2014 or beyond for the next Titan? That seems a little far down the road. They should try and get it here quicker.

Titan is a nice truck but when testing at a big 3 proving ground it earned the name Titan-up? Always in the garage to tighten loose bolts. Always!

bigbob - IIRC The Titan won a few shootouts in 2006 over the Big 3 and Toyota. Even today when compared against similiar displacment engines it holds it's own in performance numbers. I own a 2005. It had a few issues but loose bolts were not one of them. The diff issue is a Dana issue in almost all cases. Dana has horrid QA.

I hope they keep the current tow ratings where they are and not drop them. My truck tows my 7500lb travel trailer very comfortably and has plenty of power. Some pretty good info in the Ward's article. Especially the end where the HD market is mentioned. Pretty revealing as why NIssan and Toyota have not been in a hurry to enter it.

Titan is a cool truck. I like the 5.6L However, the desing is long in tooth. Bring it NISSAN.

Yawn get back to me Nissan when you make a compact pickup again , enough with the big fat engorged blubber mobiles .

LOL how they compare thier 4.0L V6 to the outgoing F150 base engine. If you benchmark the competitors old model your going to come out with a truck thats behind from the start.

Let's say a new 2014 Titan will be a HIT, great performance, tough frame with great towing capabilities, awesome features (maybe best options) great fuel ecomony, great styling. Lets say it will be the best truck! So how many Titans will they sell then? 50k a year? or maybe 80k at the max. Next year comes and other trucks will get updated, that means Nissan is stuck again with sales back to 20-25k a year. does it worth it? Nissan just stick to what you do best (that's clearly not trucks) and let the big 3 do what they do best, that is building Trucks!

Fred - You are overlooking the fact that Nissan stated from day one the goal of the Titan was to give them a share of the market, not beat the Big 3 or Toyota in a sales war. Nissan as a manufacturer only sells around 1 million vehicles total here in a year. Ford sells almost half that number in F Series alone. They are not a huge automaker. Selling 100,000 Titans was a lofty goal from the start. FWIW The Titan is really not costing them much to make at this point anyhow. Chassis engineering is shared with the Pathfinder, Armada, QX56, Frontier and XTerra. The next generation V8 engine is likely already here in the new infinity QX56 and the current version is shared with the Pathfinder, Armada and G56. They already admitted sheetmetal work is getting close to ready. Nissan shares many components among their vehicles that keep costs down as well. My money is them getting something here by 2012, possibly earlier. The other 1/2 tons will be getting their refresh about that time and Ford will have had their new engines out for about a little over a year.

Keith, It's not that easy and cheap as you discribe, every vehicle is desinged and engineered seperatly, Titan might share some parts with it's SUV's (to reduce production cost)but it's chassis are still different between them (modified) If you say they're goal is 100k a year? guess what? they're only going to get about 20k this year that's 80% LESS! what kind of profit could you make if your real numbers are 80% less then inticipated? And i'll have to say Nissan forget about your NV2500 now is not the time.

Keith
"Nissan just stick to what you do best (that's clearly not trucks) and let the big 3 do what they do best, that is building Trucks!"

Weren't the big 3 the best in building sedans like the Taurus?
Looks like that's not the case anymore. Camry and Accord are the best names in sedans.

Will it happen to trucks?

It already did on compact trucks !!!

@Keith don't get me wrong I really like the Titan even owned one. I did have axel problems as well but when put through daily abuse that the Big 3 handle and constantly needing to be worked on the Titan is not the truck for me! The testing where I worked 35k mi is like 125k mi of normal use.

Taurus is junk and everyone knows that, it was never a best named sedan. compact trucks always beloned to the Japanese, and domestic compact/midside trucks can't stand up to Tacoma since big 3 is too busy with fullsize trucks, and that's what where they shine.

Fred you are grossly misinformed and need to reread what I wrote and what was stated in the article. Initial target for the Titan was 100k units, not the current annual goal. The current Titan has undergone almost no real changes except for cosmetic in almost 7 years. It is paid for in cross engineering and sales. Nissan parts shares like crazy to keep cost down. Nissan also scaled back production to meet demand which saves money. Even a 20,000 units it is a good seller at this point for them for thier overall sales numbers. The Altima and Sentra are the big sellers for them and top about 150,000 units each annually. The Titan outsells the Xterra and the Pathfinder. Most of their vehicles sell less than 10,000 units a month. They are not a giant manufacturer. Think more Subaru size than Toyota or Big 3.

The Taurus was the best selling sedan and in the top 3 for most of the mid 80's through the mid 90's. The bloated redesign and neglect by Ford killed it.

@Fred:

I have a issue with your statement, "compact trucks always beloned to japs, and domestic compact/midside trucks can't stand up to Tacoma."

This may be the case since the Tacoma was redesigned, and the domestics have bombed, but before the redesign it was Ford Ranger #1 and Chevy S10 #2, then came Tacoma in sales. And it was by a wide margin.

Keith@ Nissan and Toyotas biggest markets are outside the US and Canada. That is why you have not seen either them anyway get serious about the US pickup market.(No HD's from either of them) They seem to be just selling enough to make a profit. Nissan teamed with Renault sells 6 million vehicles globally.They , now have access to diesels produced by Mercedes Benz(recent agreement) and Renault.

@ Fred...please r e a d all of the words people write..The big three shine? at what? pickups? the big three are wrought with problems right outta the box no matter how pretty they r to you.

