After reports of the next-generation Nissan Titan being delayed with a possibility of not bowing until 2014, it appears the Japanese automaker is still several years away from debuting its new trucks.

Nissan had hoped a new Titan would be on the market by now, but Chrysler‘s bankruptcy and subsequent Fiat takeover caused a deal on the next-generation Titan to break down. The Japanese automaker had its design and engineering team working on a Nissan-branded Ram 1500 but unfortunately that will never see the light of day.

The engineers have, however, worked on evolving the Titan’s frame when building the new range of NV vans but plenty more work still has to be done on the new Titan. One source said that the new Titan is still “a couple of years” away, which puts it still on schedule for a 2014 release as previously mentioned.

The new Frontier however is further behind than the Titan and will probably remain a body-on-frame vehicle, which means the third-generation Xterra will also be body-on-frame.

[Source: Car & Driver]

The biggest free agent in NFL history has been making his rounds visiting with potential teams. Peyton Manning, former quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, has the Tennessee Titans as one of his possible landing spots and it appears that Nissan North America is helping make that happen. 

While the Titans aren’t exactly the best team in a position to make a run for the Super Bowl, the elder Manning set plenty of records in college while playing as a Tennessee Volunteer. There is plenty of sentimental reasons for Peyton to want to return to Tennessee, and now Nissan, which has its US headquarters in Nashville, is offering to “make Manning a Titan.”

But of course Nissan means they’ll build him a 2012 Nissan Titan Pro-4X pickup truck. The automaker wrote an open letter to Peyton Manning on its website and its Facebook page, but also extended the courtesy regardless of what team Manning picks.

“The Nissan Titan V-8 engine is built in Tennessee,” said Brian Carolin, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Nissan North America. “And even more poetically for Mr. Manning, the Titan itself is assembled in a place called Canton.” Canton, Ohio of course is the place where the NFL Hall of Fame is and undoubtedly Peyton Manning will be enshrined there once he retires.

Manning is reported to make a decision sometime early next week. The Tennessee Titans, San Francisco 49ers, and the Denver Broncos are at the top of the list for possibilities.

The next generation Nissan Titan is taking a backseat to development, with the inevitable refresh probably not surfacing until the 2014 model year. That’ll make it almost a decade since the Titan was originally introduced in 2004 before Nissan shows off a new generation of its popular pick-up truck.

Several factors have impacted the delay in the next generation Titan’s development, with the unfortunate tsunami and earthquake in Japan being one of the major ones. Nissan also originally had an agreement with Chrysler to build a new Titan based on the 2011 Dodge Ram, but that fell apart when Chrysler entered bankruptcy in 2009.

Nissan has teased in the past that the Titan could benefit from a plethora of powertrain options including smaller engine options, an enhanced V8 option or even a diesel We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Nissan shows off something soon, the Titan is surely becoming outdated and desperately needs a makeover.

[Source: LeftLane News]

Nissan North America has recently announced U.S pricing for the 2012 Armada SUV and 2012 Titan full-size pickup. The Armada will be offered in three models including the SV, SL and Platinum trim levels. Each models is offered with either a two-wheel or four-wheel drive setup, and a 317-hp 5.6-liter V8 engine. The engine will be mated to a five-speed automatic transmission, and a Brilliant Silver has been added as a new exterior colour choice for the 2012 model year.

Pricing for the 2012 Nissan Armada are as follows:

4×2 SV $38,490

4×2 SL $43,940

4×2 Platinum $51,050

4×4 SV $44,090

4×4 SL $46,840

4×4 Plainum $53,950

The 2012 Titan is offered in King Cab and Crew Cab  body styles with in either a 4×4 or 4×2 configuration, along with two wheelbases and three bed lengths. The Titan is equipped with a 317-hp 5.6-liter DOHC V8 mated to a five-speed automatic transmission. The maximum towing capacity for the King Cab is 9,500 pounds and the Crew Cab can tow 9,400. The Titan is offered in S, SV, Pro-4x and SL trim levels as well as the all-new SV Sport Appearance Package.

Pricing for the 2012 Nissan Titan King Cab are as follows:

S King Cab 4×2 $27,410

SV King Cab 4×2 $29,410

S King Cab 4×4 $30,260

SV King Cab 4×4 $32,260

Pro-4x King Cab 4×4 $35,140

Pricing for the 2012 Nissan Titan Crew Cab are as follows:

S Crew Cab 4×2 $29,960

SV Crew Cab 4×2 $31,610

SV Crew Cab 4×2 LWB $32,060

SL Crew Cab 4×2 $37,510

S Crew Cab 4×4 $32,810

SV Crew Cab 4×2 $34,460

SV Crew Cab 4×4 LWB $34,940

Pro-4x Crew Cab 4×4 $37,340

SL Crew Cab 4×4 $40,210

There is such a thing of having too much of a good thing. Like gold… especially when it is on a Tata Nano. The most basic car on the road just got pimped to celebrate the 5,000th anniversary of Indian jewelry.

Tata Group, the company that makes the Nano, employed Titan, one of its subsidiaries, to make the very first pure gold jewelry car which will be launched in April/May 2011 under the name Goldplus Nano. The campaign to promote the flashy ride started in November when Tata asked the public to send in designs. Thirteen designs came in and the winner was announced December 24^th.

The winning design will be immortalized on the Nano and will be made out of pure gold at the Titan manufacturing plant in Hosur, Bangalore. The contests purposed was to drum up positive attention for the car, which saw sagging sales in the latter part of 2010.

[Source: International Business Times]

The folks at Wrecked Magazine have started/elaborated on the rumor that Titan Motorsports would be turning towards drifting for 2011. With their dominance in sport compact drag racing and their expertise in all things horsepower and motorsports, it wouldn’t be a surprise that Titan would get their hands dirty in some sideways action. So instead of just hunting around, we went straight to our insider source at Titan Motorsports to get some of the details.

We expected to hear that Titan is working on a RWD-converted 2011 Scion tC sporting a 2JZ powerplant, given Titan Motorsports’ relationship with Scion in drag racing and their expertise with Supra tuning. Instead we’ve been informed that while Scion hasn’t completely shut the door on the deal, but they aren’t looking to add a third car to the series.

Titan is, however, looking to get involved and did confirm that they’re in talks with a current top 16 drifter. Our guess would be Frederick Aasbo, a Supra drifting expert. Even though Titan hasn’t confirmed that they’ll even be running a Toyota, our guess is they’ll still want to end up wit ha 2JZ in whatever they work with. That is unless an opposing OE manufacturer is willing to step in. Titan did confirm that they are open to various manufacturers if Toyota or Scion decide not to be involved.

So in summary? Titan Motorsports is definitely interested in getting into Formula Drift competition for 2011, but has no confirmed plans on driver or car. They are currently exploring manufacturer and tire support and while they’d love to continue building their relationship with Toyota and Scion, they are opened to exploring new platforms as well.

Somehow Nissan will bring a successor to the Titan pickup truck to market, although it’s not known how or when. In an interview with InsideLine, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that the Titan will remain. “”Titan will have a replacement,” he said. “We are staying in the large pickup truck market.”

The next Titan was expected to be a rebadged version of the new Dodge Ram, but Chrysler canceled plans for that project shortly after emerging from bankruptcy protection.

That being said, Nissan may continue to use an updated version of the current Titan’s platform, which also underpins vehicles like the Armada, Pathfinder, Xterra, Frontier and Infiniti QX56..

[Source: InsideLine]