Nissan's 21-gun salute aimed at Detroit's head

By DAN NEIL

Jan. 7, 2004 12 AM PT

Have you ever noticed how many American flags and “God Bless the USA” bumper stickers you see on Toyotas and BMWs? Oh, sure, everybody is a hyperventilating super-patriot -- ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with Lee Greenwood and John Ashcroft -- until they walk into a car dealership. Then -- poof! -- they turn into Adam Smith.

There is a strange disconnect between American culture -- currently frothing with jingoistic fervor -- and American consumerism, which blithely gorges on high-end imported goods at the expense of U.S.-based manufacturing. Even in these flag-wrapped days, “Buy American,” the rallying cry of organized labor in the 1970s, has a curiously archaic, faintly foolish ring to it, like “Whip Inflation Now” or “Give Peace a Chance.”

Don’t get me wrong. I’m laissez-faire, all right, absolument. But I confess that the 2004 Nissan Titan -- the first true full-size pickup with a Japanese nameplate -- fills me with a kind of chalky unease. Perhaps I hoped there would be an inimitable something about full-size American pickups, some magical essence that Japanese manufacturers, for all their smarts, wouldn’t quite be able to bottle.

Alas, no. The Titan is a superb pickup truck: big, tough, powerful, fast, full of clever and classy design features. Built by Americans for Americans, with the profit shipped to Japan, the Titan is a 21-gun salute directed at Detroit’s head.

Why should full-size pickups be any different from sedans or minivans? Because they are different. Pickups participate in the myth of American identity: We are folksy, uncomplicated, independent, rugged, rural. Big as all outdoors. A car designer I know once suggested that Americans loved pickups because they were a kind of Jungian analogue to the Conestoga wagon: open in the back, with a high bench seat looking out over the team of horses. Pickups define their owners.

So what happens when the quintessential American vehicle has a funny-looking foreign name on it? Well, we will see. But my heart goes out to the true-blue, red-state truck buyers who must now decide which is deeper: their sense of patriotism or their pockets.

Imagine their agonies if the name on the tailgate was French, say, Renault. Mon Dieu!

The Japanese understand that full-size trucks are a special case, a vehicle category loaded with emotional cargo, so they have tiptoed into the market. In the last decade they have avoided challenging -- in a way that might arouse trade resentment -- the Big Three’s most lucrative segment, while building up a loyal following in the compact and mid-size pickup and sport utility segments. The Toyota Tundra, introduced in 1998, is a not-quite-full-size pickup, lacking the high-torque V-8s found under the hoods of the domestics. The Tundra has been less about conquest sales to Ford and Chevy buyers than infiltrating the suburbs to find newcomers to the pickup segment.

Also, Toyota builds its big trucks in Princeton, Ind., and Nissan builds the Titan and the new Armada SUV in Canton, Miss., a fact that helps defang anti-Asian sentiment (at least in Indiana and Mississippi).

On the cultural side, Toyota has embarked on a kind of hearts-and-minds campaign, fielding a Tundra in NASCAR’s 2004 Craftsman’s Truck Series. As a Southerner, I find it hard to imagine the triangulation of the Ford-Chevy rivalry to include Toyota, but it is happening. It is only a matter of time before Nissan’s Titan joins the NASCAR truck series, and with Pontiac out of the Nextel Cup, I wouldn’t be surprised if Toyota moves up to the premier series as well.

Whatever breathing room Detroit had is now gone. This year Toyota is full-sizing the Tundra with the double cab model, with four full doors, a longer wheelbase and cargo bed. At this week’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Toyota showed a hulking concept FTX Tundra pointing to a next-generation truck even more enormo (if you’ll again pardon my French) than the domestics. By 2006 its new Tundra factory in San Antonio will add 150,000 units to the 110,000-unit capacity of the operation in Princeton. If Toyota can sell them all, that would add about 10% of the full-size truck market by 2007.

Nissan plans to build about 165,000 vehicles in Mississippi, of which about 100,000 will be Titans. The company already is planning to raise production. Do I hear 200,000?

So now the stage is set for an all-out truck war between the domestics and the domestic-built Japanese brands, and the outcome could very well determine which of the Big Three will not survive the decade. You heard it here first.

For its part, the Titan pulls no punches. First, it is huge -- 224.2 inches long over a 139.8-inch wheelbase, 78.8 inches wide and 75.1 inches tall, the tallest on any half-ton two-wheel-drive truck. It comes in two flavors: a King Cab model with a 6.6-foot cargo bed and a Crew Cab with a 5.6-foot bed. A long-box configuration, like Chevy Silverado’s 8.1-foot cargo hod, is not available. In either configuration, the Nissan bludgeons the wind with its massive, polished chrome bumper and grille with matching outside mirrors. There is nothing limp or halfhearted about the Titan’s styling. You can see it coming from outer space.

