Posted: Jan 11 2005 at 4:01pm | IP Logged

Not to sound like a broken record, but I too think the ride quality, even for a truck, is very well mannered.  Like many of you, I test drove a F-150 and while it was nice, I felt uncoupled from the road.  We test drove an extended cab and a CC and we felt the CC was much better.

Obviously it's a personal preference, but I prefer a bit firmer ride, yet one that is controlled.  To me it says a lot when one goes over a hump in the road and the vehicle rises & falls in a controlled manner, both front & rear, without a bunch of shudder or wallow.  That tells me that the Engineers got the compression & rebound dampening of the shocks correct.  Having ridden & raced motorcycles, I'm kinda familiar with this sort of thing.

As for long distance comfort, we use our Titan just about all the time for distance trips.  Our other car is an Acura TL-S and while it's a blast to drive, is smooth, fast, quiet, and comfortable, we actually prefer the Titan for it's extra room and the fact that it rides damn near as good as the TL-S.

However, I too feel that some attention needs to be paid to the design of the plastic in the dash area to eliminate the rattles/squeaks.  Our Acura has plastic in the dash area and after 50K miles is dead silent.  My Titan is quiet now, but only after chasing noises and replacing parts.

Tom