Rental Review: 2022 Nissan Titan SV 4x2

"It's called Hertz," I quipped to my son John, "because it's gonna hurt when I get the bill." For the last three summers, he and I have taken a two-week cycling trip to the West. In 2020 we did it using a very nice RAM 1500 Limited press truck that had a date scheduled with the crusher afterwards. Last year we used my trusty (but now deer-dead) Silverado LTZ Max Tow. This year, we had planned to fly half of the trip and finish up by driving the new Nissan Frontier from Los Angeles to Denver via a few detours -- but just a few days before we got on the plane, the Frontier loan was canceled by my now-former employer.

What's the price of a last-minute one-way truck rental? In my case, it was $1,830.22. At least I got fairly solid value for my money; Hertz gave me a 2022 Nissan Titan SV four-by-two with just 248 miles on it. I returned the truck eleven days later with 2,925 showing, for a total distance driven of 2,677 miles across the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. Along the way, I learned a lot about Nissan's revamped big truck. The Titan is supposedly not long for this world and won't get a new generation when the current one bows out in 2024. Should you bet big on an orphan? Let's find out.

Late last year I had my first experience with the current-gen Titan, in "Pro-4X" form. I thought it was okay at best, and not a great value. That was with an as-tested sticker of $60,640. Get rid of the Pro-4X garbage, and pull the front driveshaft while you're at it, and this 4x2 in the somewhat-upscale SV trim is priced at $46,545. Now we're talking -- kind of.

To begin with, few vehicles outside of AMG and BMW M sedans are as thoroughly improved by the removal of a front driveshaft as is this chunky Mississippi-made Nissan. It sits low, about Honda CR-V height. All the roly-poly uncertainty of the Pro-4X is gone. Our itinerary required us to drive up and down Mary Jane Mountain, home of the Trestle Bike Park, no fewer than seven times. The RAM Limited had been breathless and wobbly in those conditions; the 6.2 Chevy Silverado did not lack for strength but felt a little numb at the helm for fast cornering. This Titan had them both beat, and comfortably. It swam through the schools of Subarus and Sprinters like the proverbial shark among bluefin, regularly providing about 0.7 g of grip in the banked corners before finding the right choice in its nine-speed gearbox and zipping up the hill in a burst of NASCAR noise. The looks we got from the vegan-protein crowd in their Outbacks were priceless.

It ran just as well in the cut and thrust of Los Angeles traffic, offering strong brakes and displaying considerable reluctance to come unglued in fast lane transitions. There are parts of the country where buying a two-wheel-drive truck is resale suicide, and only a fool would think he wouldn't get every single penny of Nissan's $3,700 upcharge for 4x4 at trade-in time, but make no mistake: every single minute you're not helplessly spinning the rear wheels in snow or mud, you'll feel like a genius for choosing the simpler layout.

A less brilliant idea: those goofy individual side steps that not even my five-foot-two son needed to climb in and out. They protected the Titan's doors in various underground casino parking lots but were otherwise useless. Maybe Hertz put them on because they understood just how susceptible the big Nissan is to dents. It's thin-skinned enough to get hired as a General Motors senior executive, with the tailgate in particular being ridiculously easy to crease with the crown of a mountain bike fork. Since this is a steel-bodied vehicle, one could probably pull a lot of these small dings back out, but it would be better if they didn't happen in the first place. In this respect, the Titan feels closer to its Frontier/Hardbody ancestors than it does to the current full-sized competition. The same is true for the paint, which seems to chip when you breathe on it and which is also embarrassingly thin. Ford was painting their trucks better than this back in 1995.

There's more retro vibe available in the cabin. Nominally, this is an "SV" trim, which should line up with Ford Lariat or Chevrolet LTZ. In practice, it's considerably more humble than that, with cloth-clad, fully-manual seats and a distinct lack of suprise-and-delight across the interior. Think Ford XLT or Chevrolet LS, and you'll be closer to the mark. Those competing vehicles are no more expensive -- an F-150 XLT equipped the same way and upgraded to the five-liter Coyote is just $48,890 and it's slightly nicer in all respects -- so whatever value proposition Nissan hoped to bring to the market back when the original Titan debuted has long since been forgotten. The Titan SV is a land of manual air conditioning, monochrome grey materials, and rubberized steering wheels.

Various annoyances: Like most mid-level full-sizers, the Titan has a center front seat that folds down into a console. This one is worst-in-class, from the chintzy and thin handle that opens the console lid to the remarkably penurious space available within, divided by flimsy plastic slats that are more likely to fall out than to stay put. The infotainment system is just plain stupid. It's prone to random reboots, and no matter how you configure the display it will most often show you a summary of what's currently playing off your phone in a tiny box that occupies perhaps a quarter of the available display space. Neither of the two USB slots in the console can provide fast charging. There's no mirror in the driver's side visor.

At night, the Titan is an unguided missile until you exchange the dimbulb low beams for the passable automatic high beams, which illuminate the road about as well as a standard F-150's halogen dipped lights. I haven't driven a new vehicle with lamps this bad in a long time. On the positive side, the "Intelligent Cruise Control" that distinguishes the Titan SV from the cheaper Titan S is as good as what Ford offers, minus some genuinely jerky behavior going down hills.

I carped about fuel economy in my review of the Pro-4X, but I could make no such complaint about the SV 4x2. As the engine broke in, the economy numbers kept getting higher, to the point that we regularly saw 24mph during flat highway trips. The self-reported 19.9mpg across our entire trip was reflected more or less accurately in my fill-up numbers. By the time we had 2,000 miles on the clock it was essentially impossible to get worse than 19mpg, even up and down the mountain. Ford wishes the Ecoboost 2.7 had this combination of economy and performance.

Your humble author occasionally likes to dream of a world where CAFE never happened and all the manufacturers put their pickup-truck efforts into large sedans instead. This Titan 4x2 would have made a hell of a Datsun 910 or Super Bluebird. During our travels, we came across a perfectly-preserved, low-spec Chevrolet Caprice "aeroback" coupe with the hot-wire-bent wraparound rear window but relatively few interior features. Minus the impeccable Seventies GM style, the Titan plays bare-bones Caprice pretty well, from the comfortable-enough seats and ride to the no-frills interior package.

Ultimately, I liked the Titan but I can't recommend you buy one. Other than fuel economy, which is a nontrivial matter in the current situation, it doesn't have much to offer compared to the Big Three. The aforementioned F-150 XLT feels more modern, delivers more features, will hold up better in unsympathetic use, and will more easily find a buyer when it's time for you to sell. With a five-thousand-dollar discount -- better yet, make it ten -- the Titan makes a decent case for itself. At the current price, it's not worthy of serious consideration.

2022 Nissan Titan SV 4x2: $44,060 base / $46,545 as tested.

Highs: Ride, handling, economy, power, visibility.

Lows: Cheapskate spec at caviar pricing, prone to dings and chips, is no more convincing as a $47,000 truck than Jonny Lieberman is as an amateur hillclimb driver.

Summary: This would have been a game-changer in 2004; today it's an also-ran. Short of paying a few million dollars for the rights to a short-lived gimmick 90's car show, I can't imagine a worse way to spend serious money in an open market.