2007 Nissan Titan Crew Cab Se 4x4Always a bridesmaid but never a bride? The Nissan Titan is the reliable, plain-Jane friend to the pretty bride who has been asked to stand up front many times but has yet to garner her own engagement. A solid performer, the Titan was the fastest of our trucks in the quarter-mile and has the most useful interior room (especially in the back for cargo and passengers). The Titan comes with aggressive and sort-of-traditional body styling and possesses strong brakes and good maneuverability. We like the storage scheme in the center console; there is plenty of capacity there, including the "lip" that extends along the side of the console and abuts the front seats and catches dropped pens, coins, and French fries. The Titan and the Dodge were probably the best off-roaders in the group, thanks to their power and appropriate tires.
The domestic brands have defined what a fullsize truck is supposed to look like, so it's no surprise that it might take time for the Titan's body style-different, yet still aggressive-to grow on some of our staffers. But that's OK, it still has appeal...until you sit inside of it. The concept behind the spartan interior probably looked great on a designer's sketchpad, but its rendering in reality fell flat. The truck's interior is certainly functional but only passably interesting. The other trucks certainly pull ahead in this area. Now, the SE that we drove is the mid-tier trim level, so we weren't expecting a limo here. But, we have driven and seen Titans before and came away with the same impression. The wide A-pillar affects visibility a tad and creates extra wind noise, but the wide, blocky, side mirrors erase blind spots behind the driver. The Titan 5.6L got 10.79 mpg, abysmal when compared to the Ram's 14.03 mpg from its 5.7L.
The Titan offers no surprises, but then maybe we shouldn't expect much change since this is, for all practical purposes, the first generation of this truck. It is a well-intentioned, solid, meat-and-potatoes pickup. It certainly gets the job done. In a market where everyone can pretty much "get the job done," however, you need some sizzle to go along with that steak.
2007 Chevrolet Silverado Extended Cab LTZ 4x4We might be making a relative judgment here. But in our opinion, the Silverado stands at the top of the heap. Now, this isn't based entirely on the technical merits of the truck, although that's a huge part. There is also the value proposition that the line presents, and the position of the Chevy brand in the market. The Silverado prices range from mid $23K to close to $45K, with five engl solution). Really, a better configuration might be to go with the 60/40 bench in the second row, and ditch the third, allowing you to carry five instead six passengers, but at least the expanded cargo space can be used without manhandling third row seats.
Our tester's 5.3L didn't fair so well in the quarter-mile (it did practically the same as the Expedition); and the mpg on this vehicle wasn't so hot, either. The Tahoe's tow rating is about the same as the Chrysler Aspen's, but is trumped by the Expedition, according to specs. It's a shame that you can't get the 6.0L with the Tahoe, but that's been reserved for the Suburban, which, apparently, is intended to be more the beast of burden for the Chevy line.
Any way you look at it, the Tahoe deserves to rake in lots of lucre for GM. The improvements endowed upon the Tahoe from the new GMT900 platform blow away its previous-generation and make it a powerful player in a very competitive segment.