New Gas Intake for Race Truck...

Well, we’re still working on making improvements. The Texas race revealed a number of areas where the design of the truck could be improved. One of the most grossly obvious was in the fuel intake. Having replaced the stock fuel tank with a fuel cell moved the location of the fuel supply higher in the vehicle but left the intake in the same spot (the stock fuel door). This caused a major leveling out of the line that takes the gas from the fuel door to the new cell location. The change was significant enough that if the truck was on even just slightly unlevel ground (tipping towards the driver’s side) or even level ground, that the fuel would not flow to the cell and would back up towards the filler neck, washing out and making it appear that the cell was full when in reality it might very well be empty…A major issue as it left us with an empty tank yet no way to get fuel into the cell at one point.

Solving this was relatively simple—we have removed the idea of using the stock filler location and moved it up to a secure spot off of the cage itself. This creates a significant angle down to the cell which will eliminate the prior issue. Problem now? Short people. They may need a stepstool to refuel the truck….but as Randy Newman says “Short people ain’t got no reason to live” right? ;)

December 2018 Nissan Sales

So let’s not kid ourselves…we only care about trucks or maybe SUVs…if they’re cool.

Nissan released its final number for both December and its full year 2018 results. Overall Nissan sales were up more than 7.5%but that didn’t offset earlier declines and overall ‘18 results were down some 6% from ‘17. This isn’t necessarily terrible given how strong the whole industry was in ‘17 and ‘18 truck results were what I’d call “acceptable”.

December was another exceptionally strong month for the Frontier, moving 7500 trucks bringing ‘18’s results to about 80,000. Given this is a now 13+ year old platform that showed a 7% growth over ‘17, Nissan execs have to be wondering why they would ever bother replacing it…Hell, why not introduce a new model and continue to market a down-contented “classic” Frontier as they have with the Rogue in the past?

The Titan? Oh the Titan…as an owner of a ‘17 Titan (and Frontier, and Pathfinder) I root for this truck but despite the money Nissan spent in developing it and what a quality truck it is—strong engine, good quality, good amenities, solid towing and cargo, good gas mileage, etc. Nissan just hasn’t seemed interested in promoting it outside of the occasional small sponsorship. People just truly don’t realize the value the truck is given its 100,000 mile warranty. And so…its December sales were only 4,600+ units bringing its ‘18 total to about 50,500 which is down from ‘17’s 53,000. There is just too much competition in this segment for Nissan to let it sit without major marketing backing.

So that’s it for the month and year…we’ll see what ‘19 brings…maybe the intro of the next Frontier?