One reason to the Japanese automakers’ success in markets as different from theirs as the North-American lies on their ability to adapt. Nissan, for instance, didn’t thought twice and created a giant variety of cars sold worldwide, from the kei car Roox to the huge van Elgrand and even some rebadged other brands’ cars. But each one carefully assigned only to the countries where it has bigger chances of obtaining customer approval. One of those examples is the full-size pick-up truck you will meet by reading this article.
As the other Eastern automakers, the beginning of Nissan’s operations in the US was composed mostly of sedans and those very neutral designs of them. But along with cars like Maxima and Sentra there was a SUV, called Pathfinder. This one was their very first attempt to enter one of the most popular car categories among that public, and gradually managed to attract the North-Americans. Nissan kept investing at products specially dedicated to there, including even a whole new brand – Infiniti is their luxury division, with sales focusing the US market as done by Honda and Toyota with Acura and Lexus, respectively. And the following years showed plenty of prosperity to them, resulting today in a wide offer of crossovers, pick-up trucks and SUVs even though most of them never set wheel at Nissan’s homeland. Titan is a perfect example of that adaptation because only at United States and a few more countries there’s such an acceptance for bigger utility vehicles used by common people, outside companies. So if the closed-roof variety includes today include ten options, they needed to create at least one more pick-up than Frontier, whose origins are the similar version of the first Pathfinder. Thus, competing with famous trucks such as Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150 and RAM 2500 is the Nissan Titan’s raison d’être.
However, full-size pick-ups usually perform industrial uses, so they can’t make the same concessions as their smaller sisters. This means that their lifecycle lasts longer, having big changes each twelve years rather than more frequent face-lifts which would generate outdated cars more often. Therefore, Titan’s exterior enters 2013 with nothing more than a rear spoiler and new wheels. But the cabin received new coatings, a 120V outlet and new spaces for objects. But the Pro-4x version proves that those cars can also fulfill a more casual style: it has included alloy wheels with gray painting, chrome-painted front details, new dashboard and exclusive seat covers. Besides that, the pictures show that it’s possible to order this pick-up with several internal coating options, technology items such as the Rockford Fosgate entertainment system and much more, in three wheelbase sizes and two cabin options: King Cab and Double Cab. But Nissan didn’t touch an item that earns a lot of importance among this category: since a big pick-up truck needs to offer plenty of strength along with mechanical resistance to face tough tracks, it would be insane to offer a bi-turbo engine such as VW Amarok’s TSI. So Titan leaves the “green appeal” to Nissan Leaf and reminds the North-Americans’ old conception of big cars using a 5.6 V8 with 317 hp. But as the old saying states, in this Rome Nissan follows the rivals and sell Titan only with an automatic transmission, with five speeds.