Nissan preview

Nissan’s first Titan light-duty pickup was a solid truck when it debuted in 2003, with an annual sales peak of about 87,000 units and a respectable second-place finish in a five-truck comparison test in 2007. But it was left to languish relatively unchanged, and today it’s a dinosaur compared with the ever-evolving stalwarts of the segment, such as the new aluminum-bodied Ford F-150. That vast disparity shrinks considerably at this year’s Detroit auto show, though, with Nissan unveiling the first of its all-new 2016 Titan light-duty pickups.

Better Late Than Never

The second-gen Titan’s gestation has been lengthy. It was originally supposed to debut a few years ago as a rebadged Ram 1500 in a failed tie-up with pre-Fiat Chrysler, but the cancellation of that program sent Nissan back to the drawing board. It eventually engineered the new truck both in house and in the U.S., with the big draw being a deal with Cummins to utilize its new 5.0-liter V-8 turbo-diesel—an all-new configuration for the light-duty segment that Nissan will exploit in pitching its truck against the big sellers from the Detroit Three.

To that end, the 2016 Titan at first will be available only in extrastrength XD guise when it goes on sale later this year, with the Cummins V-8 diesel being the sole engine offering. Nissan will roll out additional gasoline V-8 and V-6 options soon after the XD’s late-summer launch, as well as a conventional, lighter-duty version, but details on those haven’t been released yet. The diesel will be paired with an Aisin six-speed automatic transmission and will be exclusive to the XD model, which features a stronger, fully boxed frame and sturdier underpinnings than the lesser Titan. The XD will debut as a four-door crew cab with a 151.6-inch wheelbase, a 6.5-foot cargo bed, and either two- or four-wheel drive. All new Titans share some front-end componentry with Nissan’s NV-series of full-size vans.

With the XD, Nissan is targeting those in pickup limbo, which is to say those buyers for whom a monstrous heavy-duty rig is too much truck but a standard light-duty pickup is not quite enough. Nissan believes that up to 150,000 buyers per year find themselves in that position. Indeed, with a payload rating in excess of 2000 and max towing of 12,000 pounds, as well as a gross-vehicle-weight rating greater than 8500 pounds—which technically makes it a heavy-duty trucki—the Titan XD fits the bill as a tweener. Call it a light-duty-plus pickup.

The Guts

Despite its unusual positioning, the 2016 Titan XD otherwise is relatively conventional, with an all-steel body, a coil-sprung independent front suspension, and a solid rear axle supported by leaf springs. Wheel sizes range from 17 to 20 inches, the four-wheel disc brakes measure at least 14 inches across, and an optional electronic-locking rear differential will be available for off-road excursions. Surprisingly, however, there’s no automatic four-wheel-drive setting for the transfer case, a handy feature that many light-duty trucks have had for years.The Titan XD is as large as other pickups, measuring up to 78.7 inches tall, 80.6 inches wide, and 242.9 inches long. Eventually, there will be three bed lengths to go with the standard, extended, and crew cabs. Given the truck’s steel construction and heavy, diesel engine, curb weights should be about three tons for a crew-cab four-by-four.

While the Cummins diesel’s 310 horsepower at 3200 rpm is weak compared with a modern gas V-8’s output, its 555 lb-ft of torque at 1600 revs positively shames every other light-duty truck engine on the market. Along with the requisite direct fuel injection and urea-injection exhaust after-treatment, the diesel also features a compacted-graphite-iron block, aluminum heads, dual overhead camshafts, and Cummins’s new M2 two-stage turbocharger system for combating turbo lag. EPA ratings have yet to be determined, but expect relatively frugal fuel economy similar to the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel’s (22 to 23 mpg combined), as well as stout straight-line performance.

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2017 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Coupe review

The weather gods of Northern California cooperated by hurling rain at our Porsche 911 Carrera 4S during a 250-mile drive through the Mendocino National Forest up to the region of misty mountains and storm-lashed shoals known tantalizingly as the Lost Coast. What better challenge could you wish for when first encountering the latest all-wheel-drive Porsche 911 than to soak down the few undulating asphalt lanes that crisscross this wooded, moss-draped landscape? (This is a rhetorical question; don’t answer.)

As has been well documented here, Porsche is rebooting the base 911 Carrera and Targa line with turbocharged engines for 10 models (for now). We’re told that when this news was announced last year, it sparked a run on the former, naturally aspirated 911s. Granted, the new engine has a plastic intake and oil sump, so all that is good and right in the world seems to be ending. But plastic is lighter than aluminum, and its durability was proven by getting a factory forklift driver to repeatedly drop the fully assembled and dressed engine onto concrete from a height of about seven feet. Really—we saw video of it.

Having driven many versions of the new turbo car, including now this C4S, we think the fever to grab a free-breather before they were gone, while understandable, was misplaced. The 991.2-generation, as Porsche is calling the repowered version, is definitely better, more usable and flexible in a bunch of small ways, and lacks none of the spirit of the 991.1.

A new 3.0-liter flat-six fitted with intercooled snails does the motivating, and the base Carrera’s output of 370 horsepower rises to 420 in the S models, or 20 more than in the previous S versions, despite losing 0.8 liter of displacement. The 4S with the PDK automatic transmission like the one we drove sees EPA fuel-economy ratings increase from 19 mpg city and 26 mpg highway to 21/28 mpg. Which is a good thing for Porsche’s ability to meet regulatory standards, but it’s unlikely to matter to most customers who can afford a C4S.

Precious few 911s list for less than six-figure prices these days—in fact, just two, the base coupe at $90,450 and the base Carrera 4 coupe at $97,350—but we’re told that the typical 911 buyer spends between $15,000 and $19,000 on options. So be sure to leave room on your personal check for extra zeros.

To go from Carrera to Carrera S costs $14,000, and from Carrera S to 4S costs another $6900. This car is not a cheap pleasure but a handsome reward for a life lived rather profitably. A life which Porsche itself is definitely living, to the great envy of other carmakers, with line items such as this S trim in which the extra coin buys, basically, a larger turbo compressor, some software, and a few interior and exterior goodies. If it costs Porsche more than a grand to install the S option, we’ll eat our free Porsche hats. The all-wheel-drive system, at least, involves significant hardware and engineering relative to the more modest price increase.

But that’s between Porsche and its buyers. Our $138,560 Carrera 4S in Graphite Blue Metallic ($710), with a leather interior in Graphite Blue and Chalk ($4280), included a $6810 Sport package with the new rear-axle steering system, a more vocal exhaust, and the smaller GT steering wheel. It also had the PDK dual-clutch automatic ($3200) in place of the standard seven-speed manual, the hella-big Premium Plus package ($3970), and the front-axle lift system ($2590) among the 12 line-item options on its window sticker. You see how it goes with the extras, and this example likely is representative of how a customer would order a Carrera 4S.

Equipped for Year-Round Daily Duty

The maturing of the Carrera from ultimate 1960s compact sports machine into supreme luxury GT was already well underway before across-the-board turbos came along. But that said, the amazing thing about the 911 is how well it adapts to different roles, from the track-attacker GT3 RS (as yet, still non-turbo) to this Carrera 4S, which is about as luxurious as they come. The 4S is an all-weather torpedo for crossing borders and time zones in swift, sure-footed comfort. To Porsche’s credit, it has not sold its all-wheel-drive system as a performance upgrade but more as a capability enhancer. The engineers at Weissach are too honest to hide the fact that, unless the torque split is heavily rear biased, all-wheel drive—which increases curb weight—tends to heighten understeer at the limit. The sales pitch hasn’t changed except that, now, given launch control and the traction of all four wheels, Porsche modestly suggests that a 4S may be a tiny smidge quicker to 60 mph than an S. It quotes 4S acceleration figures ranging from 3.6 seconds for a PDK with launch control to 4.0 seconds for a manual.

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2015 Ford F-150 2.7L EcoBoost 4x4 review

We were skeptics of Ford’s aluminum-truck-bed-and-body gambit, but in a February-issue comparison test, a $60,000-plus Ford F-150 SuperCrew with a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 dispatched the mostly steel four-door competition from Chevrolet, Ram, and Toyota. But there’s a new, even smaller engine on the F-150’s order sheet, a 2.7-liter V-6. How, we wondered, would it fare under the hood of the mostly nonferrous Ford?

Positioned in price between the base 282-hp V-6 and the 385-hp 5.0-liter V-8, the iron-and-aluminum-block 2.7 makes 325 horsepower with the help of two turbos. The $795 upcharge for it over the naturally aspirated base six costs less than the F-150’s optional sunroof ($995). A V-8 runs $1595, and the top-hole 3.5-liter turbo V-6 is $1995.

The 2.7 hustles this truck to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 14.3. That’s 0.1 second slower to 60 and 0.1 second quicker in the quarter than the 365-hp 3.5-liter turbo V-6 that won the comparo. Consider it money well spent if you’re into holeshots, in the SuperCab at least.

At 4874 pounds, this model is more than 700 pounds lighter than that crew cab we keep referring to. We haven’t tested an extended-cab half-ton truck in a while, but we have tested the sub-half-ton Chevrolet Colorado. In crew-cab form, the 305-hp Colo­rado is more than 300 pounds lighter and 1.2 seconds slower in the quarter-mile.

The lack of full rear doors reminded us why the larger trucks have become so popular: We had to move the passenger seat up to comfortably fit an adult in the back seat. It’s not as tight as we remember extended cabs to be, but still no comparison to the limolike splendor of having four real doors.

Taking mass out of any truck while maintaining its payload capacity poses a challenge for chassis engineers. This F-150 carries up to 1626 pounds of people and stuff, which represents a 36-percent increase in mass over its unladen self. The rated payload capacity is 1740 pounds, with a gross vehicle weight rating of 6500 pounds. With such a large loaded-to-unloaded ratio, we expected the ride to be compromised, but it isn’t. Potholes and speed bumps induce no head toss, and the steering is uncharacteristically accurate for a truck. In fact, all of this F-150’s on-road behavior is carlike by truck standards.

Unfortunately, the 2.7 EcoBoost’s EPA fuel-economy ratings of 18 mpg city and 23 mpg highway don’t translate to the real world. We averaged 16 mpg over more than 1000 miles of mixed winter driving, and we didn’t load the bed with car parts, tow a trailer, or disable the overly aggressive stop-start engine function.

We love this F-150’s carlike demeanor and performance. But despite being quick off the line, the V-6s don’t sound or feel like truck engines, and that’s something we miss. For about $43,000, or the cost of this F-150, one could get a similarly equipped V-8 from Chevy or Ram. Show us someone who isn’t a sucker for a V-8 and we’ll show you a very nontraditional truck buyer.

Source: caranddriver.com

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