2008 Nissan Titan SE from North America - Comments

Nothing has gone wrong with the car.

I am not impressed at all with the Titan, there is an annoying jiggling motion at around 65-70mph speeds on all kinds of surfaces. I checked with the dealer and various forums, all said to reduce tire pressure. So I checked and reduced it to 35psi as recommended. Amazingly, all trucks from dealers come with tire pressure of 50-55. Anyway, the truck lost its nice acceleration by taking out the air, now started to feel like the Ford 5.4L triton engine based truck. However, the transmission on this truck is way superior to the Ford transmissions. Quick downshifts when needed. The jiggling motion is still there and I am not impressed with the ride quality. It seems the entire body of the truck hits resonance with the engine vibrations at certain speeds. I test drove other Titans at the dealerships and all of them are doing the same thing. how could have Nissan missed this during testing??

When I bought the vehicle, this vibration was present during the test ride and I attributed it to the road quality. However, whatever road you drive, it is always there between 65-70mph.

Fuel mileage is nothing to boast of, Best I have gotten is 17.5mpg with the cruise set at 55mph over a long trip. In city I average about 13 mpg. In my previous truck I would regularly hit 21-22 mpg at 55 with the cruise on (19-20 at speeds of 75-80). City was 14-17 depending on how it was driven. I don't drive with a heavy foot and I usually get great mileage mostly over EPA figures (even in this case) but I still think that this mileage figures are not at par with its rivals (5.4L Ford I had, Chevy V8 and ofcourse Tundra V8).

Titans are going for veryy cheap nowadays. A loaded crew cab is selling for less than $21k (with a sticker shock of $33k+). Resale value is also questionable.

Towing capacity is good and engine feels strong, but gas figures go into single digits with the lowest being 6.7mpg.

I'm very sorry you got stuck with the Titan. Too many people buy vehicles without doing enough prior research. The Ill-fated Titan and Armada SUV are now in several "vehicles to avoid" lists due the appalling lack of quality. They are soon to be joined, I'm sure, by the very problem plagued Toyota Tundra and Sequoia SUV.

At present only domestic manufacturers are building trucks that are even remotely suited to the use a real truck should be expected to put to. Japanese manufacturers have yet to master the knack for building real, full sized trucks. Trying to use the same flimsy materials and construction techniques to build larger trucks has resulted in disasters such as the unacceptable Titan and very disappointing Tundra.

Honda doesn't build a truck, but if it did I'm sure it would suffer from the same lack of quality as the Titan and Tundra (and yes, I know about the Ridgeline, but it is by no stretch of the imagination a TRUCK. It is a Pilot SUV with the roof removed over the back area).

Might be worth running it in more before condemning it on the fuel economy - you've only done 1k in it.

For real man. This truck is not even broken in yet, and no truck is going to get great mileage or ride as well as their size suggests. We have an F-150 that we have been very happy with, but we barely manage 20 MPG, which is respectable for a truck, but it also does not ride terribly well compared to my BMW or especially our Camry. The Titan is what it is and you should not have bought it if the ride was questionable to you.

This review makes no sense - all vehicles have poor gas mileage at 1,000 miles. Even though manufacturers have technically eliminated the "breaking in" period on cars, it still takes several thousand miles for mechanical engine parts to become seated with each other properly & hit optimal running levels. Do an oil analysis study & you'll find this to be true. By 10k-15k miles you should hit your best fuel mileage regularly and from there forward.

I owned a Titan - "losing it's nice acceleration" makes no sense either because this truck about the fastest truck off the line of anything made (the Ram Hemi is about equal). If mine wasn't a leased vehicle I would have kept it, it was a great truck. Had some minor build quality issues (rattles & squeaks), and it wasn't perfect, but I've owned lots of trucks and it ranked among the best.

You test drove a truck with a "jiggle", bought it anyway and now complain because it has a "jiggle"?

The sticker plainly states 12/17 mpg and you complain about the mpg which you state is 13/17.5 max?

You want your F-150 back and then complain about the lack of responsiveness in the Titan and compare it to a Triton 5.4 motor?

Do you even know what you want??

The Titan is one of the most unreliable vehicles Nissan has ever built. It has a "much worse than average" reliability rating, and is listed as a vehicle to avoid on some consumer listings. I can certainly see why the reviewer would want his F-150 (The world's best selling truck for three decades) back.

I personally don't like the Titan because it doesn't have the power that my Tundra has with its 5.7L. My Tundra gets a respectable 16mpg in the city and 20 on the highway. The truck's reliability is great and it can ou perform the Titan in any way.

The Titan is a major gas hog and lacks power for being a 5.7L engine. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice truck, but I'd choose a Toyota Tundra or a Ford F-150 over it.

Take a look at the 2009 Dodge Ram 1500. This truck is the new industry leader. Matter of fact, the next Titan will be built by Dodge, and will then be taken seriously as well.

I like my Titan, although it's an 05 not an 08, it was way better than any Ford / Chevy I drove, and the 05 Tundra was way too small to even consider buying.

The Titan does still have some advantages over the new Tundra, such as weighing a lot less and generally being better in off-road situations where handling and weight are a concern. But I like the new Tundras for their large size and fuel consumption (6 speed tranny vs Titans 5 speed.)

But going back to comparing to an 05 Ford, which only had a 4 speed tranny and nothing else better than the Titan, except possibly a slightly nicer interior) the decision was easy for me.

I don't know what the person above means by jiggle... The freeways here in LA don't provide a nice smooth ride with my trucks stiff off-road springs, but neither does any offroad truck, in fact I think my Dad's 3500 Dodge is much worse (even stiffer suspension). It's all relative I suppose.

As far as blaming foreign automakers for using flimsy parts and back QC, the Titan was designed in San Diego California, and built in Tennessee, and was built from the ground up on a fully boxed frame. Wasn’t it Ford that had the issues with the body getting wavy just from wind pressure and advertising “heavy Duty Bed bolts” (what’s the rest of the truck using? So I call Shens… on the above posters comment.