At SHOT Show in January, I got my first look at the all-new Nissan Titan XD trucks. The first impression I got was simple: that's another really BIG truck. At that point, honestly, I'd pretty much forgotten about it.
This week, however, I've been in Scottsdale, Arizona actually putting in some time behind the wheel, in the passenger seats and generally crawling over the truck that Nissan officials now tell me is designed to fill the "white space" that exists between 1/2 and 3/4 ton pickups.
![]() http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/image_archive/2244973.jpeg> The Nissan Titan XD for 2016 boasts a much bolder front end, more power options and enough options and features to satisfy the gear head or gadget loving truck fan.
![]() http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/image_archive/2244975.jpeg> Although we were driving a luxury edition, we tested it with a 750-pound payload (above). Then, we stepped moved to another equally plush truck and hauled a rental loader up -and down- steep grades on Arizona Highway 87(below).
![]() http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/image_archive/2244977.jpeg>
![]() http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/image_archive/2244979.jpeg> If you look into the distance, you'll see the yellow Titan XD ripping across the ridge. One of the few level spots we tested off-road. |
White space? Yep, the space where you may occasionally have a load to haul that's too-big for your 1/2 ton, or you realize you don't really utilize the 3/4 ton capacities for towing and/or hauling enough to rationalize the use the rest of the time.
Enter the Titan XD. Equip it with a 5.0 Turbodiesel Cummins V8 engine and you're cranking out 310 horsepower and 555 foot-pounds of torque. It's not short on power- or capacity (12,300 towing and a payload in excess of 800 pounds) Sufficient power and capacity to pull a rental loader on a commercial trailer- while hauling an ATV and other gear in the truck bed.
Should you choose to go for the Platinum Limited edition with all the bells-and-whistles associated with a luxury cabin and ride, you'll also have a well-mannered, comfortable road vehicle.
On Tuesday, we drove a group of their pre-production models on the Arizona highways empty, with 750 pound payloads in the beds and even towed rental bobcat laders up and down the long grades of Arizona Highway 87 between Scottsdale and Payzon.
Then we took the 4x4 off-road editions
really off road...like into the Fort McDowell Adventure Park. There, I pushed my ride into deep washes, up steep inclines, through washboards and soft sand and generally played like a kid in a very rough sandbox. And throughout that ride, my passengers, while solidly jostled by my jaunt, carried on conversations at normal speaking levels.
In short, it's an impressive re-introduction of a truck that Nissan admits didn't really fit the majority of the truck buyers in the category when it was first introduced. Between that introduction and the subsequent economic downturn that slashed the market for the big work capacity trucks, Nissan sent the Titan back to their design teams, determined to come out with trucks that would appeal to about 85 percent of the truck buying public.
That's not a typo- they're not trying to offer every option imaginable on every truck so as to hit every buyer in the truck category. In Nissan's corporate planning, the strategy is to offer fewer varied selections, allowing the local dealer -or his dealer network- to have a better chance of being able to fit the wants of customers who want one of their trucks.
By the end of 2016, Nissan says they'll offer the Mid-Sized Frontier, an as-yet unannounced full-sized Titan (you read it first here) and the "increased capability pickup" Titan XD, the Heavy-use PV or commercial application vehicle for high capacity work.
"We have dozens of options for the Titan XDs," one manager told me, "if you go to the same truck in other lines, there are literally thousands of combinations of options. To me - and to customers that number of combinations is just too-much to absorb."
This is a bit of a short review because we weren't given a ton of technical information and specifics on pricing and models. After all, the trucks we were invited to give a spin through the Sonoran desert weren't actual production models.
Pricing and specifics are expected to be available early in the first quarter or 2016, but the Titan XD looks like a truck that has a pretty good idea where it falls in the "white space" between half-tons that are sometimes too small and three-quarter tons that may be overkill.
As always, we'll keep you posted.
--Jim Shepherd