Could fuel-slurping Nissan Titan's appetite shrink as a Chrysler-built truck?

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

It wasn't long ago that most auto industry consultants – and auto industry insiders, at least those in the truck departments --  were poo-pooing the idea that rising gas prices and oil shortage concerns would bring big hurt to the full-size pickup market.

But sales of those trucks are off by 12.5%, and the first casualty has just been announced as Nissan Motor Corp. said Monday it can no longer justify building its slow-selling Titan pickup – a truck launched in 2003 with hopes of making Nissan a significant player in what some company insiders cheerily referred to as the BFT market ("B" for Big and "T" for Truck and you can fill in the rest).

Under a deal announced Monday, Chrysler – whose Dodge Ram proves its mettle in the big truck segment -- will build the next-generation Ttitan for Nissan at a plant in Saltillo, Mexico.

In return, Nissan – which does small cars a lot better than Chrysler – will supply a new small passenger car that its new "partner" will sell in the U.S., probably under the Chrysler brand.

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Hybrid version of BMW's X6 will hit U.S. roads as an '09 model.

BMW says a hybrid version of its X6 "activity vehicle" will, indeed, hit the U.S. market in 2009, initially available only with the company's twin-turbo, 407-horsepower, 4.4-liter V8 coupled to the dual-mode electric drive system co-developed with General Motors and the former DaimlerChrysler.

It's the automotive equivalent of strapping a hydrogen bomb to a nuclear bomb for extra oomph.

In that configuration the hefty X6 won't be the poster child for fuel economy, but it will use less gas than the conventional model.

BMW hasn't disclosed mileage estimates for the hybrid, but says it should be about 20 percent better than the 19 mpg combined city/highway rating for the conventional version. That would put it close to 23 mpg for drivers who can keep the accelerator pedal off the floor.

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