Keith, If Nissan is satisfied with 20k sells a year with Titans, then they should proceed with new model.

Jim, the Japanese were one of the first to produce compact trucks and they are good at it. When you compare an old Yota with a old Ranger you will notice that Yota held up better then the Ford (besides the rust) I wasn't talking about sales numbers.

Roger, Yes the big 3 shine in fullsize trucks hands down, Tundra or Titan can't touch them! Yet.. They don't even have HD's. I admit that the Superduty was POS for the last 7 years with it's diesels.

Competition is great for everyone. The domestics got fat and lazy in the 70's. THey made junk and the Japanese took advantage of that fact. The number one selling cars are Japanese. Ford seems to be the first domestic to get their crap together with their global platform strategy. Without the Japanese building trucks - I suspect that the domestics would get fat and lazy in that area as well.
Look at the sales posted on this site - Ram combined 1500 to 4500 plus Dakota is being outsold by Toyota combined sales of Tundra and Tacoma.
Those figures do not go un-noticed by even Ford or GMC.

Fred, They are on track to sell 20,000 units of the current Titan that is almost unchanged in 6 years. A new one will sell better. Many owners are waiting for a fully revised Titan made by Nissan alone. The Ram/Titan thing was pushing many people away. If Nissan went that route the Titan would be dead already. Ask Mistubishi how their rebadged Dakota/Raider sold.

I have a question...why are they still making the titan when they sell so few of them? I mean look at the sales figures YTD, 15k for the titan and 338k for the f series. the market is obviously voting with their dollars what they want to buy. it escapes me... not a beatdown on the titan, i'm just saying...why build it?

@mark think they are trying to get their investment back more than anything else. They cannot be making much money on those tiny numbers compared to what they sell outside North America.

Robert, Where do they sell Titans outside North America and what are the sales numbers look like?

Fred,
The Titan is a US only Pickup. They do not sell them outside North America. What they do sell is the diesel Nissan Navarra, that is the volume seller for Pickups for Nissan. They offer a 4 Litre Petrol(Gas) engine, but that is probably going to be discontinued as the diesel engine makes up the bulk of Navarra's sold due to its torque , fuel economy , hauling and towing superiority.

Fred , I can add the Tundra and the Tacoma are only sold in North America as well.

First Nissan will have a lot to do to sell more than 100,000 trucks. The 3 American will fight to death to keep Japanese truck maker down in the hole they will not repeat the same mistake they did with cars. But in the truck market Nissan need a V6 2 or 3 different displacement V8 and if they are the first to introduce a Diesel engine in half ton pick up they may be sell a good numbers of pick up.

But the F150 is the truck to beat and a hard one.

could never bring myself to buy and import especially a pick up the American icon but if I had to it would def be a Titan know a few guys who are happy w/ their unlike Tundra owners all I can say if the titan got a small diesel I would buy it in a hearbeat but that goes for any 1500 truck without a bowtie

Ha,they dont have a chance in hell if the same designers who designed the Cube work on the Titan !!

Cheaper to ride out the economy for now than to invest millions into a truck if there is no market for Nissan trucks as its proved. It (economy)could get real ugly kids !!

The Titan is a good off-roading truck, and that is about it....

I hope the new Titan is great. Owned a 2004. Loved it! was much better performance than available from big 3 and toyota at that time, and just look at how great they have all become.

What part of 1/2 ton only and not looking to beat the Big 3 in sales dont you people get? It is pretty simple really. Trucks sell. Nissan wanted a piece of the market. They made a truck to enter it. The initial goal was 100,00 units (before gas prices exploded in 200-08), 1/3 of Fords annual F150 sales. If Nissan sells 20,000 Titans this it will be ranked 5th or 6th in their 10-11 car/truck lineup. Only the Frontier beats it in their truck sales.

You are comparing sales from a small US market manufacturer to the 3 largest manufacturers and sellers in US market and the world. If you go by that logic, Subaru has been a dismal failure in the US if you go by sales numbers alone compared to the Big 3 plus Honda nd Toyota. Heck, 3 years ago Subaru just broke the 200,000 unit a year mark. However they are very healthy and growing. Nissan sells arounf 1 million units in the US annually. Go look up the numbers of what the Big 3, Toyota and Honda sell here annually.

@Kieth - good points.
I bet Nissan also looks at it from the point of view : if our car clients need a truck and like our cars - they will buy our trucks.

Exactly Lou. Nissan knows where they are on the cra manufacturer food chain. They know it isn't realistic to compete with Ford for dominance. They just want some market share. A piece of the full size truck sales popie if you will.

Every Titan sold is a truck NOT sold by GM, Ford, Ram, or Toyota. That alone is reason enough to sell them. Nissan is not stupid (although the Juke and Cube are damn close), obviously they are making money if they are going to spend the money to update this truck.

I agree Jordan L. The Cube and Juke are yuck!! The Leaf looks interesting tho if you have a short commute.

The QX series has a 400HP/411lb ft DI version of the 5.6 along with a 7-speed auto. There's no reason Nissan can't be competative and bring a new Titan to the market. I read the 2014 statement as they'll now bring it sooner than that? Doesn't seem too clear on that point.

A 6-cylinder engine and a possible Heavy-duty version sound great, but Nissan needs to offer more, like a standard cab and a short wheelbase. Toyota got the message in 2007 (but still no heavy-duty--yet). Nissan should do the same.

Can you say...Niss-Done? How much longer can the Titan hold on?