What a concept. Shorten the cab to get a longer bed!
Everything old is new again.

@Stevadore you never fail to make me laugh.

There is no bigger bread/butter truck on the Big 3 lots than the fleet model white-painted half ton, plain jane. Nothing new/old here. Basic and commonplace to the max.

Nissan is out to poke Ford and GM in the eye with this offering.

Lighter frames on the way. That should shut up those who claim this new titan is too heavy. I wonder what brand of fanboys are worried about a lighter pick-up. HaHa!

I just don't think the new titan is going to do well. I think it will do worse than the first one, even with more options. I have quite a need for pickups on my farm and have dabbled with a lot of different sizes and brands. I just don't see how the new titan offers any advantage over other trucks. If I need to tow heavy loads I'm going to look at a 3/4 ton or larger with much more capacity at probably close to the same price, not this. If I want to save money and move heavy loads occasionally a half ton does the job perfectly fine and can probably be had for much less than this. I just don't see this doing well when the big three regularly have 5000 to 10000 dollar rebates on their trucks sometimes as much as 13 or 14000. I don't think this can compete on value unless they can offer those kind of huge rebates. I always weigh the pros and cons and this truck just seems to have a lot more cons when compared to either a half ton or 3/4 ton.

I'm wondering if this slow roll out of truck models for the Titan is a good thing or bad thing for them advertising it. Any thoughts? Also, still waiting to see payload specs on the new Titan XD Gas model. I'm hoping they have the same GVW as the Diesel but with the lighter weight of the gas engine the Payload capacities will actually be half decent (2500 pounds?)

I'm wondering if this slow roll out of truck models for the Titan is a good thing or bad thing for them advertising it. Any thoughts? Also, still waiting to see payload specs on the new Titan XD Gas model. I'm hoping they have the same GVW as the Diesel but with the lighter weight of the gas engine the Payload capacities will actually be half decent (2500 pounds?)

@scottk Nissan and Toyota operate by different rules in the half ton truck market because they are not planning to be a top-tier maker of half ton trucks, any more than Chevy plans to be a leader of 2 seat sport cars because they happen to make a few thousand Corvettes every year.

The Nissan truck will be a huge success if they sell 100k of them before Christmas.

If Ford or GM only sold 100k new halfton trucks by Christmas their board of directors would fire every Ford/GM vice president in Detroit.

Why does this matter you ask? Because it changes the rules of their product rollout game. I'm expecting to see Nissan do well with this model. For them, that means taking half ton truck sales away from GM and Ford.

100k is a huge sucess? And I'm selling a bridge. Do you want to buy it? You make me laugh, papa jim. 100k is not a huge success. That is the bare minium that that Nissan needs to sell every year to keep the business plan alive. Good luck with that.

Beebe is spot-on. It's funny that Nissan would say that they don't want to emulate any truck on the market today. Ford DNA stamped all over it would seem to indicate otherwise. Buyers will just go to Ford for the real thing for less $$$. Big mistake by Nissan in my book. I guess the sales will tell the tale, but my guess is it's going to be more of a short story as opposed to a novel.

It appears a couple or more individuals have intercepted the comments section and are obtaining IP addresses . Commenters beware, your IP addresses are probably being obtained for malicious reasons.

To me the company that turns a healthy profit with satisfied customers would be the success. If Nissan only old 20,000 Titans but every truck owner was completely satisfied and profit was made they've done more than just sell some trucks, they've planted a seed in the truck owning population.

Nissan did state in one of it's Titan press releases that the Titan lineup will be attractive to 85% of potential pickup buyers from the now 35% with the old Titan.

This alone indicates that the new Titan will be more popular than the older Titan.

Nissan also stated they are considering or have already decided to change one of their plants to have the capacity for 150 000 Titans a year.

Nice ground clearance.

Nissan: Sustaining 100,000 Sales Key to Titan Success
http://wardsauto.com/industry/nissan-sustaining-100000-sales-key-titan-success

"But I think being up in that kind of (volume) on a sustainable basis is kind of a minimum level for making the business plan work."

In other words 100k = minimum success before they have to pull the plug. Not the huge success.

