The 2020 Nissan Titan and Titan XD are
headed to dealerships and the automaker has announced pricing will start at US$ 36,190. That’s a significant jump from last year as the 2019 Titan King Cab S
began at US$ 33,960. To make matters even worse, the destination and handling fee
has climbed from US$ 1,395 for US$ 1,595. This means fans will need to shell out an
additional US$ 2,430 to get behind the wheel of a Titan King Cab.
While we never like seeing prices climb,
the 2020 Titan has a host of improvements. Besides the facelifted exterior, the
truck gains an updated interior with a new instrument cluster and 8-inch
infotainment system.
On the safety front, the Nissan Safety
Shield 360 suite of driver assistance systems is standard. As a result, even
the entry-level pickup has Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian
Detection, Blind Spot Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Lane Departure
Warning, High Beam Assist and Rear Automatic Braking.
The changes continue under the hood as the
Titan is powered by an upgraded 5.6-liter V8 engine that produces 400 hp and 559 Nm of torque. This is a modest improvement of
10 hp and 26 Nm. Besides being more powerful, the
engine is connected to a new nine-speed automatic transmission. It replaces the previous seven-speed gearbox
and promises to deliver “smoother and faster acceleration.”
Of course, the big news for 2020 is the
death of the 5.0-liter V8 Cummins turbodiesel engine. Nissan says it was
dropped to “better position” them in the long term, but that seems like putting
a positive spin on a lack of demand.
The diesel wasn’t the only option to bite
the dust as the Single Cab variant has also been eliminated. Like the diesel
engine, it was presumably the victim of low demand.
