Nissan is on a roll.
The Nissan Murano was named truck of the year for 2003 and now the company is going to market a real truck for 2004.
Starting in October, you can order the new full-sized Titan pickup. Prices have yet to be set, but Nissan Canada representatives say they will be competitive with the big three auto makers, which means that these decked-out models will start in the high $30,000 range and top out in the low $50,000s with all the bells and whistles.
Nissan isn’t trying to take over the truck world with the Titan. In fact, sales targets are so low that rumour has it that when North American production was set, the Texas Nissan dealers association asked what the rest of North America was going to sell, because its members had enough interest to sell them all. Before you dismiss this as all talk and no action, you had best take a Titan for a drive.
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My skepticism about a Japanese company’s ability to understand what trucks are all about was put to rest at the North American introduction, where Nissan turned journalists loose on pavement and cow trails.
Our first couple of hours in the truck were spent on two- and four-lane highways with more than an average amount of traffic.
Pavement was smooth and the roads twisted a bit. This gave me opportunity to see if all 305 of the Titan’s horses that come out of the 5.6 litre, DOHC V8 (it also makes 379 pound feet of torque) would come to the party when I put my foot down. They did and I managed to put a grin on my face when I got into some of the tighter corners. This truck is going to leave plenty of cars in its dust.
The leather front buckets were comfortable.
Handling on pavement was about what you would expect. The tail stayed where it was supposed to and the four-wheel ABS system worked every time I tried to brake late for a turn.
The five-speed electronically controlled automatic never missed a beat. It always seemed to be in the right gear at the right time without much lag on kick down. Up shifts were done at or near the red line.
Once we went off pavement, my driving partner from the Toronto Star seemed to think he was still on pavement. I kept waiting for one of the bumps to bounce us into the roof or for one of the washboard sections to make the tail step out and give him a wake up call.
It never happened. The stability and traction control programs were top notch and the suspension is so well sorted out that when the electronics were off, we still didn’t need to slow down much.
During my time behind the wheel, my speeds were just as high as my partner’s but it didn’t feel like it. He even suggested that I slow down a couple of times because he felt uncomfortable. At the end of that section, we both felt the truck was easy to drive with or without the electronic controls and were surprised to find that the passenger felt uncomfortable.
Titan will come in extended cab and four-door cab versions. I spent a bit of time in the rear seats and found the extended cab rear seat to be a touch short on leg room but not uncomfortable. The seat folds out of the way when using the truck for cargo.
There is a bit more leg room in the crew cab model, making the rear acceptable for most adults.
Nissan engineers have scored a breakthrough with the wide open half door on the extended cab model. It seems a simple idea – open the door all the way so that it folds back to the side of the truck – but the engineering needed to make it work is complex. The door has to come out from the body a bit so that it can fold back. As well, the hinge has to be strong enough to support the weight of the door, and the door has to close and provide a weather-tight seal.
This single feature makes the truck innovative and more practical in town.
Nissan didn’t stop there. The Titan’s back window retracts into the rear wall of the cab and is electrically heated.
Another first for pickups is the addition of a locking rear differential. This has been available on sport utility vehicles and serious off-road vehicles for years, but Nissan is the first to put one in a pickup, straight from the factory. To help control wheel slip on the Titan, Nissan has developed active brake limited slip, which works on all four wheels and can be used with the optional locking differential.
Even with the electronic controls off, the Titan handled well on the trails. The credit for this has to go to what appears to be a standard style suspension. However, Nissan has left the springs inside the frame rails, but moved the shocks outside the rails for greater stability. Some of the mounting angles are different and help control things a bit better.
Nissan has developed a family of accessories, starting with a spray-in bed liner and the Utili-Track system of variable tie down attachments – 22 structural reinforcements to a regular bed make the Utili-Track work. There is also a lockable storage space in the rear quarter panel.
Towing capacity is a class-leading 9,400 lb. Optional skid plates will protect the important stuff from rocks and posts or whatever else you run over in the field.
After my drive in the Titan, the grin on my face was large enough that I had trouble blinking, so those characters from Texas might be right. The Titan is going to be one popular truck.
Charles Renny is a freelance automotive columnist and a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada. The opinions expressed in this column are the personal views of the writer.
