http://www.nissanusa.com/buying/SpecialOffers/0,,53010,00.html?Site=N05TTNBDA

$2,750 rebate on the new 2006 Titan

$3,000 on the 2005

and that is after they low balled the MSRP from the begining. Most other 2006 models have rebates too including $2,500 on the '06 econobox Sentra.

hmmm... you never read about Nissian loading up rebate, only GM and Ford.

 

Are they getting ready to replace the Titan? To me it has seemed somewhat outdated from the get-go in almost every respect except the motor.

 

Huh, I didn't know any of that.

I read that the Titan only sells about 85k units per year and those numbers are not increasing. That is such a low number for a major vehicle like a pick-up truck. Can that number of sales be sustained and still make a case for contunued production?

It seems that Nissan had a great comeback a few years ago but recently they are stalling. The Titan is not the success they wanted, nor is the Armada. The Quest has been selling poorly, and the new Sentra looks like nothing special. I think the 350Z is still selling well but what about the Maxima and Altima? I don't think the Murano is doing that well either but I am not positive.

 

I think the new Altima led the Nissan resurgance.... it's getting fairly old now, and not much from them has really had near the impact that the Altima did.

 

Titan was a good first try into Fullsize trucks, it was just a step behind the new F-150. With gas prices so high and sales so low, I don't think it is worth it to Nissan to redo the Titan so soon.

 

Its just gonna be hard to get much of a piece of the pie when GM and Ford have been putting out good work horses for sooo long. And they just keep getting better every year, so Good Luck! to Nissan.

 

Does the titan have a posi in the front differential. I thought it might, that alone is one of my favorite things about it. The fact it has 305 is also very nice.
Wish posi was common all the way around on all 4x4's. Makes it so much better in the mud.

 

It's hard to imagine them just abandoning an entire market. But with the market trending away from pickup trucks as personal use vehicles, there's not much potential for them to improve. The problem with Nissan and Toyota is they don't have very good access into the hard-core truck market, i.e. rural areas and farms. No matter how good their truck is, if the nearest dealer is an hour away no one's gonna want one.

 

On what basis do you say Nissan "low balled" the MSRP? I doubt you have any significant knowledge of unit cost or Nissan's ROI on the vehicle.

In any case, all full-sized truck and SUV sales have been poor for everybody for almost a year now (only getting worse when gas prices spiked after Katrina) which is one of the more significant reasons that Ford and GM are in trouble since for years now, they've relied so heavily on the high profits from their truck and SUV models for their overall profitability.

Nissan is not abaodoning the full-sized truck market.

 

Only based on what an equally equiped Titan cost compared to a Silverado of F-150. Nissan didn't play any rebate games (at first), they just gave a nice low MSRP compared to Ford, or Chevy. Since them Chevy has lowerd its MSRPs on some vehicles. The next silverado will probably go down in price just like the '07 Tahoe did

 

Probably "straining at a nat" here but the term "low-balling" generally implies a company charging less for a product than it actually costs simply to gain market share..."pricing" a product, especially in the automotive industry is as much art as it is science/accounting but I woudl suggest that the Titan's MSRP is lower primairly because Nissan can produce it for lower cost than a similar Chevrolet/Ford.

 

I doubt it. GM can spead the cost of a platform out a lot farther than Nissan can. Thats just economy of scale. My money is on Nissan wanted market share and was willing to buy it. (actually a wise move by Nissan).

 

Spreading costs does not decrease costs. Labor costs for Nissan is as much as 30% less than for GM or Ford. It costs more for GM or Ford to produce a quarter-ton pickup than it costs Nissan.

The rebates are just a response to the reality of the market right now...light truck and SUV sales are significantly down for everybody (one of the major reasons GM and Ford are in trouble as they have depended on those very profitable sales for most of their profitability since the late 80's/early 90's).

 

Anybody think Robert just might work for Nissan?

 

I don't, he is pointing out the facts. I can't speak about Nissan exactly, but I know that Toyota does not pay as well, supply as good of benefits, and uses many more low paid temps then GM... so they have less labor cost. I would assume that Nissan is probably the same.