Nissan Hasn't Forgotten About a V6 Titan - It Just Looks That Way

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

(In the interest of providing readers with all the news they can use, we sometimes tap sister publications when an article attracts our interest. In this piece by Matthew Guy, published by Off-Road.com, our in-house truck lover tries to find out when Nissan’s promised six-cylinder Titan will finally make its appearance.

Nissan has been doing a good job getting back into the full-sized truck game, rolling out various cab and bed configurations for the Titan along with an array of trim levels. There’s still one thing missing, though – a V6 engine.

Right now, truck customers walking into a Nissan showroom are limited to a single engine in the half-ton Titan. The 5.6-liter Endurance V8 is a great motor, cranking out nearly 400 horsepower and an equal amount of torque and allowing drivers to tow nearly 10,000 lbs, but not everyone needs that hauling capability.

More importantly, not everyone wants to pay the price. Some, particularly construction crews and people in the trades, simply need the space of a full-sized truck for all their gear. A V6 engine, such as the base mills offered by the Detroit Three, allows them to schlep around their stuff without breaking the bank at the pumps.

“We did confirm that a V6 will be coming [in the Titan],” said Nissan spokesperson Kevin Raftery. “However, that’s all we are able to say as of now – no official timetable.”

Nissan has busied itself with rolling out three different Titan body styles during its first two years on the market, starting with the Crew Cab, then adding the Single Cab and fabulously-named King Cab. Notably, they’re all exactly the same length: 228.1 inches.

It’s a smart play, one which allows Nissan to have an answer for just about every customer. The addition of a V6 would give the company another round in its chamber, providing an option for the shopper who is looking for space and not brute power. A smaller engine in the Single Cab and Crew Cab models would also allow for a lower starting price.

Currently, the cheapest Titan is a two-wheel drive long bed, checking in at $29,780. A comparable Silverado, but equipped with a V6, is about $1,000 cheaper before incentives. Customers will find a $27,910 F-150 at their Ford store, while Ram sells a $27,095 Ram 1500. Both of those machines are 4×2 longbox base models and are powered by V6 engines.

After all, Nissan has a raft of experience with V6 engines and while most folks will immediately call the company’s front-drive six-cylinder passenger cars to mind, it’s worth remembering that certain versions of the NV van are available with a 4.0-liter V6. A smaller 3.5-liter V6 is also available in other Nissan products like the Pathfinder, making 284 hp and 259 lb-ft of torque, just enough to motivate a base model pickup truck.

[Images: Nissan]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • DenverMike DenverMike on Feb 01, 2018

    A small, simple V8, say a 4.6 and 16 valve, would be the best "poverty spec" option or for fleet, industry, and private cheapskates. That combined with actual choice of axle ratios, economy to heavy pull, would be far better than a V6 downgrade, right out of a minivan. Still that's easy for us to say. The Big 3 make obscene profits off their fullsize pickups, thanks to tremendous volume, and can easily afford to offer almost limitless combinations, further increasing sales volume vs a one-size-fits-all approach.

  • Art Vandelay Art Vandelay on Feb 01, 2018

    The VQ40 V6 also powers the Frontier. Problem is that even in the Frontier, it is a fairly thirsty motor. My 2015 F150 with the 2.7 does better withe respect to fuel economy than my 2013 Crew Cab Frontier did. A modern automatic transmission with more than 5 gears would likely help out on that front, but it is a motor that has been around the block. Still it should at least be durable. I think the timing chain guide and radiator transmission cooler issues have been worked out on it though.

    • See 2 previous
    • Gtem Gtem on Feb 02, 2018

      @DenverMike "When you gotta mash the gas pedal just to keep up with traffic, fuel economy near or worse than fullsize pickups with V8s should surprise no one." Have you ever driven a 4.0L Frontier or Xterra? You hardly need to "mash the gas to keep up with traffic." You mash the gas when you want to chirp third (if it's a 6spd). They're thirsty motors no doubt, but hardly lacking for power.

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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