#Titan

It would seem  our musings – and the musings of many other outlets, to be fair – regarding the future of Nissan’s entry in the full-size pickup truck segment were right on the money. The company has confirmed they plan to wind down production of the Titan after this model year.

Nissan has rolled out pricing for the 2024 Titan pickup truck. It starts several thousand shillings higher than last year because the base S trim has been axed, though an equivalent 2023 SV 4x2 has a sticker of $45,650.

In a time-honored tradition of shoehorning a large engine into a small vehicle, Nissan showed up at this week’s SEMA show in Vegas with a V8-powered Frontier midsize pickup truck. Yes, it’s a concept but one can still admire the effort.

It’s tough to break into an established market where brand loyalty reigns supreme and old habits die hard. Nowhere is that more evident than with full-sized pickup trucks in America, a segment in which the Detroit Three have a stranglehold on sales. Only two other brands of late have dared try to muscle their way into the arena; in the not-too-distant future, there may be only half that number.

Can the Toyota Tundra go toe-to-toe with the Ford F-150, and does it make sense to try? The F-150 is the most popular vehicle in the U.S., despite a 12 percent drop in sales. Ford still managed to sell 787, 422 F-150s in 2020. Toyota sold a little over 109,000 Tundras in 2020, down two percent from 2019. While that sounds like the Tundra did well, it only outran the Nissan Titan.

The saga of the Nissan Titan will come to an end in Canada next year, with the recently refreshed full-size pickup and its tweener XD sibling leaving that market after 2021 as the automaker changes course on a global scale.

Nissan Canada confirmed the discontinuation to TTAC on Thursday, claiming the automaker, as part of its new four-year plan, will focus more closely on its core strengths. Refreshed for 2020, the Titan line has recently seen a decline in the number of build configurations offered, as well as vehicles sold, making the model’s vanishing act a seeming inevitability.

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.

What can a nine-speed automatic do for a full-size pickup that once carried a seven-speed unit and a reputation for guzzling fuel at a prodigious rate?

That’s a question answered not by the EPA, which hasn’t gotten around to posting updated MPG figures for the refreshed 2020 pickup, but by its counterparts north of the border. Natural Resources Canada has the new figures on file, but you’re out of luck if you’re only interested in rear-wheel drive Titan models. For 2020, Canadians aren’t allowed to have those.

Nissan’s full-size Titan pickup truck has a problem that Nissan engineers, marketers, and product planners will probably never fix.

That problem? The truck isn’t built by one of the Detroit Three automakers.

Ram, GM, and Ford each have such loyal followings that it seems like the full-size truck market is simply impenetrable. It’s not just Nissan, either – Toyota’s Tundra faces the same challenge.

To its credit, Nissan seems to understand this. Company reps say that they know that conquest sales will be tough, so they’re focused on the over half-million truck buyers (their number) that don’t really harbor any brand loyalty, as well as current Nissan owners who may be looking to move into a full-size truck.

That may just be PR speak – putting a positive spin on things is their job, after all. Then again, perhaps it isn’t. While the Titan doesn’t have the built-in brand loyalty of its Detroit rivals, it’s not a bad truck. It’s not on par with the segment’s best two – Ram’s 1500 and the Ford F-150 – but it’s ready to tangle with Chevy and GMC. On its own merits, it’s plenty competent.

If a company is going to introduce a bevy of changes to one of its pickup trucks, Texas is definitely the place in which to do it. In fact, it is a popular urban legend that the Lone Star state’s piece of the pickup pie is so large, one manufacturer splits its national marketing efforts four ways: North, West, East, and Texas.

Nissan is a small but active player in the North American pickup truck game, not unlike the plucky Corgi in the dog park yapping at the Great Danes and German Shepherds. For this upcoming 2020 model year, the company has shovelled several cubic acres of development dollars at its Titan full-size truck.

Nissan won’t be extending the same commitment it has for small cars to its full-size pickup line. The automaker recently told U.S. dealers that it would begin scaling back its Titan offerings, partly due to a new Titan looming on the horizon. Nissan intends to unveil the new pickup in the fall. Meanwhile, existing Titan sales could be a lot stronger. The model can’t really compete against domestic brands, despite also being manufactured in the U.S.

The Titan’s annual sales are less than monthly Ford F-Series deliveries. Extrapolated, Nissan moved 50,459 units in 2018 against the pickup sales king’s 909,330. But the Titan even has trouble competing with the likes of the GMC Sierra, which saw 219,554 domestic deliveries last year.

According to Automotive News, Nissan’s evolved pickup strategy focuses on prioritizing what works for the passenger market — which means turnings its back on single-cab models and the Cummins diesel engine available in the Titan XD.

Far from being the first choice among full-size truck buyers, the Nissan Titan and Titan XD are at least earning attention from their builders — and the latest alteration will earn a chorus of boos from those who worship at the altar of all things Cummins.

With a refreshed lineup on the way, Nissan has confirmed that the 5.0-liter diesel V8 available in the nearly-three-quarter-ton Titan XD will disappear by the end of the year.

Nissan Motor Co. is recalling 91,319 Titan pickups over an electrical short risk that could cause the vehicle to stall. It’s believed by the manufacturer that some alternator harnesses were damaged during the trucks’ motor installation and, if it starts flailing around inside your engine bay, you might find yourself more than a little annoyed. Otherwise, you’ll probably just end up with a dead battery.

No injuries or accidents have been reported relating to the recall and the fix is rather simple. According to the recall notice, Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the alternator harness for the proper routing and any damage. The harness will be clipped back into the correct position or replaced entirely if needed.

Adding to company woes brought on by the Carlos Ghosn scandal, Nissan has announced plans to lay off nearly 700 contract workers at its truck and van manufacturing facility in Mississippi.

The shifts affected are responsible for making the Titan, Frontier, and NV line of vans. While Frontier sales are relatively steady, both Titan and NV numbers are down on a year-over-year basis through the end of December.

It seems we stood and talked like this, before. We looked at each other in the same way then. But I can’t remember where or when… no wait, I remember it perfectly well. It was eight months ago when I asked you to help me pick a perfect pickup. I ended up with a 2017 Silverado LTZ Crew Cab 6.5′ bed with Max Tow package and the 6.2-liter engine. Not all of you approved.

The Silvy ain’t going nowhere, but there might be space in the driveway for a second truck starting in the spring. Just like last time, I’m going to set some loosely-defined rules — but this time the rules will be very different.