Hi, Bob Aldons, “The Car Guy”, with my review of the Nissan Pathfinder Ti 4WD Wagon. When I review a vehicle for my website, I do so from a buyers perspective rather than just concentrate on speed, steering ability and things like that. After over 40 years in the car business, my review is based on a sales process called the ‘road to the sale’. Professional and experienced salespeople will present a car in terms of its features and then those that are beneficial to the customer. No point in an in-depth discussion about the torque for a particular car if it isn’t relevant to the consumer. So with that said, here’s my presentation on the Nissan Pathfinder Ti.
There’s a lot of competition in the medium and large SUV market. However, if you’re looking for something to cart your larger family around and you need 7 seats, that competition starts to thin out a bit. And when I say 7 seats, I mean seating for seven people of varying sizes, not just 4 adults and 3 children. The Nissan Pathfinder Ti 4WD is one that you should consider.
What is it? The Nissan Pathfinder Ti SUV is a large SUV featuring a 3.5 V6 Engine and multi-ratio CVT transmission. There’s oodles of power from the 202kw engine which gives the driver plenty of oomph to carry a full load of passengers.
Key Competitors: Audi Q7, BMW X5, Ford Everest, Haval H8, Holden Trailblazer, Hyundai Sante Fe, Infiniti Q70, Isuzu MU-X, Kia Sorento, Land Rover Discovery, Mazda Cx-9, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Toyota Kluger, Toyota Prado, Volvo XC 90
Base Price: The Nissan Pathfinder Ti is advertised on the Nissan website for $71, 715 drive away. if you’re thinking of purchasing a large 4WD SUV for the family, make sure that you test drive everything you’re considering. Comfort on long journeys is paramount and some competitors just don’t have it. Think particularly of the third seat legroom and headroom for your passengers. if they don’t fit, don’t buy. There’s nothing worse than having to stop every hour or so to let the rear seat people stretch their legs.
At the Front
There’s really nothing to dislike about the front end of the Nissan Pathfinder Ti. As with the Nisan Navara, I like the aggressive front end design. Heavy looking bumper, fog lights, LED daytime running lights. Under the bonnet is Nissan’s 3.5-litre V6 engine pumping out 202kw of power and 330Nm of torque. What that means in simple English is that there’s oodles of power and enough grunt to get you where you want to go, loaded or unloaded.
The transmission mated to the engine is a multi-ratio CVT auto. I’m not a CVT hater as some car journos are – technology is improving all the time. My only suggestion and pointedly a strong one is that you service the Nissan on time every time and avoid the aftermarket workshops which just change the oil and filter. CVT transmissions can be very expensive to repair if they aren’t serviced properly.
Down the Side
In this part of my review, I always provide the safety and convenience features of the car. These items are comprehensive, but if you want to know everything including weights, capacities and lot’s more here’s a link to the sp[ecification page of the Nissan Pathfinder Ti on Nissan’s website – Nissan Pathfinder Ti.
Here are the important features of the Nissan
Front, front-side and side curtain SRS airbags
Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC) with Traction Control System (TCS)
Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)
Driver and front passenger occupant seatbelt warning and alarm
Child restraint anchorage (RH/LH isofix + tether and centre tether,
3rd row RH tether)
Rear Cross Traffic Alert
Intelligent Emergency Braking with Forward-collision Warning
Blind Spot Warning
Advanced Drive-Assist® Display
8.0″ touch-screen colour display
Rear parking sensors
Rear view camera with predictive path technology
Push button ignition
Remote keyless entry
Bluetooth® hands-free phone system with voice recognition
Tri-zone climate control
Speed-sensitive windshield wipers
Satellite navigation with traffic monitoring and multi-touch controls
Intelligent Around View® Monitor with Moving Object Detection
Intelligent Cruise Control
Auto-dimming rear view mirror
Motion-activated tailgate with position memory
Remote engine start system
LED daytime running lights
Automatic headlights
Roof rails
Power door mirrors with LED turn indicators
Privacy glass (2nd row, 3rd row, rear)
Front tilt/slide sunroof and panoramic moonroof
Fog lights
Heated door mirrors
LED projector headlights with auto-levelling
Door mirrors with reverse tilt-down feature
The Rear End
Being a large SUV, the Nissan Pathfinder Ti 4WD has plenty of cargo room, whether it seats up or down. 453 litres is what you’d expect in a large passenger vehicle or medium SUV, but when the seats are folded, space is immense. So well and truly enough room for golf clubs, prams, weekend shopping, DIY purchases and more.
