About to buy... got scared....

[rdejesus22]

Hi guys- I'm just about to buy (2-3 days)

Done all my research for the last few months and have every mod all planned out.

Was just checking some princing over Kelly Blue Book- saw something that pissed me off!!!

Why does their "JD Power & Associates" Quality rating rate it so low???- only like two stars...

The Chevy and Ford are rated twice as high>>>/????

[rdejesus22]

C'mon guys- 20+ views and no replies... give me some reassurance...

[kvoman]

You can't go wrong with the Titan unless you really have heavy loads to tow. Some people, myself included, have been inconvenienced by some issues that are or have been taken care of by Nissan.

Overall, I think you will find that the Titan is a quality truck, plus you get more for your money then the others (Ford, GM, Dodge, and Toyota). Power seems to be endless, especially when towing and going uphill. I have never been disappointed when towing my boat. When we go camping, the truck is loaded to the gill and the boat is full of gas with some camping gear in it, etc. and it still drives like there's nothing back there. Mine is an '04 and I think the '05 has a cleaner interior. I'm guessing that the '06 will have some minor changes to the interior.

You can probably get some deals now if Nissan wants to compete with the domestic market - All the big three still have the employee discounts, until September '05.

[TitanTom]

Ask an owner of a 2002 Ford, Chevy, or Dodge about long term quality and you'll get a boat load of info ask a 2002 Titan owner and you'll get

[blackdiamond]

THere have been issues, I think if you buy an 06' model you should be fine if you are towing 7000 lbs or less. Some of us with 04's we bought first year trucks, on top of that first year mfg. plant. I believe the 06's should be sorted out by now.

[Titan Power]

The same issue came up on another board, about another brand. Here was my response, which sums up my opinion on the matter...

I take the JD power surveys with a grain of salt. They are very slanted, and don't give you any info they is useful. All that number means is that out of 100 cars, there were 138 problems reported, or 1.38 per car. There are two big flaws in this survey system as I see it.

One, different makes attract different buyers for different reasons. Some makes attract auto enthusiests who demand perfection from their vehicles. They seek out and find every problem, and report it. Other brands sell to people who buy cars as appliances, and their customers don't notice/ could care less about what others would consider a problem. If they did, some brands wouldn't be in business right now. Owners of enthusiest cars jump on online forums to compare notes, check thier cars for problems other are expiriencing, and make it a point to get them corrected, like we do here. That tends to drive up the number of reported problems. Also remember some brands are heavily into fleet sales. Minor problems in those cars often go unnoticed or are not reported. Look at Porsche, with a score of 147. I doubt that Porsche is selling junk, but rather the owners are much more picky then your average Buick owner.

The other thing is it doesn't say WHAT the problem was. On my car, I found a missing piece of trim that covers the back of a seat rail. Most people would never even notice this, but I'll get it replaced. But that would count as one problem. If someone buys another make then the transmisson falls out, that is also one problem, so we are even in JD Power's eyes.

Jason K.

As far as the Titan is concerned, I wouldn't expect it to score well in it's first year. My truck is probably one of the "worst," since I've reported numerous problems. But I wouldn't trade it for any other truck. The problems are minor and easily corrected. While it is a pain to take my truck to the dealer to fix, I'd rather have to deal with minor issues now, then major issues after the warrany expires. And in my expirience, Nissans last forever. Here are the issues I've taken my Titan in for. Quite a list, my truck sucks according to JD Powers...

Brakes, four times, finaly fixed with upgraded brakes. I technically could have made them buy the truck back under the lemon law, But I love the truck. Fixed.

Rear diff cover replaced with aluminum one because of bubbling paint. Fixed.

Door sensor screw cross threaded. Fixed.

Windshield washer bottle defective (no lip molded in to keep cap on.) Part on order.

Original windsheild wiper blades sucked. Fixed.

Ticking EGR solaniod, TSB. Fixed.

