Posted: Aug 02 2008 at 4:24pm | IP Logged

dannyg,

I think there might be another thread about this very thing if you poke around a bit...i'm not sure. Anyway, it appears that by 2010, Chrysler (Dodge) is going to be building the full size trucks for Nissan, there will be some styling differences than the Dodge line and as far as I know a Nissan powerplant, don't quote me on this, but I would think this has to do with Nissan as well as other dealers losing money on full size pickups, (oddly enough, i heard today on the news that out of the large OEM's, Nissan was the only one this month or quarter (not sure which) that posted gains in their truck section, largely due to the Rogue sales (not really a truck, IMO). Now the story apparently goes that Chrysler will move some stuff out of one of their Mexico plants to make room for this new agreement and the Nissan/Chrysler trucks will be made south of the border.

Toyota is voluntarily reducing Tundra manufacturing due to low sales, and if you look at any commercial or ad, you'll see big discounts on full size trucks.

I hope this is only for the full size line, and obstensibly the "Titan" might go away and become something else, I do not know. It would seem not only fuel costs hurting Nissan and Toyota, but I would think just the fact that they are relatively new to the full size truck market can't help them with product loyalty in that market. Just my .02 tho.

That being said, it is kinda wierd that they are aligning the badging of the Frontier from Nismo to PRO-4X for the off-road tuned model. If the Titan is scheduled to go away. It is also wierd because there were rumors of a diesel powered Titan in the works.

Posted: Aug 03 2008 at 6:00am | IP Logged

With gas high like it is, we will become more and more like Europe in the vehicles available for sale.  Small cars, light transporters and delivery vans for businesses will become the stable of vehicles available over time as most people will quit buying them if they give less than 30-35 mpg.  Diesel is chepaer than gasoline in Europe (I've travelled there A LOT) and this drives the sale and use of diesels over there.  Here, diesel is very high, the cost of buying a diesel can add up to $5-6000 to a vehicle and engine maintenance is very high, particularly with the new catalysts where a chemical has to be added every so often.  The only commercial reason to own a diesel here is to tow or haul very heavy loads.

I would guess that a truck the size of a Frontier will become for most people the standard pickup.  Note that Ford is going to leave the Ranger plant open another two years as demand for them is high while the demand for the F-150 is dwindling away.  Even with the Ranger, it is the 4 cylinder that is selling.  Eventually, not enough trucks will sell for any one manufacturer to make make and sell such a vehicle profitably and only shared platforms and drivetrains will support the category.

Posted: Aug 21 2008 at 5:11am | IP Logged

It's easy to make oxygen and hydrogen from water but it takes more energy to do it with electricity than you'll get back out because of the inefficiencies in electrical generation and transmission through wires.  All this does is put the burden of energy generation on our power plants.  More coal has to be burned, etc.  I doubt that the infrastructure could handle this at a volume to be really significant.

There is no free energy lunch.