The truck you see before you doesn’t exist. The idea for it certainly existed at some point, but it never got much further off the ground than that. It’s not generated by some artificial intelligence trained by scraping other people’s work, nor is it the work of one mad photochopper. The Nissan Frontier Open Sky was developed, shot, promoted, and reported on, but never actually made it to showrooms. Weird, right?
The Nissan Frontier Open Sky isn’t that radical, but it is a product of Nissan’s weird sunroof era. Remember the piggy bank Maxima, the “just put these skylights anywhere” Quest, and the truly massive glass apparatus found on the XTrail? You cats in America never got the last one, but trust me, it was great. Anyway, the idea was that Nissan would just cut a chunk out of the Frontier midsize pickup truck’s roof and bung in a Webasto-style affair. Think Jeep SkySlider, but less janky.
For one reason or another, the Frontier Open Sky was canned. Be it rumors of water leaks or rumors of compromised structural integrity, something caused Nissan to deem this huge sunroof not suitable for public consumption. It’s a shame because having a fixed roof is only really brilliant in race cars or vehicles you expect to track. Otherwise, give me a view of the moon on clear nights.
The absence of, um, existence makes the Frontier Open Sky feel a bit like the Pontiac G8 ST, except there seemed like an actual chance of it happening. Brochures were composed, press releases were issued, production was touted, and it even got a spot in Motor Trend. The magazine reported that this truck would be on sale in autumn of 2002 as a 2003 model, summing it up as, “This is hardly the greatest innovation in truck-building history, but you have to admit that it’s pretty cool for a manufacturer.” It’s pretty cool, but it’s also pretty tragic that outside of the report, not much aside from unusually high-resolution press shots on Nissan’s media site survived. Talk about hanging by a thread. I guess the morals of the story here are that the Frontier Open Sky might’ve been too awesome to live, but also that photos of obscure cars of the aughts could effectively become lost media at the drop of a hat. In 20 years, maybe we’ll just think we imagined the beach.
(Photo credits: Nissan)
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“having a fixed roof is only really brilliant in race cars or vehicles you expect to track. Otherwise, give me a view of the moon on clear nights.”
Never buy a VAG product then. If you see a sunroof on a VW just walk away.
-your resident VW apologist.
I have a -97 Audi with a sunroof and never any leaks or other problems. Maybe I’m just lucky.
You got lucky or it was never parked outside prior to your ownership. VAG makes sunroof drains designed for people who like to clean them every time they fill up with gas.
Yep, every single person I know who has owned a VW with a sunroof in the last 15 years has had it leak.
My mk5 sportwagon had a pano roof and smelled so bad from the leaks @stephen gossin would have given me a crispy stack just to own it.
Another one that developed, shot, promoted, and reported on but never made it to production was the 1990 Chevrolet Beretta convertible.
https://live.staticflickr.com/3543/3356245791_5c39de855a_z.jpg
I test drove a Jeep Liberty with the sky-slider back in 2010 or so. I genuinely loved the feature, even though I knew it would probably be a pain in the ass when it inevitably leaked.
I hated nearly everything else about that Liberty though. It’s rare that an ergonomic issue can brick an entire car, but the center console protruding into the driver’s footwell made it impossible to get comfortable; to get your foot on the gas pedal your leg and hip needs to do some real awkward positioning.
A tangent I know, but it’s the first thing I think of when I see a roof like this.
To be fair, the Jeep Liberty was always an also-ran. It had so much potential. But then never really made it to the goal line, when the team needed a win.
I actually don’t mind the first generation, even though it seems maligned by those (fairly) that loved the Cherokee.
That second generation was some cost-cut Cerberus era garbage though.
Too bad they never made them 🙁
Also, the 318ti was available with a canvas sunroof in the late 90s, just before the Frontier came out 😛
Also sad we never got the X-Trail
A coworker had one of those 318ti’s back in the mid-2000s. It was a nightmare in the Houston heat, and a nightmare in the Houston rainstorms. My coworker drove it to work on stormy days because the office parking garage afforded it protection, and his wife would drive it on sunny days because she loved the open top experience.
Fun fact about the XTrail’s sunroof:
If you had a cargo deck on the roof rails, there wasn’t enough clearnance to open the sunroof.
Oh yeah that’s right, the X-Trail’s sunroof tilts, while the Forester’s doesn’t 🙁
The cargo deck won’t let you tilt the sunroof, but you should still be able to slide it, right? 😉
The demise of the G8 ST is one of the greatest automotive tragedies in my 40-ish year lifetime…
I’ve never understood these roofs, when open they only provide about 20% more than a glass panel moon roof, but when closed they look 100% bigger
It’s like some weird automotive card trick. Suggest we have Torch investigate.
Considering how well things are going for Nissan Murano Cross Cabriolet owners regarding their tops (edit: it’s not going well), perhaps this was a blessing in disguise that this was DOA.
Perhaps Nissan simply realized they didn’t go anywhere near far enough.
there ain’t much cooler to me than a well built truck with a bad ass sunroof. looking at you Toyota Sprout or whatever they end up naming you.
Piggy bank Maxima! How have I never heard that name for it?
It sure sounds like someone from Nissan jumped ship to Jeep and said “here, use this idea!” for not only the Liberty, but the Wrangler too. This was from 2002! Sheesh.
Didn’t that Liberty leak like [thing that leaks a lot]?
Wouldn’t that have been hard to tell what with Liberty’s spending so much time indoors having their engines replaced?
(Source: Anecdotal from two people I know who bought new Liberty’s circa 2004 and had to have the engines replaced within 2 to 3 years if memory serves)
Like a sieve
Like the Exxon Valdez
Probably. Wasn’t around much to actually see it, just read about it on the internet.
The biggest fun though has been after the supplier for the parts went bust around 2016/2017. FCA never bothered to find another supplier, and I think virtually every part for it has been bought already, so if a Liberty leaks…. Big oof.
Like a man post prostatectomy. Not so much an outright leak, but more like a constant dribble.
I mean sliding ragtops existed LONG before this Frontier, and the Wrangler is more like a standard convertible than this.
https://editorial.pxcrush.net/carsales/general/editorial/car1-bfr7.jpg
You’re right on the ragtop part, but I’m more in reference to the Wrangler (since 2018) being offered with a virtually same sliding ragtop, not just a normal soft-top, as the Frontier/Liberty/Bettle etc.
Ah, I forgot about the sliding ragtop option on hardtops.
Worked on the wangler one, can say that it was better than the liberty top. By a country mile
Might be better, but let’s hope this supplier doesn’t go bust and leave a bunch of Wrangler owners SOL!
Well so far there’s no class action for the wrangler top LOL. ASC made the top for the liberty, and went bankrupt in the mid 2010s? And if Webasto goes bust, I think bronco owners are going to have a worse time than jeep owners
I thought ASC was still around? Huh. I knew the company that built the Liberty’s did go around 2016, just never knew the name.
And uh, yeah, I definitely think Bronco owners would have a worse time in that case. Didn’t even know they did the Wrangler’s too!
Nissan had a similar power retracting fabric sunroof arrangement on the Pao back in 1989
Insurance was like, “The safety of a truck and ease of theft of a convertible, cha-ching!”
Holy LeCar Batman! I did not know the Nissan Renault “alliance” when that deep.
I was thinking of the Renault 17 Gordini Convertible from 1974. It had a hard plastic over-roof for winter. My mother owned one and loved it.