2016 Nissan Titan XD: First Drive

Nissan has sold its Titan pickup in the U.S. for over 10 years now. The new Titan XD represents a fully reworked version of the Mississippi-made truck, but did the Japanese automaker take it far enough?

What is it? 2016 Nissan Titan XD, full-size pickup truck

Price: Not yet released

Competitors: Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, Ram 1500, GMC Sierra, Toyota Tundra

Alternatives: Ford F-250, Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD, Ram 2500

Pros: Competent truck with handsome, familiar chops and a lovely Cummins diesel V-8

Cons: Does little to move the needle

Conventional wisdom has its good points: It’s the safe play. It’s the proven thing. And it usually means everything will work the way it’s supposed to work. But with conventional wisdom, by definition, it’s impossible to do anything unexpected. Or exciting.

Nissan’s new 2016 Titan XD is the mechanical incarnation of conventional wisdom. It’s built like other full-size pickup trucks, it looks like other full-size pickups, and it runs pretty much like other pickup trucks. It’s likely no one was expecting a great leap forward with this truck, and that’s exactly what happened.

Keeping that in mind, the new Titan XD is a competent big truck with abilities that slot it in somewhere between half and three-quarter ton trucks. That’s not a big slot, but Nissan doesn’t need too much room for this truck to thrive as a bigger sales success than the first generation Titan it’s replacing. Remember that first generation Titan? It’s been on sale since 2004. Swear to God.

While it’s the Titan XD that goes on sale first, there will be a regular, lighter duty Titan that goes on sale later. The Titan XD’s frame is its own, while the lighter duty version will ride on what amounts to an updated version of the original Titan’s underpinnings. Initially all Titan XDs will be diesels, while a thoroughly revised version of Nissan’s 5.6-liter gas-burning V-8 will be offered later. And there will be three body styles, though the first batch of XDs will all be crew cabs—massive, ginormous, super-sized crew cabs.

Engineered in the United States and built in the same Mississippi plant where the first Titan was assembled, the Titan XD carries all the current big truck styling tropes with it. That includes a monstrous chrome front grille upon which you could roast a whole rhinoceros, gigantic doors that open up like slabs of marble in a mausoleum, and a little dip in the front doors’ side glass that’s pure Ford Super Duty. In fact, the Titan XD looks like it’s trying really hard to be a Ford without being a Ford.

Dining, dancing and a floorshow could be offered inside the Titan’s Crew Cab and there would still be room left over for a coat checkroom. Decked out in “Platinum Reserve” trim (above), the seats are mostly flat, and upholstered in leather that skitters along the fine line between supple and rugged—more baseball glove than motorcycle jacket. And all the instrumentation is operated by big, work glove friendly, knobs and buttons.

Like the trucks it competes against, the Titan XD can be equipped with every useful tech toy and most of the use-free tech diversions. Migrating over from other Nissan models is overhead view display that is stitched together from four different cameras. It’s the simple rearview camera that makes backing in to hook up a trailer easy.

But that electronic flash isn’t the part of the Titan XD that will attract the most attention. It’s the new Cummins-made 5.0-liter turbo diesel V-8 under the hood that brings glamour to this beast. Rated at 310-horsepower and 555 lb.-ft. of peak torque, it doesn’t produce the sheer grunt found in Ford, GM and Dodge’s bigger truck diesels. If you’re going to tow stupendous loads, you’ll still want one of the three-quarter or one-ton pickups.

But most people have more modest towing needs—a single car hauler, a two-horse trailer, three quads or four motorcycles—well below the up to 12,000 lbs. Nissan says the Titan XD can handle. And for that duty, the new Titan is great. The Cummins engine is very quiet, the Aisin six-speed automatic transmission shifts with satisfying thumps, and the chassis is exceedingly well tuned for the task. The truck it’s going to be compared with most isn’t any of the behemoth duallies, but the Ram EcoDiesel that runs a VM Motori 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6. And the Nissan’s American-made Cummins V-8 swamps that Italian engine’s 240 horsepower and 420 lb.-ft. of torque.

But the Titan XD does have a serious weight problem. Nissan claims a loaded Titan XD Platinum Reserve 4x4 overwhelms the scales at 7,480 lbs. That’s about the same as the three-quarter ton trucks with their more powerful and larger diesels. It’s enough weight to dampen the Titan’s acceleration significantly and keep it from enjoying any significant fuel economy advantage. Think 0-60 mph times a couple ticks over nine seconds and fuel economy in the 14- or 15-mpg range.

As a marginal player in the huge full-size truck market, Nissan didn’t have much to lose in redesigning the Titan. And by sticking with conventional wisdom—that’s from the double-wishbone suspension up front to the solid axle on leaf springs in back and the thick steel ladder frame in between—they’ve walked away from the chance to take a chance. This all-steel Titan has got Ford looks without the F-150′s lightweight aluminum body. It has a sweet diesel engine, but lacks the Ram’s coil spring or air ride rear suspension. And it doesn’t have the satisfyingly athletic responses of GM’s trucks.

Conventional wisdom has taken the Nissan Titan this far and no farther.

Prices should start at under $40,000 with fully-loaded Platinum Reserve models rolling in over $60K, although Nissan hasn’t yet announced final pricing. Titan XDs will be in showrooms at the end of December.