Instead of reinventing the pickup truck, Suzuki teamed with Nissan to update the Frontier. The result is the Suzuki Equator, which has a fresh front-end appearance, six standard airbags, a more comprehensive warranty, and a different (read: cheaper though not yet finalized) price.
The husky midsize Equator's chassis and powertrain are identical to the Nissan Frontier's, which in turn shares lots of equipment with the full-size Nissan Titan. The notable exception is a V-8 engine. Maximum power in the Equator comes from a 261-hp 4.0-liter V-6 teamed with a standard five-speed automatic, a combo that's tow rated for 6,300 pounds with two-wheel drive. To test this rating, I hitched up a 20' Triton bass boat -- powered by a Suzuki DF 250 outboard, naturally -- and headed north out of San Antonio, Texas.
My first observation was that the 4.0-liter V-6 works hard but had no difficulty hustling our 3,230-pound payload through traffic and up hills. Although it's more frenetic than a V-8, it's also less thirsty. Our pump stops yielded an average 11 mpg, which is not great, but a mile or two better than a big engine can do.
Unfortunately, the Equator inherited a mushy-feeling brake pedal from the Frontier, but I experienced no difficulty during emergency stopping tests from lazy or overheated brakes. Any stop from 60 mph in less than 200' indicates strong performance.
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