Peter Palmer: Nissan Titan King Cab Arrives This Spring

For some reason, adding doors to pickup trucks and making them even more practical is something manufacturers can be slow to adopt. Likewise for practical intermediate steps, like Nissan has finally done with the addition of the king cab body to their Titan model lineup.

At the Chicago Auto Show, Nissan revealed the new 2017 TITAN and TITAN XD King Cab models. Yes, they spell TITAN in all caps, so I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m shouting. Nissan says this now completes the entire Titan lineup of full-size pickups.

Seating, Space & Storage

The most salient point about the new King Cab is its available 6-person seating. So, a work crew, or a bunch of snowmobile buddies can all cram up front – although cram is probably the wrong word, since there’s lots of room, front and back, in these things. The back doors are rear hinged suicide doors that are designed to open wider, for easier ingress and egress.

Besides, let’s face it, suicide doors are pretty cool.

There’s even an available “rear seat delete” option that allows you to keep the space, but drop the seat if you want to haul sensitive stuff indoors with you. The “rear seat delete” is ideal for commercial use since it has a flat floor loading area and also gives you secure in-cab storage space.

Like the other Titan models, the new King Cab body was designed by Nissan Design America in San Diego, California. It offers either a front split bench seat or front bucket seat (standard on PRO-4X, optional on SV models). A 60/40-split fold-down rear seat is also standard. Heated front seats are available with PRO-4X and SV grades, along with optional heated and cooled front seats on PRO-4X. Photo: Nissan North America.

Power & Performance

The standard plant is a 390 horsepower, 5.6-liter Endurance V8 engine coupled to a 7-speed automatic transmission. If that sounds like a lot of power, it is, but then again, when you promise stuff like an available maximum towing capacity of 9,420 pounds, and a max payload capacity of 1,640 pounds, then the Titan King Cab better come with big power and lots of cogs in the box.

If that’s not enough for you, (and really how often does a gearhead say, “hey, that’s enough horsepower, thank you.”) you can ditch the standard V8 mill and opt for the Cummins 5.0L V8 Turbo Diesel. It puts out less power, at 310 ponies, but it does put out a substantial 555 lb-ft of torque, which is likely enough to yank that stump out of the ground on the first go.

The oil-burner comes fitted with a heavy-duty 6-speed Aisin automatic box, and offers a staggering max towing capacity of 12,510 pounds and a maximum payload capacity of 2,710 pounds. To put that into perspective, you could tow five new Miatas on a flatbed trailer without this thing breaking a sweat.

“This feature is going to be extremely well received by commercial truck buyers for its extra utility and secure, climate-safe storage space inside the cab,” said Fred Diaz, Division Vice President and General Manager, North America Trucks and Light Commercial Vehicles, Nissan North America, Inc. “Add to that the industry’s best 5-year, 100,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and the Titan family is even more compelling.”

Warranty & Availability

The King Cab variant body style is available for both the Titan half-ton and Titan XD with the 6.5-foot bed. All 2017 Titan models, including the new King Cab, are backed by an outstanding 100,000-mile, 5-year bumper-to-bumper warranty, which is pretty impressive, given how much punishment you can deal out to a truck over a decade or 100-large miles.

The new King Cab body goes on sale this spring and should be in dealer showrooms around the same time.

The new Titan King Cab comes in both 4×4 and 4×2 drive configurations and three grade levels. That’s a fancy way of saying there are three trim levels available: the S, SV, and PRO-4X. The latter sounds like some sort of muscle-building sludge gym rats would drink, don’t you think?

Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.