Posted: May 30 2010 at 7:11pm | IP Logged

 The four cylinder trucks (SE-4 and XE) are usually sprung lighter than the six cylinder trucks and ride better, in my experience.

They certainly ride better than my SE-6 does. The rear end jumps quite a bit going over certain road hazards, anyway. Hell, that's just what a truck does, if it's sprung to carry a load. That said, I'd rather have the six and a bumpy ride.

Posted: May 31 2010 at 9:36pm | IP Logged

The frontier will ride better compared to the full size trucks, especially the 1 tons.  And the 4 cyl will ride a little better compared to the 6 cyl for the reason stated above.  But the frontier is built to be a truck in the end.

The only trucks I know of that are built for a car like ride is your top end perfomance and luxury vehicles.  Lincoln Blackwood, Ford Lighting, Dodge SRT10, Chevy Avalanche, Toyota X-Runner.  The Ridgeline is built on a car platform, and technically isn't a truck. 

Of all those, a used Avalanche or X-runner will fit your budget.  The Avalanche is gas hog, the X-Runner is performance and rides like a lowrider sometimes. 

Test drive a Frontier, you may like, you may not.  If you don't and you still want truck abilities with smoother ride then I'd look at a Ridgeline or Subaru Baja.