Orlando Sentinel's view

According to Automotive News, Nissan sold 86,945 Titan pickup trucks last year. During the same period, Ford sold 901,463 F-Series trucks. When Nissan began selling the Titan — the first genuine full-size truck from a Japanese brand — in late 2003, the company said it planned to sell 100,000 Titans a year. In the full-size truck market, that’s still a drop in the bucket, but the fact that Nissan fell short last year, and sold even fewer in 2004, means that cracking the big-truck market isn’t as easy as it looks.

This is something that has to be on the minds of Toyota executives as they prepare to sell the all-new 2007 Tundra, which will rival the Nissan, Ford, GMC and Dodge pickups in size and power. Granted, Nissan is not that far short of its sales target, but the company has had to discount Titans considerably more than it expected to get as close as it has.

I’m not really sure why, because the Titan may be my favorite full-size pickup. There were undeniable quality-control problems early in Titan’s production run, due mostly to Nissan’s overtaxed new plant in Mississippi charged with cranking out too many products. But by all accounts, the present Titan is quite well-built.

The one I had last week certainly was. Big, solid and capable of towing a 5,000-pound trailer as if it wasn’t even there, this pickup matches anything the competition has. The engine, a 5.6-liter, double overhead-camshaft V-8 with 305 horsepower and 379 pound-feet of torque, is unquestionably my favorite truck engine. Mated to a calm but responsive five-speed automatic transmission, the Titan powertrain can’t be faulted.

The best thing about this powertrain is that it’s the only one offered. Buy the cheapest Titan model, a rear-wheel-drive King Cab XE, base price $23,400, and you still get the same engine and transmission as the top-of-the-line model, which can list for more than $40,000.

Even with the base model you get air conditioning, four-wheel disc brakes with antilock, an AM/FM stereo with CD player and cruise control. And you get a back seat, since Nissan doesn’t build any regular cab pickups. For $25,500, you can upgrade to the SE, and for $30,350, it’s the premium LE. Those prices are for King Cab models, which have smaller front-opening rear doors. The Crew Cab, which has four regular doors and a full rear seat, adds about $2,850. Four-wheel-drive adds about $3,200. These prices are negotiable.

Unfortunately, Nissan, like so many other manufacturers, likes to play games with options. If I want an XE King Cab and try to add the $250 towing package — a real bargain — I am also required to buy a spray-on bedliner for $450, a “Trac package” with traction control and tow hooks ($300), and a “Preferred package” ($700) that includes a six-disc CD changer, a sliding rear window and a few other features I may or may not want. Suddenly my $250 towing package costs $1,700.

The test Titan was the mid-level SE model, a Crew Cab with four-wheel drive. Base price was $31,100, and four of those “packages” plus floor mats and a bed extender raised the price to $36,555, including $705 in transportation. The uplevel LE adds leather upholstery, fog lights, a 350-watt stereo upgrade and several other features.

The SE was plenty nice enough, thanks. The power seats were very comfortable, even on a long drive, and all instruments and controls have a premium look and feel. Rear-seat room was quite good.

Painted “Red Brawn,” which is sort of a wine color, the test Titan was handsome enough, partly because of good-looking 17-inch alloy wheels and big P285/70R-17 radial tires. I didn’t have much opportunity for serious off-roading, but the little I did suggested the Titan is very capable, and surprisingly smooth-riding, on even the worst surfaces.

Four-wheel drive is engaged by twisting a dial on the dashboard.

There isn’t a bad full-size pickup on the market, and my eventual decision would concentrate more on price and how much I trusted the dealer than on the brand. But the Titan’s engine and transmission would move it up a notch on the wish list.

Sentinel Automotive Editor Steven Cole Smithcan be reached at 407-420-5699 or scsmith@orlandosentinel.com.