Nissan's Titan Driving Experience Rolls Along
Nissan is attempting to raise awareness of its lineup of Titan pickup trucks by touring the country with the Titan Driving Experience. The tour has two goals — educate dealers on the Titan's capabilities and give truck shoppers a chance to drive the trucks on small courses designed to highlight the Titan's capabilities.
I visited a local event at the StubHub Center in Los Angeles to check it out. There were two tracks to drive on. Titan half-tons used a pavement-based autocross course, with small portions of the track dedicated to acceleration, braking and handling. On the other side of the parking lot, a small off-road course was setup for the Titan XD, including a log crawl, an angled dirt pile to showcase articulation and a big dirt mound for a hill climb.
I spoke to Derek Brown, a Nissan dealer trainer, and he said that one of the goals was to teach dealers how to sell trucks. Nissan has sold the Frontier and Titan out of showrooms since 2004 but there's never been much emphasis placed on the two pickups, something Nissan hopes to change. The Titan Driving Experience includes education on the different trim and cab configurations, competitive comparisons, a thorough review of the Titan's capabilities and a demonstration of the Titan's towing capability for select XD models.
The company also will emphasize the big ace up its sleeve — the class-leading five-year/100,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty compared to the three-year/36,000-mile warranties offered by its competition. For folks who are looking to keep their trucks for the long haul, this could be a huge benefit.
The Titan Driving Experience rolls to a few more stops this year: Edison, N.J., Sunday; Houston, Thursday; Tampa, Fla., Oct. 15-16; and Denver, Oct. 21. Click here to find an event near you. And to schedule your own Titan test drive, click here.
Cars.com photos by Brian Wong
Comments
LOL, "Off road driving course". This is so lame it is beyond belief.
They are going to have to do allot more to sell the Titan in large volume than this weak course.
Talked to my friends that still sell Nissans... Titan XDs aren't selling. He told me no one wants a $60K truck. I laughed and told him it happens every at Ford, GMC, Chevy, and Fiat dealerships... No one wants a 5/8ths ton pickup for 62K when they could get a 3/4 or 1 ton with more everything for that money. I hope Nissan progresses beyond this and doesn't give up.
They need to either deliver more performance/capability, or more value.
the new trucks are alright , but the front end is too big and bulky for the rest of the truck...and no moonroof option????? not good
The new Titan lacks the configurability that the modern truck buyer expects. GM, Ford, and Ram pickups all offer a wide array of options, from axle ratios, payload options, body accents, interior features, and cab configurations.
I just went to the Titan website and built one. Still no extended cab option. You're stuck with a crew cab with a short (useless) 5'7" bed. No axle ratio options. No payload rating options. No fuel tank capacity options. No bed length options.
It's not a particularly good looking truck to begin with, but the lack configurations is really really hurting it. It's a shame because this truck is clearly better than the Tundra, Nissan just isn't executing.
They desperately need the Titan Warrior at this point. At least it'll get people to pay attention to the Titan/Titan XD.
Nissan needs to quickly make some changes to the design of this truck. First, the truck is to big for the sake of being big. The front end is too long and bulky. There isn't an option for s sun roof or panoramic sunroof. Materials are great and the truck drives nice. So, shorten the front and make it more proportional to the overall size. Second, make sunroof an option. Third, don't worry so much about being big. The current f-150 is a nice size overall and the last Nissan Titan was a nice size. I think if Nissan had made a truck slightly smaller than the current Ford and slightly larger than the Colorado would be great. I hope Nissan doesn't give up but the should hire Some Ford designers. Finally, they need to keep the loaded truck price under $48k.
Too bad someone didn't teach Nissan how to design the XD then maybe they wouldn't have to teach dealers how to unload them.
They should call it the County Road driving course...
It would behoove Nissan to come up with better bumpers and
better wheel well enclosires
It would behoove Nissan to come up with better bumpers and
better wheel well enclosires
Most of these comments have no relation to the actual quality of a truck. The reason they aren't selling well is uneducated buyers and salesmen. Not because it's a poor truck. Keep buying your favs cause moon roofs and poet mirrors area potently what makes a good truck. Nissan makes just as good and sometimes better a truck as the rest.
Next door neighbor has the XD. He's going through Arbitration with Nissan since he's had it in their shop for the same thing 3 times, and in addition, his only gets 8 MPG. He's no lead foot. He's an old man.
You couldn't pay me to buy that thing.
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