Test drive Nissan Pathfinder
The Pathfinder no longer crosses the taiga, but for asphalt travel it is one of the most comfortable vehicles
“Bring the sand, and I’m behind the sticks,” - with these words the rescue of the Nissan Pathfinder from the shallow snow-white snowdrift began. Representatives of the Japanese company told us that this car is no longer positioned as an SUV, but for the sake of a beautiful shot on the high bank of the Volga, we nevertheless turned off the knurled path. We drove exactly one meter.
The situation turned out to be more complicated than it looked from the outside - a heavy car lay firmly on the snow with the engine and front suspension arms. Here the ground clearance would be higher - and everything would not be so scary. However, the new Pathfinder was created to comfortably move the whole family over long distances, and 181 mm of ground clearance is enough for such tasks.
The lowered row and the central differential lock are also not part of the family values. Therefore, I had to use folk methods from the "help yourself" series. The first step was to lower the tire pressure to one atmosphere to increase the grip of the wheels on the snow surface. But this did not help much, and the contact patch in the low-profile GXNUMXs did not increase. In addition, this should always be done before overcoming a difficult section, and not during.
The next way to rescue the car turned out to be more labor-intensive - I had to lift the Nissan Pathfinder with a jack and put sticks and sand under the suspended wheels. In this case, it’s good that this is no longer an SUV with huge suspension travels, otherwise it would hardly have been possible to raise the car with a standard jack in our conditions. And here, just a few turns - and the wheel hangs in the air.
But on the highway Nissan Pathfinder rides like a Sapsan - fast and unshakable. 3,5 liter engine with 249 hp quite enough for confident advances and frisky starts from traffic lights, the updated variator does not irritate with its once mournful sound, and excellent sound insulation does not allow extraneous sounds to penetrate into the cabin.
It is important that the third row of seats in the Nissan Pathfinder is not made for show. Thanks to the significantly increased length of the car from 4877 to 5008 mm and the new layout of the passenger compartment for the rear passengers, it was possible to carve out additional free space. But if this is not enough, then there is always the opportunity to move the second row of seats, adding seats for passengers in the gallery. The only thing missing is additional USB connectors and at least one 220-volt outlet.
It's good that there was another cigarette lighter socket in the trunk, which we used when pumping flat tires with a compressor. We rocked the car, skidding at the same time, and changed the operating modes of the all-wheel drive transmission, and dug out ... And we did everything again several times. Nothing helped. It seems that we spent eternity in this snowdrift, but in fact, no longer than driving from Samara to Togliatti along the X-Tour off-road line laid out by the organizers of the test.
By the way, Nissan's all-mode 4 × 4 i all-wheel drive system works according to an unusual scheme: if in Lock mode our front right and rear left wheels were spinning, then in 2WD mono-drive mode, the front right wheel hung, and the front left was taken to work. In some situations, this can help you get at least a few centimeters off the ground. However, it was not this at all that helped us, but the new Nissan X-Trail that came to the rescue. Putting two light cables into one, we pulled a large family car out of the snow captivity with a small but nimble four-wheel drive crossover. So the Nissan Pathfinder found itself in its new home element - on the asphalt.
Many regret that another brutal SUV has disappeared from the market, but statistics show the success of the new version of the Japanese crossover: in the USA, the Nissan Pathfinder with the R52 index showed a threefold increase in sales. Buyers found the presence of sunblinds, Bose audio system and perforated leather more important than the frame, diesel engine and transmission with a low gear range.
But success came to the car in North America, and in Russia the release of the new Nissan Pathfinder came exactly at the beginning of the crisis, so it did not work out to show good results. But more recently, the model was included in the trade-in program, and now you can get a discount of $ 6 on Pathfinder. However, even without additional discounts, you can now purchase the Nissan Pathfinder for $ 007, which by today's standards is more than adequate for a 26-seater 699-meter car.
Yes, it will be the base Mid and 2015 car, but even the base Nissan Pathfinder has everything you need: heated first and second row seats, rearview camera, Bose premium audio and 2GB music server, leather trim interior, three-zone climate control, electric driver's seat, a full set of airbags, many active safety systems, a 7-seater cabin and a 3,5-liter power unit.
In addition to a car with a six-cylinder engine, a crossover version with a hybrid power plant is available, which is based on a 2,5-liter gasoline power unit with a compressor and a 15 kW electric motor. The total power of such an installation is 254 horsepower. The hybrid Nissan Pathfinder differs from a purely gasoline car in the design of a continuously variable variator - in the hybrid Pathfinder, the automatic transmission does not have a torque converter, instead of which two clutches are installed (“dry” and “wet”) and an electric motor between them. Such a scheme is dangerous by overheating the electric motor when it is under load - for example, during long-term movement at low speed on a steep slope. There is a high probability that in the series network "gasoline motor-electric motor-transmission-drive" a break will occur just at the overheated electric motor, and the car will not go anywhere until it cools down.
In the market, the Nissan Pathfinder feels calmer than a year ago. The once formidable adversary in the face of the imported Toyota Highlander rose sharply in price to $ 40. for the initial version with a 049-liter engine. The Ford Explorer has also risen in price - the basic equipment of the 3,5 model year car can be bought for $ 2015, but there is no leather interior or a good audio system. But there are LED headlights and LED running lights, which are not even available as an option in the Nissan Pathfinder. Perhaps the main price competitor for the Pathfinder is the diesel version of the Korean Hyundai Grand Santa Fe, which starts at $ 37.
Photo: author and Nissan
