It doesn’t like being hustled along quickly, lacking the athletic feel that a Ford Explorer has with its tightly controlled body motions and punchy turbocharged engines. Body movement is pronounced in such situations, squatting hard on its rear haunches under full acceleration, diving noticeably under hard braking and plowing through quick turns with considerable understeer. The Pathfinder’s overall feel is of a heavy SUV, however, especially when negotiating tight turns and roundabouts or performing hard acceleration and braking maneuvers. But overall, the powertrain is smooth, refined and perfectly adequate to the task of powering the Pathfinder. For example, when coasting down to a stop but then deciding to give it some more power as traffic has cleared from a light, it gets a little confused and might select a gear lower than it needs to. The transmission does hunt a lot for its gears, but with nine speeds to play with, this is to be expected - only occasionally does it feel like it’s missing the beat and not keeping up with the driver’s anticipated moves. With moderate acceleration, the V-6 is perfectly adequate, the new nine-speed auto-shifts smoothly and calmly, and the whole experience is that of a big, heavy SUV doing what it does best: ferrying the brood to soccer practice or the mall in quiet comfort. 2022 Nissan Pathfinder | photo by Leslie Cunninghamĭriving the new Pathfinder is best done at a relaxed pace, as if the whole family is on board for a ride and you don’t want kids dropping juice boxes or Grandma to stress any joints. The combined rating remains 23 mpg for front-drive Pathfinders, but the city/highway distribution has changed slightly to 21/27 mpg city/highway. Lower trim levels increased from an EPA-estimated 22 mpg to 23 mpg, and the AWD Platinum is up from 21 to 22 mpg. It doesn’t sacrifice gas mileage, which is up 1 mpg combined in AWD versions over the 2020 model (the last model year sold). That change is meant to improve the Pathfinder’s off-road ability, its towing durability, its driving dynamics and more - and in most ways, it delivers. What’s new is what that engine is connected to: a conventional nine-speed automatic transmission, replacing the unloved continuously variable automatic transmission in the old Pathfinder. Powering the 2022 Pathfinder is the same 3.5-liter V-6 that’s in the outgoing model - it makes 284 horsepower and 259 pounds-feet of torque, which is unchanged from the previous Pathfinder. It Expects You to Drive Like the Family’s in There Suffice it to say, it both looks and feels big - this was not an effort to slim down the SUV, this was an effort to make it look more rugged and aggressive, and it worked well. Its geometric looks make the new Pathfinder feel like a larger vehicle than the one it’s replacing, but the overall dimensions don’t change all that much. The slim headlights taper into the wide and prominent fenders, with the taillights stretching across the rear to again emphasize the Pathfinder’s width. I have to say it looks much, much better than the last Pathfinder, with definite family resemblance to the latest angular Nissans like the larger Armada and smaller Rogue. It’s actually a little shorter than the outgoing model, but changes its proportions by being taller and wider.Ģ022 Nissan Pathfinder | photo by Leslie Cunningham This new fifth-generation model is a complete departure that incorporates some styling cues from the original Pathfinder, such as the forward-swept C-pillar, three-slot grille and overall squared-off, thick body styling. The fourth-generation Pathfinder was a generic blob-shaped thing that bore no family resemblance to the chunky original 1986 model at all. Related: 2022 Nissan Pathfinder: Going Rogue The Family Resemblance Is Strong I drove the new ’22 Pathfinder through Southeast Michigan recently to see if Nissan’s moves to butch up the new Pathfinder have paid off. The latest automaker to do that is Nissan, which has redesigned the latest 2022 Pathfinder three-row to be more rugged, more outdoorsy and slightly more capable in the dirt than its solidly street-oriented predecessor without giving up any of the luxury, safety and connectivity that modern families expect in an SUV. But the trend we’ve spotted for the 2020s seems to be an effort by automakers to recapture some semblance of that off-road adventurism after decades of moving toward making them glorified tall wagons. Somewhere along the way, they became eight-seat family vehicles, replacing the station wagon and minivan in most driveways. They weren’t luxurious and they weren’t comfortable they were work wagons used by forest rangers and farmers. When SUVs first arrived on the American scene, they were purpose-built, off-road adventure and utility vehicles.
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