Walking through the Lane Museum in Tennessee, Brent Hagan, Product Planner for the new Titan, shows the history of Nissan from the opening of the Smyrna, Tennessee manufacturing facility and then the opening of the Nissan Headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee.
Hagan shows us the Job 1 pickup truck, which rolled off the line in 1983. Nissan began by building pickup trucks under the Datsun name, selling the 1960 Datsun 1200. In 1967, the Nissan Patrol became the vehicle of choice in the offroad segment with the largest engine offered in the segment, outperforming Jeep in all areas.
He looks at the Gobi, a futuristic design of the truck, and the SUT Concept; both of these trucks were forward-looking design concepts from the 1980s.
It wasn't until the 1990s that Nissan introduced the Hardbody pickup, the predecessor to the Frontier and full-sized Titan.
Watch this five minute video to get a start on the background of the new Titan that will unveil January 12.