What I Was Looking For.
It took about 6 months after making the decision to change vehicles before I sold my 1995 Lexus SC300 at my asking price, and it finally happened in August of 2014. With the car gone, I pretty much knew what was next; After researching models, options, dealer stock in my area, and thoroughly debating between the SV and Pro-4X, I decided on the Nissan Frontier Crew Cab 4×4 SV with the Value Truck Package, which had a lot of stuff that was not standard on the Pro-4X (unlike the later model years) – plus the Pro-4X had a lot of stuff that I’d probably swap out someday (OEM Bilsteins, wheels, etc.)
Since it was year-end clearance time, the challenge was to find a truck on a dealer lot in Night Armor with a short bed and VTP. That’s exactly what I wanted, nothing more and nothing less. Lucky for me I found one in the exact spec I wanted about 30 minutes away at Metro Nissan in Montclair, CA. It took 3 visits all week and a lot of hard-nose negotiating to get the type of deal and payments I wanted, and they finally gave in after the third night of seeing me there.