AUTOMOTIVE - DRIVEN: Titan With Room For The Crew

It seems strange that the biggest back seats this side of limousines can be found these days in full-size crew-cab pickup trucks. The four-door pickups, originally designed for contractors to tote along burly members of their work crews, have also established a roomy niche for those who want a pickup truck that also serves as a family sedan.

The Nissan Titan crew cab could be just the thing for carrying five regulation-size people out to the lake or campsite while towing a boat, camper or toy trailer loaded with ATVs. Or taking your buddies out to the track with a race car on the trailer.

Titan can be optioned up with a full range of premium features. (Photo: Nissan) For our family, it was perfect for holiday fun, which included loading up two extra-tall sons and a new daughter-in-law and cruising for Christmas light displays. Plenty of room inside for us and a couple thermoses of hot chocolate, and the high seating positions provided grand views of some over-the-top light shows. An excellent Rockford Fosgate audio system added the soundtrack.

Each full-size pickup brand ? Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, Dodge Ram and Toyota Tundra ? has something in a big crew-cab model along with standard and stretch-cab versions. They?re all enormous beasts, and all of them have succeeded in raising the bar toward nearly carlike drivability despite their heft.

The mighty Titan is an imposing vehicle that looks like an upsized version of the long-running Frontier. While basically a brawny workhorse, the test Titan was loaded with premium amenities that made it easy to forget its real purpose as a heavyweight cargo hauler and trailer tower.

The dashboard has a sturdy truck look with a good-looking set of gauges. (Photo: Nissan) Just one engine is available, the 5.6-liter, double-overhead-cam, all-aluminum V8 that generates 317 horsepower and 385 pounds-feet of maximum torque. That might sound modest compared with the competition?s top engines, but the V8 feels smooth and powerful, and towing capacity for the four-wheel-drive, short-wheelbase model we had peaks at 9,300 pounds with a 1,877-pound maximum payload in the bed.

Real trucks guys also might fault the lack of a diesel option for improved torque and fuel mileage. The EPA mileage rating for the 5,300-pound test truck was grim: 12 mpg city, 17 highway.

The Crew Cab model?s skimpy fuel mileage and huge dimensions limits its appeal as a personal runabout pickup, although the handling and maneuverability are decent as long as you don?t push too hard or expect to thread the needle through traffic. Parking takes some planning ahead.

The optioanl bedside storage compartment provides lockable stowage for small items. (Photo: Nissan) Titan prices start at $27,710 for a well-equipped base-model King Cab, with the midrange SV Crew Cab 4X4 version we tried out starting off at $34,460. The tester was enhanced with an SV Premium Utility Package that includes the superb 10-speaker Rockford Fosgate Premium Audio System, Homelink transceiver, power pedal adjustment, lockable bedside storage compartment, adjustable tie-down system and a few other items for $1,910.

There was also an SV Value Package with captain?s chairs up front, power driver seat, leather steering-wheel rim and shift knob, air vents in the rear, backup sonar, towing equipment and some other stuff for $1,350. There was also a charge of $225 for a rear bumper step and $975 for shipping, bringing the total to $38,920.

The Titan drove well with no real complaints, other than the fuel mileage, and comparisons with competitors are largely a matter of taste. The full-size pickups from Nissan and Toyota have made some inroads in a segment dominated by the domestic brands, though at least one aspect holds them back: pickup-truck drivers tend to be fiercely loyal to their brands and not so likely to switch to an import.

Details

Vehicle type: Five-passenger, four-door crew-cab pickup truck, four-wheel drive.
Engine: 5.6-liter V8, 317 horsepower at 5,200 rpm, 385 pound-feet of torque at 3,400 rpm.
Transmission: Five-speed automatic.
Curb weight: 5,334 pounds.
Wheelbase: 139.8 inches.
Overall length: 224.6 inches.
Towing capacity: 9,300 pounds.
EPA fuel mileage: 12 city, 17 highway.

Bob Golfen, Automotive Editor for SPEED.com, is a veteran auto writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, with a passion for collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle. SPEED.com fans can email Bob Golfen at

Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/driven-titan-with-room-for-the-crew/

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