| The Titan is a 2007 LE crew cab (short bed) loaded including 'Big Tow'. We use it for trailering, our primary trip car when the family hits the road (we have 2 rug rats as well), and hauling construction materials and parts for the Zs. Tundra Pros:
1) The turn radius is much, much better than the Titan
2) Slightly better gas mileage (both are terrible)
3) More robust rear differential. Our Titan is rated to pull 9400 pounds, but it has the same size differential as my Wrangler and in the real world an oversized rear end like that in the Tundra makes sense. Early Titans had a lot of trouble with this although I have heard of no issues since they started using cooling fins on aluminum differential covers, synthetic fluid and improved metallurgy in the gear sets. If you are planning on towing > 7000 lbs in the mountains in hot conditions this would cause me to strongly recommend the Tundra or a domestic. Titan Pros:
1) The right size – the crew cab was exactly the right size for us – both bed and cab. And the 2008 long beds give you a lot more options although it sounds like your needs are similar to ours. I can tell you that with a bed cover and DVD player the Titan makes a fantastic family trip vehicle.
2) Flat floor in the back of the cab – this really makes it easier to haul larger things in the cab (and to deal with getting the kids in and out).
3) It handles like a Nissan – the Tundra has better numbers – power, torque, acceleration, skid pad; but I feel a lot more comfortable pushing the Titan. This is primarily due to the way the chassis is tuned, controls and seating position. If you typically feel more comfortable in Nissans, Hondas and BMWs than Toyotas, GMs and Fords you know exactly what I am talking about. My wife is also much more comfortable driving the Titan than any of the other trucks we looked at - she just wished it had a manual transmission...
4) Frame – the hybrid frame on the Tundra bothers me over the long haul. It likely represents rightsized engineering, but I am a huge fan of simple body on boxed frames in a pickup. Additional thoughts:
There are some fantastic incentives on the Titan right now. A dealer I spoke to on the NC coast a few months ago was selling them with a $10K incentive recently. You could get off the lot in a 2008 Titan SE for under $17K (pretty bare bones, but a bare bones Titan is still a decent truck). We paid $35K off the lot for ours last spring, but as I said it is loaded (plus a 10 year warranty), the color my wife wanted and I drove it off the truck when it came to the dealer. Given the incentives, letting someone else take the depreciation may not be that material. The new domestics are nice – we looked at and drove everything both before and after our decision and we are still happy with the call we made. Our final choice was between Titan, a Dodge Power Wagon and an Avalanche. Ultimately the Titan was more practical for our immediate needs. If I planned on towing a lot more weight a lot more often I would have considered other options. If you do choose a Titan, take a close look at the upgrades they made for 2008 – the long bed options with greater fuel capacity and bigger bakes can really increase the usefulness for SOME people. I think your situation may be similar to ours in which case a crew cab short bed will be a good fit.
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