In 2004 Nissan had a sales projection of 100k, but could only get into the 80ks the first two years. Nissan is aiming for 150k sales but I don't believe they will do it. For comparison, the much more popular Toyota Tundra sold 118,880 units in 2015 and the Titan brought in only 12,140. Is Nissan going to increase sales 10x's? I don't think so.

Still has that fat hippo look.

@ScottK your remark about satisfied customers works great in Candyland.

Unfortunately, a truck or car company that built a dedicated manufacturing operation in Mississippi a few years back exclusively for the production of body/frame SUVs and pickups isn't living in Candyland.

Unless they are using a unique business model (based on candy?) they have to optimize the Mississippi plant's capacity or their stockholders will start de-funding Candyland and start looking for other "opportunities" as they say on Wall Street.

@the informant

You need to go back to school. IP addresses are the stock in trade of legitimate internet activity today.

Your assignment: Please explain -- in a few words -- to the rest of the PUTC readers how an HTTP server assigns, leases, and distributes IP addresses and whether or not those credentials are permanent or temporary. Do not use Wikipedia.

I am watching you.

I think we will see these in some fleet lineups, but i do not imagine it will make a dent in fords or gms fleet sales. Only time will tell though

"The plan is for Nissan eventually to have a complete lineup of pickup choices..."

Complete, eh? I wonder of their "complete" is the same as my "complete", because my complete at least offers the option a manual transmission.

=====================

This is the real Jeff S. and I agree with papa jim on the new Titan. If Nissan does sell 100k then this truck is a success for Nissan. Fleet buyers will buy the cheapest truck, but I am sure that Nissan will offer a discount for fleet buyers. We will see what happens with the new Titan but it appears that it will check a lot of boxes for those who want a certain type of truck especially those wanting a Cummins diesel. Remember Ford, GM, and FCA derive most of their profit on trucks and suvs, Toyota and Nissan do not.

I'm really a gay man but I am having a coming out party today. Just wanted to clear it up and be truthful with my purchase friends.

100,000? No way. IMO there's no way this thing will compete with the tundra in sales. One thing the Tundra has going for it is a stellar reputation for reliability. But even that couldn't get them to really compete with the big three. Nissan doesn't have that reputation for reliability. Yeah it will have a cummins. A cummins that is inferior to the cummins in a 3/4 ton ram. I don't often make predictions like this and I could definitely be wrong......but I think this truck is going to be a huge failure. Like maybe they'll get half of that 100,000. UNLESS somehow they can really offer a competitive price. All of the initial reviews I have read for the titan have indicated this truck is going to be a failure. It's like the reviewers really struggle to say good things about the truck.

Papa Jim - The candy land metaphor you use - doesn't make any sense. People who eat Candy in Candy Land want something that tastes good (aka Candy) and they ignore the detrimental effects and costs it has on them down the road. This is much like people who tend to buy trucks that are cheaper up front, spout off crap like best in class this, best in class that (maybe a few HP, or a few pounds payload more?) but when push comes to shove, are in for repair often and in the scrapper after about 5 years. People who don't want to eat Candy in Candy land see the big picture. They'll sacrifice a few HP, or a few transmission gears, or a few best in class claims for something that is actually engineered and built to last. As consumers become more educated and more aware about the detrimental effects of the Candy on your body and it's costs, they may start to leave Candy Land, where they may start to change their diet to healthier, longer lasting things, that don't cost them in the long run. They live longer, they last longer, and overall, when you transfer this over to trucks, the faster you leave Candy Land, the better ownership experience you will probably have. If Nissan wants to play the Candy Land game with Ford & Chevy they will probably lose. So they should instead focus on the hallmarks and attributes that made the Japanese vehicles as successful as they are - durability, reliability, and quality. People use words like "perceived reliability" to describe the Japanese trucks. Nothing could be further from the truth, even today. It's still just good old reliability, not "perceived." Ever pull up a list of TSB's on new trucks today? The Japanese trucks still have 1/4 to 1/3 of the published TSB's. The Tundra's 5.7 i-Force, while it could be a bit more efficient on paper, is still very much a solid competitor and no push over in the power/torque department. You aren't going to find anything lacking when towing with this truck (it's still arguably the best towing true half ton out there when you look at the package). The funny thing is the competition took a few years to catch up to the Tundra after it came out in '07 and they haven't exceeded it very much to this day, or barely exceeded it. Nissan needs to focus on quality to build up their customer base. If they sell less than 100,000 the first year, but every one of those trucks is solid and quality, they will sell more, and more in the coming years. Plant the seed.

