The Nissan plant is about 30 miles from my home. Word is the Titan had been shelved. The are going to team up with Dodge and build a truck together. Wonder how thats going to work out?

 

My guess is they will completely ruin Dodge. The Titan was a piece of crap from what I read & have been told by past owners. I bought a 1990 Nissan 4x4 truck new & it was a piece of crap A BIG LEMON. I would never buy anything made by NISSAN again. So Congress should just let NISSAN bailout Chrysler or let them go broke.
That what I think.

 

The Titan was a good truck. It had some rearend issues because they used the same rearend that the Frontier uses, so for people who do a lot of towing it was too much stress on the rearend.
Other than that, good truck. Its just that the fullsize truck market is full of so many great trucks that its hard for Nissan to compete.
Back in the summer Nissan announced that they had struck a deal with Chrysler in that Chrysler would make Nissan's fullsize trucks and that Nissan would start making Chrysler's small cars.
Its a good deal for both companies, because Nissan gets Dodge's fullsize truck making expertise and Chrysler gets Nissan's small car making expertise.
Its going to be interesting to see what happens if Chrysler goes bankrupt or merges with GM.

 

Back when it was still Daimler Chrysler, there was a lot of talk that Nissan would buy them out. I know they tried to get in with Renault years back when they were building that Eagle thing, they did do quite a bit of design work together. Now Renault and Nissan are one and the same-

It does give Nissan an American nameplate.

 

Dodge is allready on the skids, what harm can it do at this point.

 

Datsun made nice, but rust bucket, small consumer trucks. Their larger "light" trucks were nothing special and certainly not in the same class as a Ford or Dodge. I think Nissan should look at what Chrysler did to MB

 

Nissan had been planning to kill the Titan for a couple years now. Nobody's buying them. I guess anyone that is in that market and is looking at Japanese trucks is probably buying a Tundra.

I think the titan had a good powertrain but didn't really have the goods otherwise.

 

MB f'd Chrysler...before the "merger of equals," Chrysler made the highest per unit profit than GM or Ford. Within 3 years, they were the least profitable per unit manufactured and the talent that was building Chrysler had abandoned ship as soon as 7 of the top 10 spots were filled by Daimler appointees. Not to mention shareholders suing Daimler because it was no 'merger;' it was a takeover and they lied to avoid paying anything to the Chrysler shareholders (Iaccocca and Kerkorian were awarded well over $600million in court). PS- the Nissan Armada and it's Infiniti version made the list of "worst vehicle" in the Money Magazine/Consumer Reports bit on the cost of buying and owning for 200K miles.

 

Nissan was in big trouble for a while and then rebouded and now are in trouble again. They maybe looking for a merge partner here pretty soon. I don't think chrysler would do much for them. I've heard rumors of ford and nissan on and off over the last couple of years. I don't know if that would be a good mix either.

 

I know 4 guys who turned in Nissan Titan trucks under State "LEMON LAWS". So if I know 4 there must be more out there. There engines were good but rear ends & auto trans were bad. plus tailgates, other stuff.

 

I've really always thought that the Titan was a strange direction for nissan to go in to begin with. Why build large pickup trucks, when it isn't their forte' to begin with?

In fact it at times has seemed outrageously funny! As USA manufacturers began to downsize in order to emulate the Japanese truck successes - all of a sudden the Japanese manufacturers were attempting to produce products that emulated big trucks (or full size anyway) made in the USA.

The result (it seems to me) were predictable. BOTH found themselves in trouble quickly.


Over and over it has seemed to me that if you do something really well - you should stick to it.

 

Here are the facts from one who knows.

The 2004's were problematic: New truck design, new assembly line (Canton MI), new workers.

Most of the problems were solved by midyear 2005. Nissan replaced the faulty rotors and pads, extended the warranty on all 2004/2005 Titan brakes to 5/60.

The front (4WD) and rear ends (both Dana 44's) were all replaced by the beginning of the 2006 model run.

The real problem with the truck was Nissan's near total lack of advertising after the first year, which had sales of 94,000 units.

AFAIK, there was never a problem with the transmissions, or the tailgates.

The Tundra was the one with the crappy tailgates, which developed cracks.

Tundra's in 2007 were also dogs: New truck design, new assembly line (San Antonio TX), new workers.

There was never a plan to cancel the Titan. Nissan has a deal in the works with ChryCo to build cars for them, in turn, Dodge is (was?) going to build Titans for Nissan.

Since ChryCo is nearly bankrupt (only enough cash on hand to last thru March 2009)...who knows what the outcome will be.

The 2004 F150 also had crappy brakes. Within two years, 17,000 miles, the local dealer replaced FIVE sets of front rotors on my 2004 Lariat screw.

The transmission failed the first week, the truck had less than 100 miles on it.

I got so frustrated with the POS and the crappy dealer service, while waiting around for the brakes to be fixed the 3rd time, I walked next door to the Nissan dealer, test drove a TITAN...and BOUGHT one.

