dagger

Have 3 weeks now on my Titan Crew Cab LE. Only options were mud flaps and carpets - just what I wanted. I'm a Ford truck man for many years and had just finished test driving the new 2004's. On a whim from some bits of positive press I heard about the new Nissan, I passed a dealer on the way home and decided to pull in and check them out.

Very impressed with the looks and many of the features. The Ford wins in some of the interior areas (I liked some of the materials/design choices as well as HMI control implementations), the Titan uses a bit too much chrome in the front end but other than that I gave the nod to Nissan for the overall looks/exterior design. What won me over was the driving experience - they both on paper have similar engines (300 vs 305 hp) but the Nissan blew the Ford away. Punched the Titan on an on-ramp and it effortlessly revved to 6K rpm. It felt much faster/responsive than the Ford and the ride was a bit better (though the 2004 F-150 is very close). I had to have this engine/truck.

A couple of hiccups buying from Nissan rather than my usual Ford dealer (expected some of this but I was spoiled by Ford), but closed on a deal I could live with (barely - ouch on payments for a $35K truck!). That said, I am disappointed with the quality so far - much below what I expected from a Nissan. It's been in the shop twice in 3 weeks. Here's the list:
- Loose antenna base - loud rattling when moved
- Trip odometer button stuck/not functioning
- 1 tailgate light out
- Left headlight out of alignment
- Sqeaky left door
- Truck bed floor rail extenders are loose and bang the cab/tail gate on stopping/accellerating
- Power seat entry/exit memory function has failed to return 8 times in 3 weeks
- Brakes feel too soft
- High frequency vibration in steering wheel felt between 28mph to 35mph during acceleration or deceleration

The last 4 items have not been fixed. The response from dealer service department on:
- the rail extenders is that in heat/cold they will expand or shrink and will slide - normal event
- can't reproduce power driver seat failing to return so can't do anything
- tested 2 other Titans on lot and brakes are the same so this is normal operation
- tested 2 other Titans and the vibration is there on those as well. Did not see any suspension/component installation faults so this is a normal operation

So 1 - sub-par initial quality experience for me. And 2- has anyone else observed any of the above 4 items on their Titan's? I can understand their rules on reproducing an error before they can work on it, so I'll wait on the driver seat issue. However, the other 3 I feel may be design flaws that I think should be addressed. Should I escalate?

Don't get me wrong - I still really like this truck, but it has been tarnished by a few initial poor quality items.

Cheers,
dagger

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2004 Titan LE Crew 4x4
Deep Water
Mud Flaps + Carpets