Nissan Pathfinder Review

Rating

Quick Summary

Average. A real old-school SUV that offers heaps of space and which is pretty much unstoppable in the wild.

Road Test

Just in case we thought that Nissan had gone all sissy with its line up of road-biased "soft roaders", the same company brings us the Jurassic-era Pathfinder, competing against the Mitsubishi Shogun to be crowned as king of the old-fashioned off-roaders.

It certainly looks the part, sharing much of its styling (along with its mechanical underpinnings) with the Navara pick up truck. Paint one white and stick "UN" on the doors and it would look at home in any international warzone.

The interior is based around the same ethos, being tough, basic and yet good to look at. The vast interior offers loads of space for four or five occupants, although the fold-out third row seats are only really suited to smaller, squashier children. Equipment levels are reasonable, too, although only the top spec "Aventura" gets all the toys.

It drives pretty much as you would expect. On normal roads it feels heavy and slow to respond, with lots of body roll accompanying attempts at more rapid progress. But off-road a battery of lockable differentials and clever traction control makes it pretty much unstoppable.

Now that the dipsomaniac 4.0 litre V6 petrol version has been dropped, the only engine choice is a rather old-school 2.5 litre diesel. The engine is loud under hard acceleration (and even then, progress never feels very rapid), but at least it should be capable of returning more than 30 mpg under gentle use.

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