Cargo capacity with 2nd row upright, 3rd row upright (litres) 453
Cargo capacity with 2nd row upright, 3rd row folded flat (litres) 1354
Cargo capacity with 2nd row folded flat, 3rd row folded flat (litres) 2260
Drivers Side and Driver’s Seat
If you’re looking for a large SUV with plenty of comfort for the rear seat passenger, a great driving position and plenty of standard tech, the Nissan Pathfinder Ti 4WD is a good choice. Overcome the badge distraction and save plenty of your hard earned with the Pathfinder.
On the Road
The McDonalds Test
As with the Nissan Navara, every morning I call into Macca’s for a coffee – Large Late with an extra shot. After the drive-through, I cross over 2 speed bumps. And I’ve started to rate the suspension of cars on whether the coffee comes up through the lid. Even though it’s big, the Pathfinder didn’t spill my coffee. The big SUV soaked up the speed bumps easily.
Over my time in the car business, I’ve driven a lot of large SUV’s. From my first, a Ford Explorer back in the 90’s to Volkswagen Touareg’s, Mitsubishi’s Pajero and Jeep Grand Cherokee’s, I feel that this Nissan Pathfinder Ti is an excellent large car. Every week I take a trip to our place at Peachester – up and down the range. I travel over a combination of highway, b grade roads, as well as the twisty, range climb to Peachester and then on to Maleny and back. Apart from higher fuel economy, I’d have no problem having a Nissan Pathfinder Ti 4WD in my driveway.
Green Vehicle Guide
The Federal Government’s Green Vehicle Guide website uses politically correct terminology to determine fuel economy. Urban, extra urban and combined. I’ll call it the way it is – City and suburbs, Highway and still use their definition of combined.
You might recall that these tests are conducted in a laboratory to Australian Standards so don’t expect to achieve City and Suburb results the same as these. In my experience, I’ve found that the highway test is closest to the actual economy you’ll get, but the city results can be undercooked by as much as 20%. Hopefully, real-world tests and results will be provided this year.
City Cycle 13.6 litres per 100klm
Highway Cycle 8.0 litres per 100klm
Combined 10.3 litres per 100klm
Air Pollution Standard Euro 5
Tailpipe CO2 234 grams per kilometre
The Nissan Pathfinder Ti has a fuel tank capacity of 73 litres so should be able to handle a 7 day week on 1 fill. And as importantly, it uses 91 octane fuel (unleaded) but can also handle E10. The tailpipe CO2 rating is high in a V6 – diesel engines achieve something under 200 grams per kilometre typically.
ANCAP
These ANCAP safety tests were conducted in 2014, years before the new standards were introduced in 2018. I’m not comfortable in saying that if tested under the new regime, the Pathfinder would still achieve 5 stars.
I’ve stated before in these articles, that there really isn’t a bad car being sold in Australia. That being said, if the vehicle you’re looking at doesn’t have a 5-star ANCAP rating, move on to something else.
If you’d like to download the complete technical report, click on this link ANCAP – Nissan Pathfinder and then burrow further into the report by clicking on the “Technical Report” on the bottom LHS of the first page
Warranty and Service
From the Nissan website. “Transparent Pricing and Quality Service”
“myNissan Service Certainty gives you the confidence of knowing that your vehicle is being serviced by factory-trained technicians using only Nissan Genuine Parts. Enjoy peace of mind each Scheduled Service at any Nissan Dealership throughout the program duration knowing that you’ll pay no more than the then current published price.”
I’ve said previously, the time must be coming when Toyota, Ford, Holden, Nissan, Mazda, and Volkswagen start to offer something better than a 3-year warranty permanently rather than when trying to sell their ‘specials’. Hyundai, Mitsubishi, already have a 5-year warranty whilst the market leader, Kia has 7 years. There’s a rumour doing the rounds that Kia will increase their warranty to 10 years if other manufacturers move to 5 years.
The Nissan new car warranty is 3 years or 100,000 kilometres. Of course, this doesn’t take into consideration the Australian Consumer Law provisions that a vehicle must be fit for purpose and not a lemon. My experience with Nissan is that they build an excellent vehicle whether it’s a passenger car or light commercial.
Nissan offers capped priced service on all their vehicles. Service intervals are 20,000 kilometres or 12 months. Over 120,00 kilometers, you can expect to pay $4538 for dealer servicing or an average of $378 per service. And I think that’s pretty good value for a factory trained technician to look after your car.
Towing
The Nissan Pathfinder has one of the better towing capacities in the market today. A braked capacity (with electric brakes fitted) of 2,700 Kg. Without electric brakes, expect to tow up to 750kg. And yes there are some 7 seaters that will tow a heavier load, but better be careful, because there are other 7 seater 4WD’s that aren’t capable of more than 2 tonnes. A big trap for inexperienced players. If you’re planning to drag something big behind your vehicle, consider 2 things at least. Firstly, get someone to do the maths on actual towing capacity allowing for the number of people you’ll carry in the vehicle (more people means less towing capacity) and secondly consider the increased fuel consumption when towing. A 2-tonne van or boat behind uses up a lot more fuel.
