert:

Seeing our Frontier in its Nismo off-road finery reminded me again of how good looking this little truck is. With its aggressive fenders and raised white-letter tires, it’s easy to get caught up in Baja fantasies.

The interior should be familiar fare to Xterra owners, and that translates to acres of plastic and somewhat cheap-feeling switchgear. But there’s a rugged honesty at work here, and everything functions as intended. Inside and out, this is a true small truck… it isn’t trying to pass itself off as a lifestyle vehicle.

With so few genuine compact pickups left (and the ones that occupy the segment largely being ancient), it’s a wonder that the Frontier doesn’t hold down a bigger slice of the segment pie. The Ford Ranger (a truck which I once owned) and the Chevrolet Colorado are downright Jurassic by comparison. The Toyota Tacoma is still tops in my book, but this Frontier runs it surprisingly close.

It bears mentioning that our tester was pretty well loaded up. So much so, in fact, that the $27k asking price strikes as a bit scary in a day and age where local Ford dealers’ fire-sale advertisements are touting base full-size F-150s for little more than half that amount. Still, I’ve seen Tacomas and Rangers alike top that price, and this is hardly a stripped out commercial-duty special.

Kim Ewing:

The brakes are very soft and take some getting used to. On newly-paved wet roads, the back end of the Frontier is easy to put out, but quickly put back into control. Acceleration is quick and the drive is surprisingly car-like. The gearbox is fine, however, the throws are long. I guess that’s to be expected in a truck.

Phil Floraday:

I really like this truck. I own an ’85 Toyota pickup, yeah, that’s actually what they’re called, and I’d much rather have this truck than a new Tacoma. I like the looks of the Frontier better than the Taco. Size-wise, this truck is about perfect. It isn’t too wide to run two-tracks, but you can fit two adults in the front buckets without rubbing shoulders like I’m forced to do in my ’85.

All the off-road equipment in this truck justifies the $27k sticker. The electric rear locker is a great option and the clutch-start cancel switch is a good feature in an off-road rig. I certainly wouldn’t want to pay sticker price, but in a few years this would be a great find on the used market.

What would get me to pay asking price on a new Frontier? How about a little TDI engine? This is the perfect application of a four-cylinder turbodiesel. I’m sure it could approach 30 mpg on the highway, if not more, and provide even more low end torque. That’s what every truck owner wants. I’d buy one with a diesel in a heartbeat.

Okay, add some power to the brakes while you’re putting the diesel engine in it, too.

Steven Ewing:

I really didn’t think I was going to like the Frontier as much as I did. I spent a considerable amount of time in the late 1980s and early 1990s riding shotgun in a GMC S15 pickup, so I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the smaller trucks of the market.

I felt that the engine had adequate power but could maybe have used a small boost in low-end torque. Due to the manual transmission’s long shifts, initial acceleration was quickly diminished while moving the stick from first to second, but when gear number two was engaged, the Frontier eagerly sped up, and gear transitions through the remaining four gears were smooth. The clutch is really deep and the gearbox throws are really long, but I didn’t expect anything less from Nissan’s baby pickup.

Having spent time in Toyota’s Tacoma, I’m torn to choose between that or this new Frontier. $27K seems to be an appropriate price for a truck of this caliber, for I know that it could have handled just about anything I threw at it. For many years I have considered owning a small pickup, and the Frontier would definitely be highly considered if I were making a purchase decision. If I didn’t need a pickup for specific hauling, etc., I’d drive this over a Titan.

Chris Champion:

The Frontier was a great truck to spend time in, not because of promises of being cosseted in luxury, or thrown into the back of your seat, but because it worked as advertised. For me, it had a very “what you see, is what you get