Nissan Not Ready To Give Up In The Full Size Truck Wars

[William Maley]

Nissan Not Ready To Give Up In The Full Size Truck Wars

William Maley - Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com

October 23, 2011

Nissan’s Titan pickup truck has been on sale since 2004 and hasn’t been a real sales success. So far in 2011, sales of the Titan have reached 15,348 trucks. That’s a far cry from 2005 when Nissan sold 86,945 trucks.

However, Nissan’s new chairman of the Americas told Automotive News they’re going to being sticking out – and expects to.

"We're going to need two or three cycles to be as professional as the people who have been doing it for 50 or 60 years.We still think we can do well in that segment," he said. "The first go in the segment wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination,” said Colin Dodge, who became the chairman of Nissan Americas in June.

Dodge believes one of the contributing factors of the Titan’s poor sales lies in the powertrain. Currently, the Titan only offers one engine; a 5.6L V8 which produces 317 HP. Other competitors like the Ford F-150 offer a range of V6 and V8 engines.

With "very efficient powertrains, the right powertrains with the right power, I think we can still excel," Dodge says.

The next generation Titan will be coming out sometime in 2013.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

[Drew Dowdell]

Queue the VQ V6 for the next Titan....

[ocnblu]

Well, it's no Li'l Hustler, is it?

[balthazar]

Who is nissan thinking of competing with who only started making trucks in 1960?

Don't they want to shoot for the class leaders, those who have been making trucks 90-100 years ??

Edited October 27, 2011 by balthazar

[FAPTurbo]

Plenty of trucks sold with V8's, so I doubt engine choice had much to do with it.

The Titan simply doesn't offer anything that cannot be already be bought from a competitor.

[Drew Dowdell]

Back when the F150 V8 only had this amount of power, if you bought the F150 you did so in spite of the power deficit compared to the GM or Dodge because it was still a great truck.

There is no compelling reason to buy a Titan unless maybe you know a guy who works in the service department of a local Nissan dealer and maybe they'll throw in a Sentra for your wife too.

[A Horse With No Name]

Titan is one of the worst trucks around....amazing that Nissan is going to continue the truck wars...