A folding front passenger seat is available. The second- and third-row seats are split, and each part folds flat. Three rows of seats means seven people can travel under its roof, though that third row is pretty tight, even when you’re five-feet-four. With its larger body on a longer, 112.2-inch wheelbase that provides for greater comfort and stability, there is more room inside than in the outgoing model. Pathfinder’s only engine is stronger even than the Explorer’s V8 (239 hp/282 lb-ft) and equal in horsepower to the bigger 4Runner offering (270 hp/330 lb-ft).EPA ratings give the 4x2 Pathfinder a combined 19.21 mpg figure, 17.79 for the 4x4 model.Īlong with its off-road and performance credentials, the new Pathfinder has improved interior amenities. Nissan’s VQ Series engine makes 270 hp and 291 lb-ft of torque in the Pathfinder, and bests the V6s in the Toyota 4Runner (245 hp/282 lb-ft) and Ford Explorer (210 hp/254 lb-ft). With its integrated tow hitch, it’s rated to pull 6000 pounds. That gives the beefed-up SUV independent double-wishbone suspension, speed-sensitive rack-and-pinion steering and four-wheel disc brakes with ABS and EBD. Pathfinder rides on the new body-on-frame F-Alpha platform developed to underpin all Nissan trucks. Given that all Pathfinders are automatics and most of us have two feet, this might seem an unnecessary fillip, but it does have its uses in off-road extremes. With the new Hill Start Assist feature, you can stop while going uphill, release the brake, and not roll back for two seconds. It can be activated with 4Hi or 4Lo engaged, allowing you to proceed downhill without riding the brakes, and it can be used in either forward or reverse gear. Hill Descent Control does just what its name implies. As we lurched up and down the bumpy wooded ruts following our close encounter with nature, the new off-road aids performed well. In a segment that now includes nearly 40 sport/utility vehicles as opposed to seven when the Pathfinder bowed in 1985, the 2005 model is the genuine off-road article its maker claims it to be. We finished our lunch in relative peace then hopped into a 4wd model for the off-road part of the test, thinking to ourselves, "You can bring it on now." If the Pathfinder is a decathlete, a modern-day Bruce Jenner in sheetmetal, as Nissan calls it (note to Nissan: Jenner won Olympic gold in 1976, before many in this target audience were born), then we were Braveheart and retreat was not an option. Nissan says it aims the new Pathfinder at those who seek to"reclaim their own space."The bees would surely protest that the chosen picnic area was never ours to reclaim, but hostilities ceased and it wasn’t the people who backed down. Guest journalists and Nissan reps alike either froze, hoping to trick the bees into thinking they were already dead, or began to swat away, flail about, shout, stomp and just plain curse the little mothers, which is what we did. There was no retreat, and so everybody just did the first thing that came to mind. Hundreds, no, thousands of mad bees were up in arms, indignant at this smug band of trespassers. Jumping down from our test truck, though, our hunger took a back seat as we found ourselves surrounded. Not a driving challenge, mind you, but one that had us calling upon some old survival instincts.Īfter a morning of driving the 2005 Pathfinder around Seattle, impressed with how strong its 4.0-liter V6 felt underfoot, we stopped for lunch at a nice wooded spot on Bainbridge Island. So it somehow seemed fitting that our first drive of this third-generation Pathfinder would involve a backwoods challenge of sorts. ![]() Nissan says its new Pathfinder is a more rugged, athletic SUV that has returned to its roots as a true off-road machine.
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