NissanTruckPlanners wrote:What is your favorite Frontier/Titan feature? We'd like to know what is the one thing (specific feature or otherwise) that we can't afford to change for the future iterations?
Don't let it become a Tacoma.
We've lost the Pathfinder to the mall / spa /day care crowd. The Titan has been so long without an update, it's become invisible. The Hardbody is long gone (which is too bad, because it dominated its segment). The Xterra, while awesome, has a niche and doesn't really cross over into the "truck" demographic.
That leaves the Frontier. Keep the steep approach and departure angles. Keep the aggressive styling. Keep the body-on-frame platform. Keep the high-torque engine. Keep the 6-speed. Give us the damn turbodiesel from the South America market. Build a 2wd / single-cab / manual trans model for those of us who have teenagers. Put a tailgate strut on it, for crying out loud. Tell the guys over in NISMO that stickers and spoilers and wheels don't impress ANYONE. Horsepower, torque, and towing capacity DO. Give it some attitude, because it's the ONLY mid-sized pickup left in the market...
Chris, don't take this the wrong way, but you have the easiest job of ANY Product Planner. There's NO competition. All you have to do is address the differences between the Tacoma and the Frontier... and the automotive press routinely puts the Frontier on top. Pick out those characteristics, and add 10% more of it. Lather, rinse, repeat.
If someone from Nissan proposes anything that deviates from this, smack them.
You can tell them it's from me. I'll ridicule them publicly (part of the perks of being an independent source - we can be a cheerleader, or we can be a wrecking ball).
The "focus groups" need to be asked two questions: Do you have $27K in your pocket, and are you planning to buy a truck in the next 6-12 months. If the dweeb in Accounting, or some tie-wearing goob from Corporate has an opinion, he can go home and tell his cats... he's not buying the new truck. WE ARE.
We've already endured the wussification of the Pathfinder and the CrossCabriolet lab experiment. Leave our Frontier alone, or at least make it MORE of a truck.
Thank you guys for agreeing to swim in the shark tank. We're out here taking care of the people who bought the cars and trucks, so you guys can focus on 2014 and beyond. We're excited to see what comes next.