Test Drive Notes Library
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Pros
- Tow Ready. If you suddenly get the urge to tow your house around, the Titan has you covered. The Nissan is a tow-er’s dream. It not only has a 9,300 pound towing capacity, but you can get it with the optional “Utility and Tow Package" for $1,800. That package includes a trailer brake controller, a trailer light function check, and extendable towing mirrors, so you can see your mobile home’s side porch get side-swiped by that Walmart truck. The only tow-accessory missing from our test model was a horse trailer and Mr. Ed.
- Makes other tow truck drivers feel inadequate. We pitied the poor guys who just drove off the lot with their Toyota Tacomas. We’d pull up next to them at stoplights, and you could see the testosterone just drain out of them. The Titan is big. It’s tall. It’s wide. It’s a seriously trucky truck that has big truck presence. This thing would run over an old, two-door little Datsun pickup truck from the 1970s and not notice.
- Comfortable. It should be, for $52,000, and it is. The interior features comfy leather seats, a high end audio system, and a fairly smooth ride — if you’re not so worried about clipping parked cars that you can enjoy it— and all the standard amenities today’s driver wants: Bluetooth, heated and cooled seats, power heated and telescoping wheel, etc.
- Powerful. The Titan comes with a 5.6 liter V8. You’ll have to make due with only 390 horsepower. It’s got a 7 speed automatic transmission that works well, with occasional noticeable shifts in the lower gears.
- Step up help. The Titan has a useful, fold-down step on the back corner that you can use to reach into the bed. The truck is so high off the ground, that, unless you’re Kevin Durant, it’s hard to grab even a small item in the bed, unless it’s right next to the side wall. With the fold out step, you can get up higher and reach down into the bed. Or just use it to change a light bulb in your garage.
- Help seeing. Our Titan came with blind spot monitoring, which is great. It needs it. It also comes with rear cross traffic alert, and Nissan’s great bird’s eye view rear camera, which stitches together four cameras and shows you the view as if you were looking down on the truck. This is great (and we’d say necessary) for docking the Titan.
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Cons
- This thing is huge. With the towing package and its large, extended mirrors, we had to constantly worry about knocking sidewalk pedestrians in the back of the head with the mirrors. It’s a wide truck to start out with, and when you add 12-18 inches of mirror on each side, it’s not easy to drive in the city. If you don’t need to tow, for the sake of everything you hold dear, skip the towing package. If you do need to tow, the mirrors will be perfect for you.
- This thing is tall. It requires a "1 - 2 - 3 heave" to get up and in it. Our test Titan had no running board to step on, so you have to pull yourself up by the grab handle or the steering wheel. Then you rappel back out of it. It’s fine once you’re in there, and you enjoy a commanding view of the road. But getting into the Titan Pro-4X should not be attempted by anyone whose pants are getting tight in the seat.
- This thing is cumbersome to drive. The handling itself is fine. It goes where you point it, it stops when you step on the brakes. But because of its size, its huge tires, its width, and the heavy feeling steering, it feels like a work truck. Lots of people buy pick up trucks to drive as everyday cars. The Titan Pro-4X should not be your choice for a commuter vehicle.
- Mileage. If you have to ask…. It’s rated at 15 mpg in the city, and we didn’t come close to that. We didn’t make it down into the single digits, but we could see them from where we were. The mileage is not that different from heavy duty versions of competing pickups. So if you’re comparing work trucks, you won’t be swayed by the nostalgic mileage numbers. But if you’re looking for a daily driver, the mileage is worth considering.
- No forward collision warning or automatic emergency braking. We consider these must-have options now, and they’re just not available on the Titan.
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