Seatbelts strangle rear passengers. Not fixed.

Tire pull. Fixed, replaced one tire.

Finish scratched off steering wheel button surround. Fixed.

But I still love my truck. A few items were pretty picky, but that's what I expect with a $30k truck. It's strong points far outweigh any week points. Plus most if not all of my issues have been fixed for the '05's.

Jason K.

[BLoch]

I think it's the same reason that Hyundai is rated higher than Lexus. If you buy a Hyundai you expect some problems and don't worry or report them when they arise. If you buy a Lexus you report and complain about every little thing that may be wrong.

Same applies to our trucks. If you buy a ford/chevy you know about and expect some problems and don't complain when you get them. When you buy the titan you expect every thing to be perfect and complain when there not.

[HudsonValleyTitan]

Originally Posted by rdejesus22

Hi guys- I'm just about to buy (2-3 days)

Done all my research for the last few months and have every mod all planned out.

Was just checking some princing over Kelly Blue Book- saw something that pissed me off!!!

Why does their "JD Power & Associates" Quality rating rate it so low???- only like two stars...

The Chevy and Ford are rated twice as high>>>/????

Easy. Titan and Quest are built in a brand new assembly plant that had big issues at first. Even so, any Titan is better on it's worst day than a GM on it's best. Nissan has since retooled it's plant and sent nearly 200 Nissan execs over from Japan to straighten them out. Later 04s and 05s are fine. Look for later JD Power & Ossoc. reviews.

[HighDesertBum]

Originally Posted by Titan Power

Seatbelts strangle rear passengers. Not fixed.

How are they going to fix that?

[Urban_Redneck]

Load it like a box car and drive it like a stock car

- you'll be fine

[Clint]

I take the JD power surveys with a grain of salt. They are very slanted, and don't give you any info they is useful. All that number means is that out of 100 cars, there were 138 problems reported, or 1.38 per car. There are two big flaws in this survey system as I see it.

One, different makes attract different buyers for different reasons. Some makes attract auto enthusiests who demand perfection from their vehicles. They seek out and find every problem, and report it. Other brands sell to people who buy cars as appliances, and their customers don't notice/ could care less about what others would consider a problem. If they did, some brands wouldn't be in business right now. Owners of enthusiest cars jump on online forums to compare notes, check thier cars for problems other are expiriencing, and make it a point to get them corrected, like we do here. That tends to drive up the number of reported problems. Also remember some brands are heavily into fleet sales. Minor problems in those cars often go unnoticed or are not reported. Look at Porsche, with a score of 147. I doubt that Porsche is selling junk, but rather the owners are much more picky then your average Buick owner.

The other thing is it doesn't say WHAT the problem was. On my car, I found a missing piece of trim that covers the back of a seat rail. Most people would never even notice this, but I'll get it replaced. But that would count as one problem. If someone buys another make then the transmisson falls out, that is also one problem, so we are even in JD Power's eyes.

Jason K.

A very well written opinion. I'm sure you'll agree.

Clint

[Clint]

I bought my truck on February 1st. of this year. From reading the educated opinions in here I chose to buy an 2005 and skip the 2004 model. I also knew about the brake judder issue going in but knew Nissan would make it right. So, with that being said I bought my truck anyway. MY truck has not had one single problem other than the brakes which Nissan has since made perfect. From the paint to the interior to any other aspect of the truck I can't or couldn't find anything to find fault with. This truck is also my
11th new Nissan so I have great faith in the brand.


Don't let the negative posts scare you from buying a Titan, or you'll never know the pleasure you get from owning and driving it. Should anything happen to mine , I would buy another Titan immediately.

Clint

[markinho]

I have to agree with Clint here.

J.D. Power and Associates' rankings are somewhat puzzling. If I give you a list of vehicles from different segments, do you think that you can predict which ones are likely to be the most dependable? Which vehicle from each group would you most like to buy and drive each day?

