The million mile Nissan Frontier (Navara)

A million mile - or 1.6 million kilometers -, which is the equivalent of two roundtrips to the Moon, is a hell of a distance which not too many vehicles are able to even come close without the need of an engine rebuild - or more - due to the fact that when it comes to a such high millage an extreme usage is occurring in the engine and if we're not talking about a properly designed and maintained one than it just won't be able operate to do this task.


In this case the high millage hero is a 2007 Nissan Frontier pickup truck - which in the European region is knows as the Navara - powered by a 2.5 L, 4 cylinder petrol engine and a manual gearbox in a King Cab configuration which was the workhorse of Brian Murphy, an independent delivery driver, who bough the in question vehicle newly from M'Lady Nissan dealership in Crystal Lake, Illinois. The mentioned pickup truck after reaching the million mile figure was sent back to the Nissan Smyrna Vehicle Assembly Plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, where it was once built, and since than it's exposed in the lobby, proudly showing the capability of this in between 2004 and 2020 produced model. We're able to find out some details about the reliability issues - if we can call that - of this nearly forever lasting Nissan such as a replaced original clutch at 1289084 km (801000 miles), a preventative timing chain replacement at 1126540 km (700000 miles) and a radiator and alternator swap at 724204 km (450000 miles). The original driver seat lasted for 804672 km (500000 km) while the most important fact is that the engine was never rebuilt or never been a part of some major work.


The 62 years old ex-owner of the million mile Frontier received a 2020 King Cab of the same model in which he put a seven digit millage however we can find some major differences. The powertrain is now a 3.8 L V6 engine, producing not less than 310 HP, the stick was replaced via a 9 speed automatic while instead of an entry level model, lacking such features as power windows and even a power locks just like in case of the old model now we're talking about an 4x4 SV trim including a 7 inch touchscreen, Apple Carplay and numerous other goodies.