Nissan Pathfinder

On the inside, the Nissan Pathfinder might feel you in a traditional way owing to its bulky layout for everything in the cabin. However, this doesn’t mean that it looks dated, but feels plush, premium and built to last. Draped in leather, wood and silver inserts, the cabin of the Pathfinder offers proper luxury to occupants.

The four spoke steering wheel with round buttons for controls of audio, Bluetooth and cruise is quite large and feels good to hold. The dual tone interior black and light beige theme is difficult to maintain and prone to dirt and dust a lot, but looks too premium and makes the cabin airy.

The center console looks quite bulky and large, with the wide and tapered-from-down housing for the touchscreen infotainment system, vertical AC vents and house of buttons for the music system. The controls for AC with complete fake wood inserts for transmission tunnel and lower portion of the center console look quite old school, but nevertheless, feels rich and premium.

The Nissan Pathfinder packs in some noticeable goodies in the name of equipment list, like an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system with reverse camera and navigation, push button start, hands-free tailgate, tri-zone automatic climate control, dual sunroof, automatic headlamps, rain sensing wipers, full leather upholstery, 60:40 split middle row seating, 50:50 split third row seating, 8-way adjustable and powered driver’s seat with memory function, memory function for outside rearview mirrors, heated front seats and 13-speaker sound system from Bose. Being a full-size seven-seater SUV, the Pathfinder offers plenty of space for all the three rows.

For an SUV in the middle-east, having an intimidating stance is a must. Thankfully, the Nissan Pathfinder is butch enough to have a noticeable road presence. However, in this day and age of cutting-edge styling, the Pathfinder looks slightly paler with limited styling elements to accentuate its exterior appeal.

At the front, the Pathfinder gets Nissan’s familiar V-shaped chrome grille in an extended and wider form, which makes the face look wider and slimmer. The headlamps are positioned adjacent to the wide front grille, which are quite big in size and look modern thanks to full LED pattern for main headlamp as well as daytime running light. The front bumper looks slightly bland with a squarish profile, however, the heavy cladding job at the front make the Pathfinder look rough from the front.

When viewed from the sides, the Pathfinder looks slightly bland in appeal, due to the old-school design for side glasses and lack of prominent character lines on the side doors. However, the presence of machined alloy wheels and chrome garnish for a lower portion of doors and door handles add a bit of elegance.

At the rear too, things are kept pretty simple, with the Pathfinder getting a trapezoidal pattern for tail lamps and number plate housings with chrome garnish. The presence of chrome above the rear cladding is a distinctive looking element on the otherwise plain rear profile, with the roof spoiler adding a sporty touch.

Having quite a reputation of making sturdy SUVs, Nissan has followed the same ideology for the Pathfinder as well. The Pathfinder gets independent strut suspension at the front and independent multi-link suspension at the rear, with dual flow path shock absorbers and stabilizer bars at both the ends.  While the basic variant gets 18-inch alloy wheels, the other two variants get full size 20-inch alloy wheels. The braking setup at both the front and rear gets ventilated disc setup.

For the Pathfinder, Nissan has fitted in a 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine, which is punchy enough to catapult this mammoth of an SUV with a maximum power output of 271 bhp and peak torque output of 340 Nm. The engine is quite silent and refined and has a linear power delivery, thanks to a jerk-free X-tronic CVT transmission. In the hybrid mode, however, power and torque figures drop down by 20 bhp and 10 Nm respectively (available only in the mid-spec SV variant).

For reassuring the inner occupants of being safe in such a large SUV, Nissan has fairly equipped the Pathfinder with justifiable safety features. The SUV comes with front, side and curtain airbags, vehicle dynamic control with traction control system, ABS with EBD and brake assist, tyre pressure monitoring system, hill launch assist and hill descent control. However, given its premium positioning, it still lacks many modern driving and safety aids which are present in its European rivals.

The Nissan Pathfinder might not have the touch of modernity on the outside, but its butch stance and rich-in-feel interiors make one believe that it still ranks high when it comes to full size premium SUV. The Pathfinder feels plush and luxurious – an experience which only gets better with the impressive performance on tap as well as sturdy ride quality over rough sections. Following the tradition of all the Nissan SUVs from the past, driving the Pathfinder on off-road sections is like a cakewalk. And this very focused approach in overall experience makes the Pathfinder a desirable vehicle, despite the lack of many modern design elements and features on board.