The Titan is available with part-time, shift-on-the-fly four-wheel drive with a dual-speed transfer case, but it’s an expensive option: $3,100 on the LE King Cab models.

The interior of our two-wheel-drive Crew Cab LE looked about the size of the inside of an old Checker Marathon. Handball, anyone? Underscoring the elephantine scale is the fact that many of the touchable surfaces -- door pulls, climate knobs, wand switches -- are oversize so they can be easily operated with gloves on. The few exceptions are the result of parts-bin design: The small paddle switches on the steering wheel -- now universal on Nissan products -- and the enter button on the integrated audio-navigation head are too small and easily fumbled with a gloved hand.

The Titan’s full-monty LE package sets records in truck-based decadence. A 350-watt, 10-speaker Rockford Fosgate stereo with in-dash CD changer is only the beginning. There’s also leather heated captain’s chairs; auto dimming and heated outside mirrors; adjustable pedals; rear parking sensors; anti-lock brakes; and traction control.

Piling on our tester’s price was Nissan’s excellent and intuitive, bird’s-eye navigation system, bundled with rear parking-assist sensors ($2,200); power glass sunroof ($900); side-impact air bags and front and rear curtain air bags ($850); towing package with stability control and extendable tow mirrors ($850); and a DVD “mobile theater” mounted on the ceiling. All told, the price of our test vehicle was a daunting $38,000.

Setting aside the options list worthy of a spoiled Saudi prince, the Titan Crew Cab 4x2 LE’s base price of $31,100 undercuts the comparable Chevy Silverado model by about $3,000. However, incentives and rebates would substantially lower the Chevy’s transaction price, according to Edmunds.com’s National True Market Value. In any event, the Titan is so generously equipped it feels like a huge bargain, even at sticker price.

Before Nissan launched the Titan it commissioned its ad agency to explore the psychology of owners of full-size trucks. One of the findings was that truck buyers were big on numerical superlatives: which truck has the biggest engine, the highest torque, the most towing capacity. From this locker room-like assay the Titan doesn’t flinch. Under the hood is a 5.6-liter, 32-valve, dual-overhead-cam V-8 (the largest displacement in its class as standard equipment) cranking out 305 horsepower and 379 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm. (The Dodge Ram’s optional Hemi Magnum 5.7-liter V-8 engine puts out 345 horsepower, as does Chevy’s 6.0-liter Vortec V-8.)

The Titan’s towing capacity is 9,400 pounds, 100 pounds less than that of the new F-150. The next nearest competitor is the Dodge Ram, with an 8,350-pound towing capacity.

Unladen, the Titan is quick, accelerating to 60 mph in under nine seconds -- even with the towing package’s lower 3.357:1 axle ratio -- with a bluster worthy of a stock car as it shuffles among the automatic’s five forward gears. That this overhead-cammer sounds like a pushrod V-8 is pure contrivance, the work of powertrain engineers instructed to make it sound American. Nissan has thought about this truck a lot.

On the road, the Titan is taut and serene, with a refined ambience and sound isolation it shares with the Armada SUV. The cornering is flat and composed, the steering accurate. Build quality at the Canton factory has gone up a few notches. The last Armada I drove was fretted with rattles and twitters. The Titan was tightly screwed together.

Nissan offers option packages for towing and off-road use. Our LE test vehicle had the unique cargo tie-down system comprising movable cleats that slide in C-channels along the perimeter of the cargo bed. Pretty slick, but it looks as if it would interfere with the installation of a tonneau cover.

Our tester also had a storage compartment in the left-rear fender, suitable for jumper cables and tire chains.

One question mark about the Titan is its fitness for commercial work. Although it does have the requisite fully boxed perimeter frame and beefy suspension, it doesn’t offer a lot of heavy-duty options, such as an auxiliary transmission cooler, engine block heater or heavy-duty transaxle. On the other hand, the majority of half-ton truckers are “personal use” buyers who commute in their trucks or use them for recreation and light towing. For these buyers, the Titan is the best vehicle in its class.

American auto executives have assured the industry that Detroit would not lose truck market share to the Japanese as it did in the car and SUV segments.

The superb Titan suggests the question: Wanna bet? The only thing standing between the Japanese and a fat chunk of the full-size-truck market is the much-put-upon brand loyalty of truck buyers.

But loyalty, of any kind, just isn’t what it used to be.

Times automotive critic Dan Neil can be reached at dan.neil@latimes.com.

Nissan Titan Crew Cab 4x2 LE

Wheelbase: 139.8 inches

Length: 224.2 inches

Curb weight: 5,019 pounds

Powertrain: 5.6-liter, 32-valve, dual-overhead-cam V-8; five-speed automatic; rear-wheel drive

Horsepower: 305 at 4,900 rpm

Torque: 379 pound-feet at 3,600 rpm

Acceleration: Zero to 60 mph in about

8.6 seconds

EPA rating: 14 miles per gallon city,