In the four months since I inherited our long-term 2016 Nissan Titan XD Pro-4X Diesel, the odometer has climbed from 15,233 miles to 30,145 miles. Although several colleagues have borrowed the XD, I have put the majority of those miles on it including six rounds trips between 1,357.6 to 1,652.5 miles to the Rocky Mountains—two of those trips were towing one way. Although the EPA doesn’t require fuel mileage ratings for the XD pickups, we have some real world fuel mileage to report.
On the first trip from Los Angeles County to Salt Lake County, I towed a front-drive 2014 Jeep Patriot. With California’s 55-mph towing speed limit, the Titan XD achieved 15.9 mpg over 285.3 miles from Palmdale, California to Moapa Valley, Nevada. With higher speed limits through Nevada, Arizona, and Utah (70-80 mph), fuel economy dropped to 13.3 mpg (249.6 miles). The next leg of the trip (311.6 miles) was split between 150 miles of towing, 96 miles of city driving, and 65 miles of unloaded highway miles. The Titan XD achieved 14.4 mpg. The next two legs of the trip, the Titan XD averaged 14.9 mpg (331.4 miles) and 17.2 mpg (345.2 miles). The 1,523.1-mile road trip averaged 15.1 mpg.
Although I didn’t tow the next four trips, the Titan was used to help several friends move both long distance and locally. During those four nontowing trips—but with the bed and rear cab loaded—the lowest fuel mileage achieved was 14.1 mpg over 343.0 miles from St. George, Utah to Salt Lake. Conversely, the unloaded Titan XD saw as high as 18.6 mpg over 391.0 miles from Moapa to Norwalk, California. Overall fuel mileage for the four nontowing and one-way loaded trips were as follows: 14.8 mpg for 1,652.5 miles, 15.5 mpg for 1,509.5 miles, 16.7 mpg for 1,357.6 miles, and 17.2 mpg for 1,534.2 miles.
On the last trip, towing a 2002 Saturn Ion sedan from Lancaster, California to St. George, the Titan XD achieved 16.4 mpg over 371.1 miles. With 80-mph speed limits almost exclusively from St. George to Nephi, Utah, the Cummins-powered pickup saw 12.9 mpg while towing. The last 150.7 miles while towing up to Salt Lake (70-75 mph zones), the truck returned 14.8 mpg. On the return trip (unloaded), the Titan XD achieved 15.4 mpg over 338.6 miles and 16.6 mpg over 372.7 miles. The Titan XD averaged 15.4 mpg over the 1,458.1-mile road trip.
More on our long-term Nissan Titan XD here: