Autoblog

Even in a down pickup truck market, the all-new Dodge Ram should be a boon to Chrysler and not just because it's a far better truck than the one it replaces. The new Ram will also be the next Nissan Titan, a deal that helps Chrysler keep its truck factories running closer to maximum capacity. With Nissan borrowing Ram mechanicals and engineering, the assumption has been that Chrysler's 5.7L HEMI V8 was going to be part of the package. Nissan officials have continually denied that any decision about the truck's engine of choice has yet to be made and that its own Evolution 5.6L powerplant was still under consideration.

Chrysler chairman Jim Press put any speculation to rest when he declared at an LA Motor Guild meeting recently that the Nissan Titan would indeed receive HEMI power. After our friend Mike Levine from Pickuptrucks.com broke the news, Nissan responded by saying that it has made no decisions concerning the HEMI engine and when it does, the announcement would come from Nissan. It makes sense that the next Titan would be HEMI-fied, especially considering that the engineering needed to mate the HEMI and Ram platform has already been done and paid for, and part logistics are already in sync with truck assembly. Plus, the new HEMI produces a class-leading 390 horsepower and gets decent fuel economy for a big, burly truck engine. Nissan could do much worse.

[Source: Pickuptrucks.com]

Following the lead of Japan's other two big-time automakers, Toyota and Honda, Nissan has just announced that it too will be cutting truck production to focus on cars. At its Canton, Mississippi plant, Nissan will cut in half the number of shifts for workers assembling Titan pickup trucks and Armada full-size SUVs. On the flip-side, the automaker will add a third shift for production of the Altima mid-size sedan, which should allow it to keep its workers on the job. This move is not surprising, as passenger cars have been outselling their truck brethren handily in these days of record high gasoline prices. Ford, which has a new F-150 set to go on sale shortly, has offered employee pricing for its trucks, while General Motors recently announced that it would be idling four plants that produce trucks and SUVs and may rid itself of the HUMMER brand entirely. Dodge, for its part, is offering cheap gas and big incentives as a ploy to get consumers interested in its pickups. Unfortunately, it's not as easy for our domestic automakers to switch plants from producing trucks to passenger cars as many are older facilities that weren't built with flexible production in mind.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

More details have emerged about the next-generation Dodge Ram-based Nissan Titan pickup. Questions about how similar the two trucks will be have been partially answered, as Pickuptruck.com reports that the Titan and Ram will share only their doors and roof panels. The next-gen Titan will feature an exterior and interior designed solely by Nissan, which should put to rest concerns about a rebadged Dodge Ram. The two trucks will, however, share platforms, the Ram's new coil-sprung rear suspension, the cool RamBox storage compartment (despite hearing previously that the Titan wouldn't get this feature), and engines. In fact, in addition to a 3.7L V6 and 4.7L V8 sourced from Chrysler and a Cummins light-duty diesel V8, Nissan may offer Chrysler's 5.7L HEMI V8 rather than its own 5.6L 'Endurance' V8. Apparently the HEMI costs several hundred dollars less to build than the Endurance engine. Pickuptruck.com reports that the 5.6L V8 would still live on in the Nissan Armada and Infiniti QX56 producing 400 and 450 horsepower, respectively.

Nissan is also reportedly going to produce a three-quarter-ton and one-ton Heavy Duty Titan, though these trucks will share no components with Chrysler products and be built alongside two other yet-to-be-announced light commercial vehicles at Nissan's plant in Canton, Mississippi.

[Source: Pickuptruck.com]

While the big news story surrounding 2007 sales is that Toyota passed Ford as the No. 2 best-selling automaker in the U.S. last year, there were plenty of interesting battles happening between individual models, as well. The truck segment, though shrinking, is still the most competitive in the U.S. market, and 2007 saw the most serious challenge yet to the domestics' market dominance with the introduction of the 2007 Toyota Tundra.

While the F-Series pickup retained its title of Best-Selling Truck for the 31st year in a row (also the Best-Selling Vehicle in the U.S. for the 26th year in a row), its sales fell 13.2% to 690,589. And to think, the F-Series' best-selling year ever was just three years ago in 2004 when it sold 939,511 units. Give the F-Series credit, however, for retaining its No. 1 position despite a brand new Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra on the market. GM's new GMT900 trucks did help the automaker mitigate a similar sales slide, with sales falling only 2.8% to 618,257 for the Silverado and 1.2% to 208,243 for the Sierra in 2007. The Dodge Ram also did well despite the shrinking market, with sales off just 2% at 358,295.

The Toyota Tundra, however, is the story the year...

Follow the jump for more analysis and the raw sales numbers for trucks sold in the U.S. last year.

[Sources: Ford, GM, Chrysler LLC, Toyota, Nissan]

No one doubts that selling full-size trucks in the U.S. is a tough racket. Nissan knows this firsthand, as it's sold only 60,961 units of its Titan pickup so far in 2007. Compare that to the third best-selling truck in the U.S., the Dodge Ram, which has sold 326,177 units, or the new-for-2007 Toyota Tundra, which has sold 177,336 units.

In a Newsweek article profiling Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan-Renault reportedly hinted that he may kill the Titan pickup. The fact is, it's becoming less and less profitable to compete in a full-size truck segment that's shrinking and becoming more competitive by the day. While Ghosn is far from hammering the last nail in the Titan's coffin, his reported comment simply highlights the fact that a smart company will build what it can sell for a profit.

Producing a pickup profitably is clearly on Ghosn's mind, and considering last Friday's rumor that Nissan is in talks with Chrysler on a possible collaboration, a Dodge Ram-based Titan that's cheaper to produce than the current truck is definitely a possibility going forward. Either that, or there won't be a Titan at all if Ghosn can't figure out how to make a buck off it.

[Source: Newsweek via Pickuptruck.com]

Because so much of what SEMA is about concerns the aftermarket, each year the organization honors the most accessory-friendly vehicles with an award. This isn't to say that these are the best vehicles on the market, but rather that each represents a car or truck where the manufacturer has worked with the aftermarket and SEMA to help make accessories more readily available from the time the vehicle is launched. They also show how these manufacturers are thinking ahead and planning for customization during the design process to make modifying the car easier after it's launched. There are four classes thus rewarded: Car, Truck, and SUV. The categories have grown this year to include hybrids as a separate group. For 2007, the awards went to the Nissan Titan in the Truck category, the Cadillac CTS won in the Car category and the Hummer H2 won in the SUV category. The Hybrid award went to the Chevy Tahoe. Perhaps the ONLY design award some of these vehicles will ever win.

[Source: SEMA]

All indications are that Ford will be dumping the Navistar diesels it's used in its Super Duty pickups almost forever in favor of an in-house-developed diesel sometime around the end of the decade. Apparently undaunted by the quality issues that Ford has repeatedly experienced with the Navistar engines, Nissan appears ready to step into the breach and pick up the supply for the Titan pickup.

Since it appears that Nissan won't be developing a heavy duty version of the Titan, it's not clear at this point if it will use the current 6.4L V-8 that Ford uses or the smaller engine that Navistar had developed for the light-duty Fords. Most likely it will be the latter engine, and it may be available for 2009. Nissan, as expected, won't comment on future products -- except when they do (they previously announced a diesel Maxima for 2010).

[Source: Pickuptruck.com]

UPDATE: Mike Levine at Pickuptruck.com spoke with Nissan spokesperson John Schilling who told him, "We haven't announced anything about a diesel engine for the Titan. This news is speculation at this point, but we are continuing to study this technology for potential future use. The only vehicle we've said that will have a diesel engine is the Maxima in 2010."

With Toyota's coming out party for the Tundra in full swing, the full-size truck segment has been getting a lot of attention. With the spotlight focused intensely on any vehicle with a bed, Nissan decided it was time for the Titan to show up looking its best. To that end, Nissan will be giving its full-size pickup a new set of threads for the Chicago Auto Show next month. Of course, the Autoblog team will be there to bring you all the live shots you've come to expect from us.

Nissan really needs to start focusing on the customer again, having lost some of the half-ton pickup market share last year. The new Tundra will certainly continue to draw sales away, as well. In fact, Toyota is hoping to move 200,000 Tundras this year, and most expect those sales to largely come out of the Titan's customer base. While others believe the domestics are more vulnerable, the loyalty of their buyers is so strong that Nissan is a more likely target. Will a new nose help? Probably not, as we've seen first hand that truck buyers are more interested in frame rails and transfer cases.

[Source: The Car Connection]