In late 1995, a driver's side airbag was added as well as compliance with the new US safety rules.[clarification needed] Rear wheel ABS came with both 2WD and 4WD models beginning in 1990.  

These Hardbody small pickup trucks sold very well worldwide,[citation needed] and are still often seen both on-road and off-road. The V6 engine had a timing belt that requires replacement every 60K miles. In the US, beginning in 1997, the new "D22" was officially named, "Frontier" and used a new DOHC 2.4 inline-four borrowed from the Nissan Altima. A newly modified "VG33" V6 was available in 1998 and ending production in the US in 2004. The new VG33EV6 had new, larger, 10 mm exhaust manifold studs in an attempt to decrease the risk of premature exhaust manifold stud failure, but still had limited success.

The D21 design was still available new in some Latin American countries, made in Mexico until the 2008 model year. In Mexico, a range of four basic variations of the D21 were sold together as the Nissan camiones (literally "Nissan trucks"). Nissan Mexicana ended production of the camiones on 15 March 2008 after 15 years of production in the Cuernavacaplant.