I felt that way with my coolant flush and oil change less than 500 miles before the engine failed at 50k miles. Could have saved me some money if I was not to good about the maintenance intervals lol. At least I was still under Ford's power train warranty.
For the price difference I'd go with the new motor. At a 30 mile start the miles will rack up fast. I'm mean in another 30k you'll be at 60 k
Unfortunately, they all have issues. If you want a mid-sized truck, I guess the options are Ford, GM, Toyota, Jeep and Nissan. Are any of them actually better? In the past, it would have been a good bet to say Toyota and Nissan would have been more reliable. I think the statistics are showing those days are over. I guess you could jump to Jeep or Nissan to get away from the turbo, but both are on the verge of bankruptcy. Good luck!
Nissan has had no problems keeping the reliability thing(assuming we are not talking about the CVT). The Frontier has been proven for years and the current body doesn't have the issues that other Manufacturers are seeing(aka shit Transmissions and Engines). Also when you look at the new truck market, the Frontier is the only one on the Market that has decided to keep things as basic as possible while adding some of the luxurious items. Keeping things on the basic side is how you keep things reliable.
The last time I checked, the Nissan Frontier sales were down significantly this year. So, you could probably get a good deal on one. The real issue with the Frontier is not the truck, but rather the company. They are in a big financial trouble and who knows what will happen to them. They probably should have taken the offer from Honda.
