Automotive Trends

Nissan has pulled back the cover on the first major redesign to its full-size Titan pickup truck. Rather than reveal the entire Titan lineup, Nissan focused our attention on a model that is sure to set the truck apart. The Titan XD straddles what Nissan calls the ‘white space’ in the truck market. Nissan observed that there are no V8 diesel pickup trucks in the light duty market; if one wants a V8 diesel they must upgrade to a heavy duty truck such as a Ford Super Duty, Chevrolet Silverado HD, or GMC Sierra HD. Keep in mind both the Ram 1500 3.0-liter diesel and heavy duty 6.7-liter diesel models are b0th six cylinders. To fill that white space, the Titan XD offers a 5.0-liter V8 turbo diesel developed by Cummins. This segment busting diesel provides 310 horsepower and a staggering 555 lb-ft of torque that is transferred through a 6-speed Aisin automatic transmission. All of this innovation is hidden below all-new sheet metal that unfortunately looks alarmingly like a last generation Ford F-150. While Ford has its aluminum bodied F-150, Ram has a range extending V6 diesel and General Motors has the not quite full-size Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon, it appears that Nissan may have found a large niche in the truck market with the Titan XD.