After the Nissan Pathfinder’s 9-year long stint as a softly-styled inoffensive crossover, there is now an all-new model. The 2022 Pathfinder is not just a facelift but a complete redesign from the ground-up, with a host of mechanical and technological upgrades to cater for the midsize three-row crossover segment.
The Nissan Pathfinder has been a success story for the brand but its existence is always overlooked. Blame the decent yet forgettable looks of the SUV for that. Nissan aims to change the status quo with the completely new 2022 Nissan Pathfinder. With a stronger design and more tech, the new model adds some zing to Nissan’s global cash-cow.
The Nissan Pathfinder has had a long and varied life. In its first generation, it was a five-seater body-on-frame compact offroader back in 1985. Since then, it switched to a unibody, body-on-frame, and then again to a unibody in its current generation, this time fully becoming a crossover with seating for seven in 2013. The model has now received a makeover for 2018, and we drove it at the media launch event in Fujairah.
To mark the 30th anniversary of their Pathfinder model, Nissan has given it a refresh for 2017. As it’s just a mid-life update, the changes are not ground-breaking. This facelift bears a close resemblance to the outgoing model as the profile remains the same, while the front and rear ends have been reworked.
With a governmental push for “green” initiatives, the ubiquity of hybrid cars is inevitable in the UAE, even if the current lukewarm sentiments are due to lack of actual subsidies to reduce the higher prices of hybrid cars, as in Western countries. However, a few local car dealers have taken it upon themselves to offer hybrid models that make sense to cost-conscious consumers. One such model is the Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid, which costs almost the same as a regular Pathfinder at Nissan’s dealership in Dubai.
Nissan have followed up the launch of the all-new 2013 Pathfinder with the debut of the fuel-saving 2014 hybrid variant, which was revealed at the 2013 New York Auto Show.
The Nissan Pathfinder has never had a consistent heritage. The first one arrived in 1986 as a 3-door compact 4×4 on a body-on-frame pickup chassis. The 5-door version only arrived in 1990, still a compact. The second-generation model in 1996 moved up to the midsize category with a unibody frame as well as independent suspension, and people complained that it lost its heritage. In 2006, the third-generation moved back to a body-on-frame construction, retained its independent suspension and grew in size to accommodate a cramped 3rd-row seat, and people complained again that it lost its heritage. Now the 2013 model has gone back to a unibody,
The all-new 2013 Nissan Pathfinder has just been launched in the GCC, with a media event in the UAE. The new Pathfinder ditches its body-on-frame chassis for this year and gains some length to compete in the hotly-contested midsize crossover segment.
Nissan has finally revealed the 2013 Pathfinder in its entirety, although by now nothing is left to the imagination after showing it off plenty of times before as a concept. It is now a unibody crossover that offers more spacious seating for seven and 30% better fuel economy than the outgoing offroad-capable version.
Nissan has revealed pictures of the production version of the 2013 Pathfinder on, of all places, Facebook. Of course, it reveals nothing new, as it looks exactly like the “concept” shown many months ago at auto shows.