Nissan Takes a Chainsaw to the Titan, Offers a Regular Cab Version

With so many parents using crew cab pickups as family haulers, it’s gotten to the point where a regular cab full-sizer starts to look weird. Well, Nissan has one on tap that looks weirder.

Nissan will offer a regular cab Titan and Titan XD this fall, part of its plan to flesh out the lineup to three body styles. An extended “King Cab” version will follow the “Single Cab”, which is somewhat jarring when viewed from the side.

The automaker pulled the wraps off the newest Titan member today. It’s the first full-size regular cab in Nissan’s history, and (along with the future extended cab) its purpose is to soak up more sales by covering more bases.

“Once we complete the roll-out of all (Titan) cab, bed, powertrain and grade level configurations, our all-new (Titan) family will cover about 85 percent of the total light pickup marketplace,” said Rich Miller, chief product specialist for Titan and Titan XD, in a release.

Nissan didn’t announce pricing, but called the new models “an affordable and rugged entry-point in the commercial fleet/work truck market.”

Regular cab Titans come with an eight-foot bed, two trim lines, and a choice of engines — a 5.6-liter gasoline V8 or the 5.0-liter Cummins turbo diesel V8. A V6 will follow at a later date. Gas models get a seven-speed automatic transmission, while diesel versions receive a six-speed unit. The wheelbase is about a foot shorter than Crew Cab versions.

The regular cab models look fine from the beltline on down, where the Titan’s bulging fenders add visual muscle to its flanks. The sloping roofline ends abruptly and looks a bit awkward, like a Holden Ute.

Work and fleet buyers traditionally head to the Detroit Three to meet their needs, but Nissan hopes they’ll look its way and think hmm, maybe I’ll go Japanese this time. Before the redesigned models arrived, Nissan said it wanted to sell 100,000 Titans annually.

Titan sales reached a peak of 86,945 units in 2005, but its been a steady decline since then. A post-recession peak of 23,416 units came in 2010, but last year’s total was only 12,140. May and June sales figures were well off last year’s performance, but the changeover from the previous generation to the 2017 Titan could explain that. The Titan XD bowed as a 2016 model, but was slow to reach dealer lots in significant numbers.

Regular cab Titans go on sale in late fall.

[Image: Nissan]