Place Your Bets: Nissan Envisions a Loftier Titan

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Nissan sales tanked in 2019, following the previous year’s lead, but the brand’s Titan pickup line performance was worse than a grade school talent audition. Changes to the Titan and Titan XD for 2020 aren’t likely to move the needle in a substantive way.

Which makes word of a potential off-road bruiser of a Titan all the more interesting.

Speaking to CarBuzz, Tiago Castro, head of light commercial vehicles for Nissan North America, replied in the affirmative when asked whether the automaker had a rival for the Ford F-150 Raptor in mind.

Actually, he replied, “Absolutely,” give or take an exclamation point.

Past attempts to deliver greater Nissan truck volume in North America has fallen flat. The Cummins 5.0-liter diesel V8 once found in the Titan XD is no more. Bodystyles and trims have fallen away as the automaker attempts to streamline production and reduce expenses via fewer build configurations. This effort isn’t relegated solely to the Titan line.

Thinking does not equal active development, so Castro’s vision of a pickup topping the already off-road minded Pro-4X trim and providing a challenger to Ford’s off-road brute could easily come to nothing. Having overhauled much of its passenger car lineup and freshed the Titan, scarce development dollars are now earmarked for crossovers and electrification. Yet that doesn’t mean it’s out of the question.

The Pro-4X could grow wilder without too much expenditure, and it would sit above the trim level in price, too. If Nissan’s not selling many pickups, it may as well sell some pricier ones. And the effort is more likely to come to fruition if Nissan engineers eschew some of the modifications Ford made to its F-150. Forget the wider body and track. Upgrade the shocks and springs, increase suspension travel, lift, etc. Chunk out the tires and add a snorkel for good measure.

A problem in making a burlier Titan lies in the model’s powerplant. For 2020, the truck makes do with a slightly upgraded 5.6-liter Endurance V8 (400 horsepower, 413 lb-ft), which is fine for domestic duties but a far cry from the Ford’s output. GMC’s premium off-road Sierra AT4 also tops those figures by a modest amount.

It’s highly unlikely Nissan would bother investing in a new mill for the Titan, given its low volume compared to Detroit Three rivals and the presumably modest take rate for a loftier, brush-busting variant. Fittingly, Castro didn’t play up the possibility too much.

“There’s an opportunity to do a bit more (than Pro4X),” he said before adding “at this point, we’re focusing on Pro4X.”

[Image: Nissan]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • CannonShot CannonShot on Feb 11, 2020

    Nissan lost the full size battle several years ago. I can’t imagine they will create a credible Raptor competitor. If they try it will likely fall short and not generate enough sales to justify the cost. I wonder if Nissan has considered selling the current frontier along the upcoming new one? The new one is bound to be quite a bit larger. There will still be some demand for the smaller one. This is the niche they should exploit.

    • Highdesertcat Highdesertcat on Feb 11, 2020

      "not generate enough sales to justify the cost. " That's the problem now with Nissan pickup trucks; not enough sales to justify the costs. Then again Nissan trucks exist solely as an alternative for buyers who choose not to buy Ford, GM, RAM or Toyota pickup trucks. Every Titan or Frontier sold takes away a sale of one of the other brands. At least Americans have a choice. It wasn't always that way.

  • 0Gravity 0Gravity on Feb 12, 2020

    Nissan's worst offense with the Titan was the blatant copying of Ford's Platinum high end model, including identical silver tailgate.

    • SSJeep SSJeep on Feb 12, 2020

      Agreed, and not just copying the F150 but also making a truck with reliability that is worse than the F150, which is hard to do.

  • 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.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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