Papa Jim - The candy land metaphor you use - doesn't make any sense. People who eat Candy in Candy Land want something that tastes good (aka Candy) and they ignore the detrimental effects and costs it has on them down the road. This is much like people who tend to buy trucks that are cheaper up front, spout off crap like best in class this, best in class that (maybe a few HP, or a few pounds payload more?) but when push comes to shove, are in for repair often and in the scrapper after about 5 years. People who don't want to eat Candy in Candy land see the big picture. They'll sacrifice a few HP, or a few transmission gears, or a few best in class claims for something that is actually engineered and built to last. As consumers become more educated and more aware about the detrimental effects of the Candy on your body and it's costs, they may start to leave Candy Land, where they may start to change their diet to healthier, longer lasting things, that don't cost them in the long run. They live longer, they last longer, and overall, when you transfer this over to trucks, the faster you leave Candy Land, the better ownership experience you will probably have. If Nissan wants to play the Candy Land game with Ford & Chevy they will probably lose. So they should instead focus on the hallmarks and attributes that made the Japanese vehicles as successful as they are - durability, reliability, and quality. People use words like "perceived reliability" to describe the Japanese trucks. Nothing could be further from the truth, even today. It's still just good old reliability, not "perceived." Ever pull up a list of TSB's on new trucks today? The Japanese trucks still have 1/4 to 1/3 of the published TSB's. The Tundra's 5.7 i-Force, while it could be a bit more efficient on paper, is still very much a solid competitor and no push over in the power/torque department. You aren't going to find anything lacking when towing with this truck (it's still arguably the best towing true half ton out there when you look at the package). The funny thing is the competition took a few years to catch up to the Tundra after it came out in '07 and they haven't exceeded it very much to this day, or barely exceeded it. Nissan needs to focus on quality to build up their customer base. If they sell less than 100,000 the first year, but every one of those trucks is solid and quality, they will sell more, and more in the coming years. Plant the seed.

Seriously, Scottk take a break from the energy drinks! Your sermon may have been more compelling if you had not resorted to lecturing the readers.

100,000 Titan sales still can't be profitable, now that there's so many new variations coming on line. 100,000 of the old, simple, paid for, Titans, yeah maybe. Plus now fleets will be demanding base strippers, formerly not remotely possible.

But if Nissan could maintain 100,000 yearly Titan sales for 10+ years with no major changes, it may turn a small profit.

Except Nissan's plans seem aimed at "long term" domination of the fullsize pickup market, building up to 1 million plus annual sales of a "full range" of fullsize pickups, strippers to high end luxury. Think RCSB half ton "loss leaders" with V6s to $100,000 4500 series beasts with mega luxury.

If Nissan could see wild profits from pickups, obviously decades from now, but equal to Ford and GM, *AND* still keep their regular Nissan cars very profitable, world domination is possible.

@Denver Mike

Without knowing what Nissan's strategy is, it's pretty hard to know what cost they are willing to bear.

I assume that they want to take sales away from Ford and GM for simple reasons related to market share.

If I were a manufacturer in Asia, my goal relative to US and the rest of the NAFTA zone would be to have a piece of a consumer market that has been growing pretty consistently since the late 1940s. A hiccup now and then, but the US is such a huge consumer market that it cannot be ignored if you want to be a player on the global stage.

@papa jim - The profits from GM and Ford fullsize pickups, and to some degree Ram too, are utterly out of this world, so Nissan has to be licking their chops at the thought of grabbing a sizable chunk of it. Wet dreams are made of these.

Any car maker has to take note of the obscene profit potential. Crazy if they don't. At least Nissan is taking some step to get there, and Toyota is sure to follow, don't kid yourself. They already have their toes in the water, so might as well jump in.

Thing is, Ford GM and Ram are handicapped by the small cars they make, $ucking away most of the profits their pickups generate. Nissan doesn't have that small car "problem".

I know it's a long shot or moonshot, but just imagine it. Nissan was on the right track with the Hard Body, but p!ssed it away. That thing ruled the segment and those things are still absolutely everywhere. Nissan should have made the Hard Body in fullsize 'scale', instead of the Titan years later, which can hardly do anything right. Checks very few boxes.

