You can pretty much find a “dupe” alternative for everything in life. Can’t afford MAC lipstick? There’s a Revlon dupe for that. A desk from West Elm out of your price range? There’s a Target Project 62 dupe for that, too. But what if you could find a dupe for your favorite mid-size pickup?
Check out why you should buy a Suzuki Equator instead of a Nissan
Frontier, and your wallet will thank you. Suzuki and Nissan working together
In a last-ditch effort to succeed in the American market, Suzuki—known for its unremarkable small cars—added a pickup truck. The plan was to market the new utility vehicle toward construction companies and the like.
However, the mission was more difficult than they expected. According to Autotrader
, “They called up Nissan and asked if they could slap a Suzuki badge on the midsize Nissan Frontier pickup. And so the Suzuki Equator was born.” Instead of a Nissan logo, the car was branded with a large S. This agreement lasted from 2009 to 2012, “with mostly the same model range as the Frontier, including an extended cab, a crew cab and a choice between 4-cylinder and V6 engines,” according to Autotrader. Suzuki offered two trim levels: the base Equator and the more advanced Equator RMZ equipped with a navigation system.
According to MotorBiscuit
, “One of the main reasons for the cross-sharing, though, was that Suzuki thought that their strong and loyal motorcycle fan base would need something to haul their Suzuki motorcycles and other toys in.” And Suzuki thought the truck they offered their clientele should be of the same brand. Are they really the exact same car?
Almost! The headlights on the Suzuki Equator were rounded, and the front grille was bolder and incorporated a different type of sheet metal. You could get the pickup with a long or short bed configuration and as far as engines, you had plenty of options.
Suzuki offered a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine that pumped out 152 hp and 171 lb-ft of torque. If that wasn’t strong enough, drivers could opt for a 4-liter naturally aspirated V6 engine with 261 hp and 281 lb-ft of torque.
Two- and four-wheel-drive was also available. As well as an optional five-speed manual or automatic transmission. The Equators have even been known to be pretty capable machines in the off-roading scene.
The inside is where the two cars are almost identical. The interior featured cloth seats, hard plastics, and the recognizable orange lighting. Suzuki also carried over many of the Frontier functional cubbies as well as its two-tiered glove box.
But if you had your heart set on leather seats, you’d have to get a Nissan Frontier for that.
According to MotorBiscuit, “The rest of the truck’s interior was erred on the side of being utilitarian, as an AM/FM/CD radio deck, along with some hard buttons and dials for the HVAC controls, were front and center.” This is no luxury car with a state-of-the-art infotainment system.
The value of a Suzuki Equator: then and now
The Suzuki Equator had a starting price tag of $17,000 and shockingly hasn’t lost too much of its value since its release.
Surprisingly, the Equator was sold for about the same amount as the Nissan Frontier. But “the Suzuki did carry a longer 7-year/100,000-mile warranty, which was two years and 40,000 miles longer than the Nissan,” according to MotorBiscuit.
Unfortunately, not too many of the Equators were sold. According to MotorBiscuit, “Suzuki was projecting, and hoping, that they would sell around 20,000 Equators every year. But in reality, Suzuki only sold about 2,000 units per year until production ended when the brand’s U.S. car sales dissolved in 2012.”
There are some available on the used market if you’re lucky enough to find one (it’s much easier to locate a Nissan Frontier).
You can expect to see used Equators for anywhere between $8,000 to $14,000 online. According to HotCars, “The Equator’s stood the test of time better than almost any other vehicle in history when it comes to depreciation.”
And since most people don’t know Nissan Equators exist, chances are you’ll get a pretty good deal.
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