I never had one problem with it, except I should have bought a Crew Cab, so in 2006, I traded the 2004 TITAN in on a 2006 TITAN Crew Cab.

I've never had a problem with it, either.

I gave the POS 2004 Lariat to my nephew after his truck was stolen...the brakes have continued to be a problem, he's had the rotors replaced twice.

btw: Prior to becoming a member here on FTE (11/2006), I was a member of titantalk.com and had typed 5,000 + posts.

So...not only have I owned them, but have read 1000's of posts concerning the good and the bad.

Wendell: Nissan was in financial difficulties in 1999, Renault stepped in, bought 33% of Nissan, which by Japanese Corporate Standards, gives Renault a controlling interest.

Nissan sales like everyone else's are down this year, but the company is in far better shape than any of the Big 3, and isn't in any financial trouble.

 

A friend/coworker of mine has one and he loves it. From what I've seen, it's a good truck. I like the Crew cab + 7 foot bed.

Mike

 

I'm sorry numberdummy, I didn't realize you were a trader. Since they don't hang traders any longer, I will just have to stop talking to you. I use to think you were a very smart guy, but after this recent revelation I must second guess that. There are 4 members at our church with 04 F-150's that have had none of the problems you describe. I think you were looking for an excuss to go japanese. With all the trucks there are for sell and you have to pick a nissan, allmost as bad as toyota. I'm truley disappointed, I've lost one of my hero's and to think I use to look up to you and now you've let me down in a big way. You couldn't buy a dodge, chevy or GMC, "no", you have to buy japanese. You know how I feel about the japanese vehicles, you might as well took a gun and shot me. It's getting hard to type as the tears well in my eye's, I'm devestated. Life really isn't worth living anymore. It's sorts like finding out that John Wayne was gay, "just devestating", I don't know if I can carry on. I feel I must resign from the forum and hang with real ford loyalist, my friends hee hee!! By the way, if nissan is in such great shape, why is thier name allways bandied about when talks of a merger comes up. Nissan is indeed starting on a down hill slide once again. It matters not, as you have ripped my heart from my chest. At least Judas had enough decency to hang himself after the betrayal ha ha.

 

I'm sorry Wendell, but I'm long retired from Ford and I can buy whatever I want to, regardless.

From the day I retired in 1997 till the day I became a member here (11/04/2006), I never so much as even looked at a Ford parts catalog.

I traded the Titan in on my 2008 Fusion, my wife has a new 2008 Edge...does that square things up between us?

I'll be devastated if it doesn't. I'll be so upset, I might go out and buy myself a Smart4Two!

And...where have you been? I've typed that Titan info on FTE more than once, in the Ford vs the Competition forum.

So, to those that have read that forum over the past two years on a regular basis, it's no secret.

Smiggs knows, your old pal (and now former FTE member) DOHCMarauder knew, so did a bunch of others.

GM approached Nissan as did Chryco, it was not the other way around.

You do know of course, that GM/Toyota are partners in several ventures.

Ford owns a piece of Toyo Kogyo (Mazda), and many of the electronic parts have been Japanese for decades.

How about the fact that Ford uses Nippondenso A/C compressors, radios, and other Dia Nippon parts in their vehicles.

Your beloved Rangers, we called the Axis Partner models: German engines, Japanese (Mazda or Mitsubishi) manual transmissions, (Vichy) French automatics.

The Axis Partners powertrain didn't stop you from buying them, did it?

btw: What did Mitsubishi manufacture during WWII? The Japanese ZERO fighter plane.

It's no secret that that the 2004 F150 had problems...and since you never owned one, how do you know if your church pals have had problems with theirs...or not?

Mebbe you oughtta make a deal with your pastor, ask him to grille your pals in the confessional inre to the issues, then pass the info along.

From reading 100's of your posts, I know all about your Japanese aversions, the two uncles who died at PH, but what does that have to do with today?

My dad was in the Asiatic Fleet when the war started. His ship, an ancient old tub (1913) of a Destroyer Tender (USS BLACK HAWK / AD-9) could barely reach 12 knots with favorful current. He was lucky, the ship made it from Cavite PI to Balikpapan, Borneo, then to Tjilijap, Java finally to Darwin, then Sydney before returning to PH.

MY dad's WWII experience didn't stop him from selling Mercedes-Benzes, Citroens, as well as Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs.

Even tho I could have owned them, none of these cars are in my collection. I do have four Fords, two Packards, a Studebaker Hawk and a Bentley Upply.

btw: I'm a Pearl Harbor Attack historian, and have been for over 50 years.

I can tell you the name of every combat ship stationed there on 7 December 1941, the CINCPAC, the names of the admirals in command of the Battleship Divisions, and a bunch of other info.

I also have the USN listings of all those KIA, MIA and wounded, and the Citation lists.