(FORTUNE Small Business) – Traditional pickup owners wear their Carhart overalls and John Deere caps with pride, but here comes a fast-growing demographic--Mr. Modern Truck Guy. He lives far from the farm in a large metro area or the surrounding suburbs, uses his truck mostly on weekends, and probably dresses in Ralph Lauren jeans and J. Crew sweaters. He's also the target buyer Nissan has identified for the 2004 Titan, a behemoth of a truck that is just now reaching dealers. Titan is the first full-sized pickup explicitly marketed as a play toy, not a work tool, and, based on a weekend's rambling in northwestern Connecticut, I found it as well suited to carrying antiques and lawn tools as it is to the hauling chores of a small-business owner.

Although city dwellers might not know it, full-sized pickups are the most popular vehicles in the U.S., accounting for about one in every seven new cars and trucks sold. Until recently most of them have gone to rural residents, who use them for work and prefer simple, no-frills models. The pickup of choice was the Ford F-Series, which has led the category for more than two decades and is expected to sell more than 900,000 vehicles in 2004. Cutting into that lead by appealing to traditional truck buyers would be all but impossible for Nissan, because buyers take their brand preferences seriously. Switching from Ford to Chevy would be considered heresy; changing to Nissan would be unthinkable.

Enter the Modern Truck Guy. He'll consider an import, and he wants more than just four wheels and a pickup bed. Options on the Titan include a navigation system, a six-CD stereo, and a DVD player. In terms of size, the Titan more than measures up to the Ford F-150 both inside and out. And it has a slightly larger engine: a standard 5.6-liter, 305-horsepower V-8 that just nips Ford's optional 5.4-liter, 300-horsepower motor.

Supersized vehicles can be intimidating to novice truckers, so Nissan has tried to make the Titan user-friendly. The controls and instrument panel look and feel similar to a Maxima sedan's. The long column-mounted shifter, however, took some jiggling to work into the right notches (an optional floor-mounted shifter would be a better choice). In the rear of the truck Titan uses channel rails with tie-down cleats and D-rings to make securing loads easier. Titan also is the first big truck to get a sprayed-on bedliner that protects the steel from scratches and gouges (unlike insert liners, which can get grungy over time).

On the road the Titan felt more refined than its $27,350 sticker price (for the two-wheel-drive SE model) would suggest. The big V-8 produces a lightning-quick response when the accelerator is tapped, and the ride is smooth and quiet. There's none of the banging and clanging you sometimes get with an empty pickup bed. Don't expect much in the way of fuel economy, though: The Titan model I drove is rated at 14 mpg city and 19 on the highway.

Until now, the F-150 has been king of the road. But unless you're wedded to a domestic brand, the Titan's aggressive pricing--several thousand dollars less than comparable Fords before any incentives--makes it an attractive value.