What's been Nissan's 'problem' anyway, the last few decades? So many of their cars ruled their particular segments, all through the '80s. Current Nissan cars don't exactly $uck, but there's no substance, no soul, and for me, no sale.

But I've never understood the "It's for taking sales (market share) away from...". Is any automaker willing to sacrifice profits for market share? If they are, would it be smart? Sounds like a GM tactic though. But it doesn't compute from a business point of view.

@Denver Mike

some manufacturing companies dominate their competition with product-development; others with segment domination--still others with year/year revenue growth.

You are correct that profits drive strategy at some companies, but that is not the only strategy.

Many of the popular tech firms today started out in the growth segment, and let the bean counters sweat the profits. If you are not One, Two or Three in revenues, it's a waste of time to worry about profitability.

I plan to buy a new 2018 Nissan Titan 2 door 4X4 Pro 6 or 8 foot bed.

I'd love to see how the Titan XD regular cab long bed compares to identical configurations from the GM and Ram 2500's and the Ford F250 in price, capability and performance. Gas and Diesel numbers side by side as well. I'm in the market for a new(er) 3/4-ton for my work truck and don't want a crew cab Big Ranch Marlboro Rodeo 1776 Titanium Yosemite edition, I want a regular cab long bed with just a few options to make my life easier because my truck is my office and hauls tools and materials and equipment every day and not children or groceries. If capability is equal or similar between the Nissan and the Big Three but the Nissan is a better deal, you will have my attention. Is it a better deal? I don't know, that's why I'm interested in a work truck comparison side by side.

@papa jim - Nissan's motivation has to be solely profit driven, long term, not so much stealing market share from companies they don't directly compete with.

Nissan could put themselves in a position to lead the world with the right trucks, unless Toyota wakes up and beats them to it with the profit Ford or GM sees from fullsize pickups.

The odds are slim either will accomplish it, but if I'm a stockholder, I'd better see them take a good stab at it.

"...Nissan did state in one of its Titan press releases the Titan lineup will be attractive to 85% of potential pickup buyers from the now 35% with the old Titan..."

@BAFO - Does this really make sense to you? Please explain how 35% of pickup buyers were attracted to the old Titan and less than 1% actually bought it??

Is this the New Math???

The fair comparison here is the Tundra- Toyota has been offering a RC/LB since day one, although their Gen1 offering whas too much of a light weight for anything but very light delivery work. If Nissan sticks with (at least options for) their 8990GVW, and can get their base weigt down a ways with this configuration, they'd have something. The NV van weighs around 3tons, and they should be able to beat at least that.

@papa jim- Bread and butter hasn't been in clorox bottle fleet trucks in a decade. When they build those trucks, its to balance out production capacity. Bread and butter is in high margin trucks- 50k family haulers.

@beebe- The Titan XD currently undercutsa domestic 3/4ton diesel by 6-8 grand, and is only a little more than a Max-tow F150 equivalent. Rebates are out there, but just because you can get huge deals on last years truck right now, doesn't mean that will last.

@Scott K- the Gasser (all aluminum, smaller trans, no heavy ATD) should be 5-700lb lighter. That would make some real useful payloads possible, and would put it on the same rung as GMs old 1500HD trucks.

The XD with the Cummins... I want to understand it but cant... A truck that costs almost as much as a real 3/4 ton but cant do what a real 3/4 does but rides nicer. The XD without a Cummins... a truck that hauls the same as most 1/2 tons but is a lot heavier? The Regular Titan... A truck comparable in price and capability to the rest of the half ton competitors? If you are going to make a 5/8 ton it really should have notable weight/MPG/Ride/Price advantages over the 3/4 tons. It should also have real capacity advantages (both payload and towing) over 1/2 tons. All it has is a ride advantage. If you want a nice ride you need to get a car. It seems like its trying to hide in a self created gray area and I have a bad feeling its gonna be lost in there.

@Clint- I agree that the towing capacity and payload should be a little higher- especially with that gooseneck hitch they're peddling. Something at least matching the F150 high GVW trucks and around 14k for towing. Perhaps they could offer a higher GVW with heavier springs on the bottom trims and rear bags on the top trims.
Makes me a little apprehensive about how much less capability the regular Titan will have.

