No 8 foot bed, no interest. some of us still need a truck for work.

 

I have no reason to not like Am or Jap..... I believe in buying "best of breed"...give me American or Jap...both have strong points ...but that Titan is one funky (read: "butt ugly") looking truck, IMO. And I have a long memory of lousy Nissan quality compared to others. Just because other Jap brands have reliable engines, doesn't mean they all do. Even if it DOES turn out to be stong and reliable - who wants to drive such a bizzarre looking truck?

 

When have you ever heard of, or know Nissan to have lousy engines?

I think you're getting Nissan confused with Hyundai (Korean) my man...

Then again, any engine can fail- but, it's hard to beat Honda, Toyota and Nissan in build quality, reliability or engines. What are you basing poor Nissan reliability on?

I've never read a discouraging word on any of the major Japanese manufacturers from Motor trean, Truck Trend, Consumer Reports, or J.D. Power & Associates.

 

That's right-
Man, these guys just don't want to admit that the Titan pound-for-pound stacks up damn-well against the 2004 F-150, exceeding or matching it in every area. I knew that 9,900 lbs your-boy had listed was utter & complete BS. And, besides, how many of us are going to routinely tow upwards of 9,000 lbs.? I can tell you what, before I dropped 40K on an F-150 to yank that kind of load, I'd drop 37K and get myself a CrewCab F-350 Dualie.

Note, the 2004 F-150 Optiona engine has 5.4L, 300 HP, 365 lb./ft. and in SuperCrew mode, has a 9,500 lb trailer tow maximum as a 4x2 and 9,200 if you buy a 4x4. And, the SuperCrews- (Which most will buy) only have 1,340 - 1,540 lb payload capacity with 4.6 & 5.4 respectively. Just stating the facts folks- no twists or angles. if you doubt me, I've included links to Nissan & Ford's web pages & spec sheets.

Bottom Line: You cannot buy a more powerful, standard pick-up truck than the new Titan. I didn't make it that way folks, that's just how it is....For now. Most of the manufacturers optional engines can't match the 5.6L Titan. You have to go into HD or SD lines to surpass the Titan, on paper anyway.

Comparative SPEC SHEET- http://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/Fu...,24367,00.html
www.nissanusa.com

2004 Ford F-150 Spec Sheet-
http://f150.fordvehicles.com/allnewf...&bhqt=1&bhqs=1
www.fordvehicles.com

 

Yeah they will probally wait to see what Ford will be able to get for the F150s. Priced a Titan a while ago, and I think a fully loaded crew cab came to about $46000.

 

I think that you will see a "loaded" Titan MSRP for higher than a "loaded" F150, in part because of Nissan's propsensity to sell packages, rather than individual options. For instance, if you want a navigation system (not available on the F150), it will probably drive the price up at least $2000 beyond the F150, simply because it is not available from Ford.

Disclaimer: I am also a Nissan enthusiast. In addition to my 1997 F150, we also own a 2002 Altima SE and 2003 Murano SL. My first new car was a 1992 Sentra SE-R and the car I learned to drive on was a 1980 Datsun 210 wagon. Beyond these vehicles, my family has owned at least four Maximas, a Datsun B210 and one Infiniti G20.

With that said, my comments about the Titan earlier come from somebody that is an enthusiast of both brands. Don't discount the capabilities of the Titan simply because it is not Ford. Ford certainly isn't. The Titan will likely prove to be a very capable truck.

 

It did have a few options that are not available on the F150, which would make it cost more than the Ford. Having 9000# towing cap won't really matter for me, I like the looks of the F150 more than the Titan, so that will be the reason why i'll buy it when I break down and buy one, but I'm sure the Titan will be a pretty good truck, should be better than the Toyota from what i've heard. Oh yeah great site webby.

 

Holy smokes Batman, maybe some of you guys should go start a "I love Japan Truck's s site" I really don't think that any of us have our collective heads up Ford's ***, as some of you said, again I won't use names, you know who you are.

 

'01's wife here.

For those Nissan fans who don't care to read much, official numbers have been released for the 5.6 Nissan engine. They are rated at 305hp, and 379lb ft of torque. Of course, till they hit the market and are dyno'd, we have no idea about the area under the curve (the real test of engine power).

Now, as an automotive enthusiast, I can appreciate the Titan as being a very good first effort. It will certainly blow away the Tundra. I also have no doubt that it will be a good truck.

