Nissan Titan XD diesel, the locomotive of pickups . . . 
Let’s be honest, all the large heavy-duty pickups are pretty much alike in how they drive and the features they pack. Pricing is also very close.
But some just look more serious than the others and I think of this week’s test truck, the 2018 Nissan Titan XD Pro-4X with a Cummins diesel engine 4-wheel drive as a locomotive for the street. Continue reading 2018 Nissan Titan XD Diesel Pro-4X 4×4
Ford F250 Super Duty a true work truck, but luxury awaits …
Ford’s F250 Super Duty is a serious work truck. It’s a heavy-duty pickup unlike what most of us mere mortals would ever drive.
Make no mistake, it looks like the ubiquitous F150, the best-selling pickup in the land that every urban cowboy and his brother drives. But the F250, and its even more bodacious brethren, the F350 and F450, are beasts of burden. They haul what nothing else will. Continue reading Ford F250 Super Duty 4×4 Crew Cab
First Jaguar sport-ute off to fast start …
Jaguar has its first sport-utility truck, the F-Pace and it’s already its best-selling vehicle. That tells you a lot.
First, it tells you that tradition and heritage take a back seat to the overwhelming popularity of sport-utes and crossovers. Second, it tells you Jaguar buyers were ready for a Jag truck. And third, it tells you that the F-Pace must be pretty good at satisfying that itch.
Jaguar smartly delivers three engine choices in its new ute. The same 3.0-liter supercharged V6 as in last week’s Jaguar XE sedan will likely be the main choice of buyers. It cranks a healthy 340 horsepower with 332 lb.-ft. of torque, but drinks premium fuel and gets just 18 miles per gallon city and 23 mpg highway.
The dark metallic gray test truck went the other way, packing an Ingenium 2.0-liter I4 turbo diesel under the F-Pace’s muscular hood that even includes a mild hood bulge. The diesel features 180 horsepower and a grunt-rich 318 lb.-ft. of torque.
Fuel mileage is impressive. The diesel is rated 26 mpg city and 33 highway. I got 27.7 mpg in driving that was heavier on city driving this time. There also is a stop-start feature here to save fuel, but it can be turned off, which makes sense from a smoothness of operation standpoint once the truck’s engine is warmed. Continue reading 2017 Jaguar F-Pace 20d Prestige
NEO’s tiny Mack, IH trucks offer big detail
Trucks are the big haulers we see every day, on the highway, behind the grocery, in the office parks. Usually they have a big ol’ trailer behind them full of goods that make the world go round.
So it’s only natural that they have fans, just like cars, racers and motorcycles.
Now NEO has the answer for truck collectors, beautifully detailed 1:64 scale tractor trailers of historically significant models. Our samples were a light blue 1960 Mack H-673ST and a 1963 International Harvester (IH) Fleetstar F-2000-D in red with a white beltline.
The History
These trucks were workhorses, the Mack’s chassis weighing 13,025 lbs. and featuring a 10-speed transmission to put its 205-horsepower turbo diesel to work. That may not sound like much, but the Thermodyne engine boasted a torque rating of 560 lb.-ft.
This was the cool cab-over design too that used a manually engaged hydraulic lift to tilt the cab forward to facilitate maintenance. Mack made 550 of this model from 1958-’62. They included a sleeping compartment behind the cab. Continue reading Die-cast: NEO’s 1/64 Mack, IH trucks
Tundra TRD Pro a big honkin’ truck, with shortcomings …
You’d think all big pickups are pretty much alike. First, their grilles are massive, their stance is tall and imposing, their engines are mostly V8s and they’ll all haul a honkin’ big load.
That’s true, but the devil is in the details and there are a lot of details because there are soooo many variations of every pickup.
Toyota’s Tundra TRD Pro Crewmax, this week’s test drive, is all of the above, but it falls short on some rather important details.
First, it won’t tow as much as some of the other pickups. It’s rated to pull 10,500 lbs., which is considerable, but the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra and Nissan Titan will pull 12,000 lbs., and Ford’s F-150 about 200 lbs. more than that.
Second, Tundra doesn’t even offer a diesel engine, while the Ram and Titan both do. Incidentally, the diesels also get much better fuel economy.
Third, Tundra’s fuel economy is poor. The test truck was rated 13 mpg city and 17 mpg highway. Compare that with the very similar GMC Sierra I tested recently, which was rated 15 mpg city and 21 mpg highway. Ford’s top-selling F-150, which cut 700 lbs. by going to an aluminum body, is rated higher yet.
For the record, I got 18.4 mpg in an F-150 test last year, 15.9 mpg with the Sierra and just 14.9 mpg with the Tundra. Lest you think I was lead-footing it, or this was an aberration, I got just 14.6 mpg in my last Tundra Crewmax test drive. Continue reading 2016 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro Crewmax
Passat’s diesel economical and we’re not blowing smoke!
Perception often matters as much as reality, especially in the retail world of which the auto business is a top dog.
So the perception of a diesel engine being loud, smoky and not terribly pleasant to drive remains Volkswagen’s biggest obstacle when selling its pleasant mid-size front-drive Passat. This and the Chevrolet Cruze are the main turbo diesel cars available on our market today.
Their advantage is excellent fuel economy and reduced engine maintenance. That’s the case for both.
But VW has been offering its turbo diesels (TDI in VW parlance) for years, so you’d expect its version to perform better and feel more refined. It does not. My test earlier this year of the Cruze shows it to be quieter, run smoother and feel, well, more refined.
However, the tested champagne silver Passat TDI SEL, got excellent fuel mileage. Rated 30 mpg city and 40 mpg highway, I got a stellar 41.4 mpg in about a 50-50 mix of city and highway driving. The Cruze, while rated at 27 mpg city and 46 mpg highway netted me just 35 mpg in a drive tilted toward highway miles. Continue reading 2013 Volkswagen Passat TDI SEL
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