Here they are:

Chevy Prism
Toyota Echo
Toyota Prius

Oldmobile Alero
Hyundai Sonata
Chevy Malibu

Toyota 4Runner
Toyota Highlander
Ford Explorer

Cadillac Escalade EXT
Ford F-150
Toyota Tundra

Mazda Miata
Chevy Camaro
Toyota MR2 Spyder

Ford Windstar
Toyota Sienna
Mercury Villager


Mark

[markinho]

Okay, the results are in.

According to JD Power, the first vehicle in each group is the highest ranked in each category in their 2005 Vehicle Dependibility Study, which asks owners to report problems during the first 90 days of ownership.

Without thinking about the results, first reflect upon the whether or not this type of research is likely to be statistically sound . This basically goes back to the scientific method, which means that you have to test a hypothesis using empirically gathered evidence that can be measured scientifically without human error attributible to calculation errors of subjective (personal) bias.

The first thing that comes to my mind is the fact that this study's data is entirely consumer reported. This is a huge subjective hole through which you could drive a Ford Windstar through (which, by the way, won the midsize van category over the Toyota Sienna (honorable mention) and the Honda Sienna (not mentioned). JD Power did not subject a several models of each competing vehicle to the same test conditions over the same amount of time. Nor did they report more details about the types of problems experienced by each vehicle.

Another odd thing about this report is that some of it makes you believe, subjectively, would make sense, according to vehicle reliability.

If you look at the overall manufacturing ranking, you will see that Lexus is on top with 139 problems per 100 vehicles. Sadly, Kia is at the bottom of the list with a whopping 397. Industry average is 237, and all you Nissan fanatics out there can drop a tear or two in your beer when you discover that, according to JDP, your brand has an average of 275 problems per 100 vehicles. But that's better than Mercedes, Subaru, Saab, VW, and Mini, which, of course, is from BMW.

Rounding out the top five after Lexus are Porsche, Lincoln, Buick, and Cadillac. Eighth place is Mercury, which tells me that I should inform my wife that her reliable Honda Accord is a piece of crap since Honda has 201 problems versus ever-dependable Mercury's 195. Toyota and Infiniti should cancel all of its engineers' vacations for 2006 because formidable Mercury is breathing down their neck with their 194 and 178 problems per 100 vehicles.

So aside from my sarcasm (which is a subjective response to a discrepancy between perception and reality), the JD Power & Associates survey should be taken with a grain of salt.

I bought a Titan because I was---and still am--convinced it offers the best overall combination of performance, reliability, comfort, and utility (among other categories) of any other pickup--period. Look at recalls or TSB's for 2004 and 2005 and you'll see that Nissan had many recalls in 2004 and far fewer in 2005. Go look at the other fullsize trucks and they had more for both years, on average. But the only new truck introduced in 2004 was the Titan and the F-150 (the Tundra doesn't count because the Double Cab was reengineered from the previous Tundra Access Cab) Despite more years to work out the kinks, the Dodge, Chevy, and Ford trucks still have more severe issues than the Titan in 2005.

The only "safe" non-Titan bet, statistically speaking, is the Toyota Tundra, and yet there are many guys on this board who claim that they ditched their supposedly "bulletproof" Tundras due to rampant issues that Toyota declined to fix under warranty. And for the record, I happen to still like the Tundra--but the Titan's got a better package for the same money and for arguably as good a reliability record for 2005.

Anyway, I won't attempt to build a case here for the Titan because, once you test drive it, research it, and check the prices, it basically sells itself.

But the highest grade I EVER got in a math class was in junior college statistics (a B)--and I tried my best to pay attention to what a real scientific survey was and what wasn't. JD Powers isn't a real study and the odd rankings prove it once you cross-reference their rankings with other research.

Look around, do your research, be smart, figure out what your needs are, and I think you'll see that the Titan is the best truck out there.

Good luck,

Mark

[markinho]

Here it is:

JD Power Reliability Study