There are a couple of things I don't like about it, however. First of all it is ugly. Now I realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what were they thinking. There isn't a coherant design theme in the entire vehicle............ or any sort of design lines. Of course, who knows, maybe that was the design theme. Second is the lack of choices. Nissan is targeting the upper end of the truck market only. They want the cream of the crop. The buyer who likes every doo dad and what not.

While these upper end sales are great (as they are more profitable), if times get lean, these are also the flakiest sales. These people, for the most part, do not NEED a truck. They are buying one because it is stylish. If fuel costs get too high, or the economy gets too low, they are the first to jump ship. The base/core p/u buyers are the workers. They use their truck to work hard............. and look good on the weekend.

These are not the buyers who will buy this truck. Most of them wouldn't dream of spending $35K on a truck. These are the people that Nissan is alienating.

Like I said, it is a good truck. Just never underestimate the loyalty of the domestic truck buyer. They are, after all, the most loyal of any automotive buying segment. While I see some domestic converts, I can't help but expect that most of the sales will come from existing import buyers.

On a side note, any manufacturer is stupid to overlook any rival. That is how you end up out of business. Neither Ford, GM, or Dodge are that stupid.

 

I think that Nissan is opting out of the segment of the market that will create a sense of light duty truck legitamacy, but not the segment where the 2004 F-150 expects its sales and the majority of profitability and chance to eat into Ford's sales.

In their own 2004 "Marketing Strategy and Mix Recommendations" Ford is recommending to dealers a retail mix of 64% of their orders for XLT and Lariat models (and a whopping 82% if you throw in the FX4 trim level), where the Titan is clearly aimed. Ford only recommends 13% of orders for low-end XL models, the workhorse of the bunch.

 

01's wife beat me to it on the 305hp rating for the Titan, but she's absolutely correct. I'm not sure when that number officially hit the scene, but i know i saw it on Saturday (September 6th) on Motortrend TV.

I also for 100% agree with everything else she said. The truck itself in my opinion as well is also pretty damn ugly and has absolutely zero design cues that make it stand out or even let you really know where the design was going. As i said before, the interior resembles the maxima virtually down the core and in my opinion a truck should not look nor feel like a car when you step inside. THe only reason I think Ford even referred to their interior as a 'car' was because of the floor shifter on the FX4 and Lariat because they are the first full-size trucks to feature them (the Nissan frontier featured a floor shifter, but anyone who has seen it would say that it's the ugliest shifter in a truck you'd ever seen and that vehicle also looked like a corolla interior).

The fact is that Nissan IS targeting the bigger truck market and for a japanese manufacturer who says that aren't even considering the competition but have yet to prove themselves in this field that's a big and incredibly stupid thing to say. Nissan fans buy their vehicles for gas mileage (hence the Frontier) and their customers - as well as the majority of truck buyers - will not spend $30k+ on a truck, yet alone a foreign truck when GMC and Ford rule the market. The Titan will end up costing as much - if not more - than the F-150 fully loaded and that is what's going to hurt them the most. I can all ready name a list of cars for each Nissan that costs more than the "better" competition fully loaded.

American buyers are VERY loyal (anyone here who watches NASCAR would know how fans in the Craftsman Truck Series are feeling about Toyota's entry into the series next year and NASCAR represents the largest car and truck fan market in the US at this point).

The Titan will not be - nor will it stand up against the competition - as well as people think based on those facts. And the last time I heard a company say that they aren't even looking at the competition or just aren't giving any respect to the competition they went out of business. NIssan was incredibly stupid for that remark and it was definitely premature.

 

Yes, I read the Motor trend stats, but I also read where they said the vehicle they tested was a pre-production test-mule; not a finished production version.

Once again folks, I never said the Titan will in and of itself defeat the F-150. I think it's presence may conspire against (read: pull enough sales from) the F-150 to let the Chevy become #1 in sales- but no way will the Titan outsell the F-150. 800,000 - darn near 1,000,000 trucks a year is a very lofty goal, especially when you're rumored to only be building 100,000.

Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I thought the pre- 1997 F-150 was butt-ugly, I think the current (Avalance looking) Silverado is butt-ugly. But, when the 1997 F-150 dropped, I thought it was the best-looking truck ever. So much, I bought three of them- if you count my Expedition.

I think this strategy is self-limiting:sure. And I agree, they are apparently going after the well-heeled buyers- but, typically, one can get 5,000 - 7,000 off MSRP at the Nissan dealership- placing it in the range of the less-affluent. If you'll recall, Dodge did the same thing with the Durango. At first, all durango's were 5.9L 4x4's, then after a year or so, the 5.2 was offered, as well as 4x2's... I think if Nissan sees success in the high-end model, it'll offer stripper versions.