Nissan and Toyota HD Trucks Postponed

[Variance]

Nissan and Toyota HD Trucks Postponed

Both Toyota and Nissan were planning on entering the full-size heavy duty pickup truck market soon, but both automakers have delayed joining the fray for at least a couple years. Nissan had hoped it could build a heavy-duty version of the Titan off of the half-ton's platform, but it's clear that the truck's frame won't be able to meet the minimum payload and towing targets that heavy-duty truck buyers demand.

Though the full-size half-ton Toyota Tundra (shown wearing its work dungarees) will enter production in less than two months, the automaker's plan for a heavy-duty version has been postponed for undisclosed reasons. Toyota may be betting that the market for heavy duty trucks will shrink along with the half-ton market, though analysts are quick to point out what the domestic manufacturers already know, which is that the heavy-duty truck market follows different trends than the market for trucks as a whole. Rather than going up or down in correlation with gas prices, purchasing of heavy-duty trucks is more likely to go up or down with the rate of home construction in the country.

Either way, heavy-duty versions of the Nissan Titan and Toyota Tundra are coming, but it looks like Detroit won't have to worry about them until 2009 at the earliest.

This really isn't news (not to me, anyway). Nissan had said before that the HD Titan would come with the next generation (not the current) which would start in 2009. Plus, I don't recall Toyota having a set timeline for the HD Tundra release in the first place.

Read "Heavy-duty pickups by Toyota and Nissan delayed" @ Autoblog

[Flybrian]

The sort of says how really strong the current Titan's frame is, doesn't it?

[Variance]

The sort of says how really strong the current Titan's frame is, doesn't it?

197533[/snapback]

Not suitable for HD use? It's kind of to be expected for a half-ton platform, no?