Nissan announces that the 2024 Nissan Titan will end production in the summer of 2024. It’s being discontinued, and the Canton, Mississippi facility where it is currently built will be repurposed to produce two new all-electric Nissan vehicles. Nissan says no reduction in workforce is expected with this change.
It is and it was a very good and useful pickup truck. Here are the Top 5 reasons why we like it and why will miss it after next summer.
5. Great Launch – 2001/2003
Nissan did a lot of things right when they launch the new Nissan Titan in the U.S. in 2003. It all started with the Alpha-T Concept pickup truck in 2001. The production version of the Titan King Cab was shown in January 2003. The Titan crew cab was shown in April of 2003, and the truck went into production in the fall of 2003.
Thus the 2004 Nissan Titan half-ton pickup truck was born – built in the USA for U.S. customers.
4. Segment-First Features
The 2004 Nissan Titan brought several segment-first features, which is very important for a successful vehicle launch.
- It was the first production truck with a factory-done spray-in bed liner.
- It was the first pickup truck with a track system in the bed for tieing cargo down with movable cleats.
- It was the first extended cab truck with nearly 180-degree wide-opening rear doors.
3. Catchy Branding
Nissan put some catchy brand names behind this pickup truck. First, the name of the truck shows strength. It’s the “Titan”! The 5.6L V8 engine is named the “Endurance”. This engine is built in Smyrna, Tennessee. This is the name that is still used today. The extended (non-CrewCab) version of the truck is called the “King Cab”. The original 5-speed automatic transmission was called the “Torq-King”.
2. Original V8 Capability
When this truck launched in 2004, it offered a V8 with a rating of 305 horsepower and 379 lb-ft of torque. The 5.6L Endurance V8 is also a great-sounding engine. The 5.4L V8 in the 2004 Ford F-150 had less horsepower and less torque. The 2004 Titan had a very competitive tow rating of 9,400 lbs.
The Titan offered a relatively large 28-gallon fuel tank. The Titan crew cab had a cavernous 126 cu-ft of total volume. It’s big and useful.
1. Value
The Nissan Titan always offered a competitive value-mind price. For example, a 2023 Nissan Titan V8 King cab 2WD starts at $42,245 including destination charges. A comparable 2023 Ford F-150 V8 Super cab 2WD is priced at $43,280. A competitive 2023 Chevy Silverado 1500 V8 starts at $43,435.
These are the main reasons why will miss the Nissan Titan.
Now, let’s take a look at the Top 5 Why the Nissan Titan is going away after the 2024 model year.
“Big 3” Brand Loyalty
From the very get-go, the Nissan Titan had a tall mountain to climb against the entrenched American Big 3 pickup truck manufacturers and the Toyota Tundra that was on the market already. Brand loyalty and convenience go back many decades with the GM (Chevrolet and GMC), Ford, and Dodge/Ram pickup trucks.
The Titan was and is always compared against the best in the business, and this is a very tough obstacle to overcome.
No Halo Model
The Nissan Titan had several special editions and stand-out models. There were the NISMO Off-Road packages and the PRO-4X lineup. The recent Platinum Reserve luxury lineup is on par with the best luxurious pickup trucks out there. However, the Titan never really had that ultra-special “halo” version.
The company showed a Titan Warrior concept pickup truck in 2016, but nothing similar to it ever reached production. This hurt their chances of bringing more buyers into the showrooms.
Titan XD Debacle
Much respect should be given to Nissan for adding the larger and more capable Titan XD truck lineup for the new generation in 2016. The XD is a pickup with a larger and stronger frame. It also accommodates a 5.0L Cummins V8 turbo-diesel engine.
The Titan XD inevitably got compared to the Chevy Silverado HD 2500, the Ford F-250, and the Ram HD 2500 pickup trucks. The XD was positioned as a truck that is more capable than a 1/2-ton, but less capable than a traditional 3/4-ton pickup.
The XD offered around 2,500 lbs of maximum payload and just over 12,000 lbs of maximum towing. The 5.0L Cummins V8 diesel was rated at 310 hp and 555 lb-ft of torque. The Cummins V8 was not very powerful or much more efficient when compared to the traditional Big-3 heavy-duty pickup trucks. For comparison, this 2016 Cummins V8 had just about the same power output as a 2003 Ram HD 5.9L Cummins I6 common rail engine (305 hp and 555 lb-ft).
The 5.0L diesel V8 later struggled with emissions system reliability and overall dependability.
When customers had a choice between a Titan XD and traditional HD pickups – they often chose the more capable HD trucks. While we always felt super confident behind the wheel of a Titan XD when pulling a large trailer, the XD continued to fall short in the ratings game. The 2020 Titan and Titan XD refresh did NOT increase the payload or towing capacities.
Lack of Engine Choices / Bad MPG
The Nissan Titan never offered a wide range of powertrain options, like the popular Big-3 trucks. As you already saw, we respect and love the 5.6L Endurance V8 – it was never class-leading in fuel efficiency for full-size pickup trucks. It’s difficult to win conquest sales when your pickup truck does not offer very good overall efficiency or many power options.
For comparison, the 2023 Ford F-150 lineup offers eight powertrain options across their lineup, including a gas/electric, a supercharged V8, and an all-electric version.
Never Class-leading
I think you see where this is going. The Nissan Titan generally did not and does not lead many categories. As I said already, it’s a very good truck but it just does not lead on payload, towing, or efficiency.
Here are our thoughts on the subject in the video below. Please let me know what you think in the comments section.