@ Mr Knowitall you come by your name honestly!

Seriously, Nissan's management will surely test the waters with a hollywood version of their new diesel truck--then they'll offer gas models in V8 and V6 powertrains if I understand correctly. Following that, the Nissan dealers will be screaming for a value-priced truck.

At some point, if they're lucky, they will max the capacity of their Mississippi plant. At that point the fleet trucks will become unattractive. Till then, the dealers will be happy to see an offering at every price point.

I think the cummins is the problem. Spec a gas powered xd for max tow and I bet people will be very surprised about the payload and tow numbers. Also the gas engine already has a 7 speed connected to it in a suv. The 7 speed is great! It is one of the better transmissions I have experienced from infinity. Might also get better economy than similar equipped f250 gas, 2500hd gas. This. Cummins deal forced Nissan to pump cummins up first to move inventory, get those diesels out of the way and when they release the gas edition all hell will break lose because it's going to ROCK!

@mrknowitall

6 to 8 grand? No. The base price is 40290 for the titan xd. Base price on a super duty crew cab diesel is 44,460. For a ram 2500 crew diesel it's 43240. Now consider pretty much any day of the year you can get 4 to 5 grand off of these 3/4 trucks. Really just about any day of the year you can get at least that much with minimal bargaining and much of the year you can get 7500 to 10000 off. I've seen as much as 15000. Right now ram is advertising 8 grand bonus cash on 2016 trucks and this is not a good time of year for rebates. So unless Nissan offers these same discounts (which is very unlikely) you can easily get a 3/4 ton diesel for less than a titan. Even if you compare prices of base nissan xd to the xlt ford or big horn ram(I just built a big horn diesel crew cab with estimated selling price of 43,000) you should easily be able to get a 3/4 ton for about the same price as a titan. Only way I'm wrong is if nissan offers these same kind of rebates. And really if you consider what the trucks are, it makes sense a 3/4 ton could be had for the same price. The nissan is truly a 3/4 ton truck with a smaller engine. Probably costs about the same to manufacture.

@price vs 3/4t
XD 4x4 SV- 48k
Silverado 4x4 LV- 55k (+7)
F250 4x4 XLT- 53k (+5)
RAM 4x4 SLT- 53k (+5)
Those are trucks w/o anything but the diesel option. The G56 in the RAM no longer saves any money. All 3 HD trucks show their "smart target" price just over invoice, or 50-51k. Less of a margin, but still more than the Nissan.
The Cummins V8 probably does cost every dollar as much as the HD engines. the transmission is likely cheaper, as is the emissions system, since its a 300hp system, rather than a 400+ unit. Size matters (a little). In this sense, the TitanXD is the same dilemma as midsize trucks vs conventional 1/2 tons. It really doesn't save anything. Looking back, the GM1500HD and Dodge 1500MegaCab also cost the same as their 2500 gasser counterparts. Some people still bought them.
I think it comes down to how good Nissan designed their trucks to be compatible/flexible. If they designed their Van/XD chassis from the onset to be an easy swap for the lighter hardware, it might make sense with much lower numbers than it does for the domestics- which are engineered completely different, and likely return larger margins. Remember, Carlos Gohsn isn't impressed by taking the domestics to school. He just wants his truck plant to meet projected returns.

YOU GUYS ARE ALL DOLTS....

FORD,GM,TOYOTA,RENAULT-NISSAN FANS ARE COMPLETE UNDEDUCATED DOLTS...

IGNORANT COMMENTS,WRONG INFORMATION AND LACK OF IT...ARE YOU ALL 13 YEAR OLDS,SOUND SLIKE IT..............

@MRKNOWITALL
Your numbers are simply wrong. I literally went on the ram website and built a crew cab diesel big horn (which is two trims higher than an SLT) and the "estimated selling price" as stated on the website was 43,xxx. My brother last fall bought a 6.7 powerstroke xlt with a few options for under 50,000.

This makes since considering that Nissan may now want to also step into the Fleet Sales Market with this Regular Cab offering to further sharpen the competition with GM, Ford and RAM for increased market share based on a wider range of sales, we'll see how this plays out with this option if that will also be the case.