Dust, dirt, mud, rocks, boulders, brushes, and logs crumble as we crawl forward down the newly formed path. I won’t even think about attempting doing this in my truck. This is not your ordinary path. A team of professionals from Nissan Trucks went out on Medina River Ranch and marked off our course for the driving experience. It wasn’t long into the course before I was driving up steep inclines and sheer drop offs. These were not modest inclines or declines. 

These would challenge a nimble mountain goat. Around every bend there was new challenge. Ahead the road had been flooded with water making it a knee deep mud pit. Not slowing up I drive into the thickest, deepest part knowing that we were going to get stuck, but the wheels kept churning somehow gripping tracks in the slippery mud.  The force of the wheels spewed mud everywhere; the windows, hood, grill, bumper, sidewalls, doors are all covered in the chocolate looking concoction. Picking up speed, I crash through a knee deep creek spraying water everywhere. From there it’s down a dried out river bed with pools of water here and there. Rising up from the river bed I make a sharp turn and climb up a hill. Looking around, I couldn’t see the earth in front of the truck. Without solid ground below me I had come to a stop. It was time to either go forward and live the off-road experience in a Nissan truck or back up and go home.

Inching forward the front of the Nissan Titan drops suddenly. The Titan is now facing almost straight downwards, I push the brake down hard expecting the worst. Is it going to roll over, slide down and smash the bumper or go end over end I was thinking. Incredibly, the Titan stops. At an angle that defies gravity.  Slowly, releasing pressure from the brake pedal I creep forward without losing control. At that point, I have completed the course successfully without damaging  the Nissan Titan pickup.

This is my first time to be part of a driving event. While it’s definitely more challenging than any test drive someone would normally put a truck thru, the results are coming back  as impressive. After test driving the Nissan Titan, I jump into a Nissan Frontier. The smaller size Nissan Frontier has a number of features making it great for someone who wants a compact pickup truck without sacrificing performance or appearance.

The list of 2012 Nissan Truck and SUVs includes Titan, Frontier, Pathfinder,  Xterra, and Armada that can be test driven. It’s a good mix of vehicles from a compact truck, full size truck, to all purpose SUV. One of the vehicles  brought to the event has the  new Sport Appearance Package. It’s exciting to see a street ready truck with swagger for in town driving and the muscle to go off road.

Now what’s next? Looking into the future, I will be test driving some more trucks and SUVs as vehicles for towing boats; in addition to looking at special packages, equipment, features, and overall performance. Buckle your seatbelt; you’re in for an exciting ride.(For more information on Nissan Trucks and SUVs see www.nissanusa.com)