Nissan Titan Forum - View Single Post

richardminco · 09-14-2004, 08:05 PM

I've been really excited to order an 05 Titan. Yesterday I got the call.

My family truck desires seemed set. Front leather bucket for seating 6. VDC plus air bags all around for family safety (collision avoidance plus great protection should an accident occur). All was great until....

Nissan decided that you could not get the air bag option with VDC on the LE model. In fact, no 4WD models can get VDC this year. Nissan apparently thinks that a locking differential is the same as traction control and/or VDC or both. They are wrong. All a locking diff will do is get you out of a ditch or give you traction at low speeds (4 wheel low essentially). VDC will work when you are under heavy loads and towing, turning corners etc. Traction control will work at slow or moderate speeds and when you do not know you are going to lose traction. I can't believe they downgraded the 04 packaging by doing this.

In 05 you also cannot get the air bag package without the off road package in 4WD models. How stupid is that? The off road package is inherently worse in bad weather/traction conditions as the wider tires have less grip. So the logic is you must need the air bags since we made it much more likely for you to lose control? Oh, and you don't need that traction control either since it's not available. Should be fun to go off road though when your intention is to stay on the road :-(

The fact that you must order nav plus sunroof plus airbags plus off road JUST to get airbags is annoying enough, but I can live with package gouging. What I can't live with is the inability to order a fully loaded Titan which is as safe as the POTENTIAL option packages could make it if Nissan were only smart enough to recognize the situation.

I'm told by my dealer that the initial configuration options could change as the data is preliminary. A change would occur if enough feedback is received by Nissan. While I doubt that will happen, I'm going to call Nissan and get in touch with Consumer Affairs to see if the voice of reason can overcome this situation.

If Nissan does not understand that one of their main differentiators in this big truck market is safety (family appeal in the crew cab category) and that air bags plus traction control etc. are the key to safety... well I guess they are just oblivious...

09-14-2004, 08:05 PM	#1 (permalink)
richardminco Registered User iTrader: (0) Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 23 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	2005 Titan Option Packages Messed Up I've been really excited to order an 05 Titan. Yesterday I got the call. My family truck desires seemed set. Front leather bucket for seating 6. VDC plus air bags all around for family safety (collision avoidance plus great protection should an accident occur). All was great until.... Nissan decided that you could not get the air bag option with VDC on the LE model. In fact, no 4WD models can get VDC this year. Nissan apparently thinks that a locking differential is the same as traction control and/or VDC or both. They are wrong. All a locking diff will do is get you out of a ditch or give you traction at low speeds (4 wheel low essentially). VDC will work when you are under heavy loads and towing, turning corners etc. Traction control will work at slow or moderate speeds and when you do not know you are going to lose traction. I can't believe they downgraded the 04 packaging by doing this. In 05 you also cannot get the air bag package without the off road package in 4WD models. How stupid is that? The off road package is inherently worse in bad weather/traction conditions as the wider tires have less grip. So the logic is you must need the air bags since we made it much more likely for you to lose control? Oh, and you don't need that traction control either since it's not available. Should be fun to go off road though when your intention is to stay on the road :-( The fact that you must order nav plus sunroof plus airbags plus off road JUST to get airbags is annoying enough, but I can live with package gouging. What I can't live with is the inability to order a fully loaded Titan which is as safe as the POTENTIAL option packages could make it if Nissan were only smart enough to recognize the situation. I'm told by my dealer that the initial configuration options could change as the data is preliminary. A change would occur if enough feedback is received by Nissan. While I doubt that will happen, I'm going to call Nissan and get in touch with Consumer Affairs to see if the voice of reason can overcome this situation. If Nissan does not understand that one of their main differentiators in this big truck market is safety (family appeal in the crew cab category) and that air bags plus traction control etc. are the key to safety... well I guess they are just oblivious...