Insurance
I generally use RACQ Insurance to give you a guide as to what you’ll pay for your annual comprehensive car insurance. Conditions precedent for this cover are:
- I’m a male driver over 60 years of age, having held a license for over 10 years
- Bronze member of RACQ with 2 other insurance policies
- Has paid cash for the car for private use with the car parked in a garage overnight and another quote for business use
- The driver resides in postcode 4019
- The car is fitted with an engine immobilizer
- 1 at fault claim in the last 3 years, with no license suspensions
- Rating 1 currently having held that rating 1 for 10 years
- No driver under 25 will use the vehicle.
The premium quoted online by RACQ Insurance is: Private Use – No Finance: $560.98 with a $750 excess
Variations from the information above may result in different outcomes. Check online with RACQ Insurance for your own particular quote.
My Opinion
What I Like
I haven’t driven a V6 for a while, at least not in a large SUV. And I like it
What I Don’t Like
The Nissan Pathfinder is down on tech compared to recently released vehicles. Time for an update Mr Nissan, particularly on a vehicle costing over $70,000
Where to Buy – Dealers
Vehicle provided by Nissan Australia. If you’re in the market to buy a Nissan Pathfinder Ti, pick your dealer carefully. When I want to check out the ‘worthiness’ of a dealer, I Google ‘Nissan Dealers Brisbane” where the city is the one that you live in or around and the brand is that particular one you’re interested in.
I only list dealers who have achieved a minimum of 5 reviews with Google and then only those with 4 stars or higher.
From a South East Queensland perspective here’s the dealers I’d visit
Northside Aspley Nissan 4.8 Stars
Eastside Bartons Nissan 4.7 Stars
Southside Springwood Nissan 4.0 Stars
Westside Ipswich Nissan 4.3 Stars
Sunshine Coast Cricks Nambour Nissan 5.0 Stars
Gold Coast von Bibra Nissan 4.8 Stars
Bob Aldons is the owner and founder of The Car Guy, reviewing cars, reporting on Car Industry Matters, Car Tech and the world at large. He’s spent the last forty years immersed in the automotive industry from salesman to the owner of a 7 brand multi-franchise dealership. Bob knows cars.
Find One
If you’re hunting around for a great price on your next new car, you should call the auto expert, Bob Aldons from Car Business. My company, a car Broker, Car Buyers Agent or Car Buyers Advocate based on the north side of Brisbane, will return your inquiry within 24 hours and make the process of buying a new car easy and stress-free. Are you tired of salesperson tricks? I protect you from the pressure exerted by car dealer’s salespeople. There isn’t any obligation – just a pretty significant saving.
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Matt wanted to purchase a Mazda 3 SP25 GT Manual Hatch. The retail value, drive away on that car is around $35,000. Car Business managed to purchase the same car for $28, 123.90 and with our fee Matt paid $25, 588, a saving of over $6000. And how do we know? Another customer, (looking for a new Holden HSV) just paid $35,000 for the same car – but he did it himself, without our assistance
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Trade In Value Example
2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited. Average dealer trade value – $16500. We achieved $22,000
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So, to get the best new car price, talk to others and then talk me. I’ve got the experience to handle the dealers and achieve the lowest new car prices. If you think you’re entitled to fleet pricing, I can often get better than that too. Whether you’re a small fleet or a large national fleet, Car Business will go to work and get that price down. Lower new car prices are my goal. So you’ll get the best prices from us rather than hoping you can help yourself.
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In Closing
My reviews aren’t based on power performance or high-speed handling capacity. They’re not based on 0-100 Kim/hr of 4.0 seconds. And they’re certainly not super luxury vehicles that many other “old timers” are feted on by the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin
Back when I started in the motor industry salespeople were schooled and skilled in a process called the road to the sale. Part of that process was a presentation of the car that the customer was ultimately considering,
The six position sell showed the features, advantages, and benefits as it related to that specific car in the eyes and thought process of that particular customer
Those days of a true car sales professional seem to have gone.
Nowadays it seems that all salespeople want to do is accept that the customer knows everything about the car they’re interested in, want to crunch the customer as quickly as possible and get onto the next sale
In my opinion, this is one of the reasons that there’s such a high turnover in salespeople in this industry of ours.
Now I think that I’m a car industry expert, not because I sell lots of cars, but, as I was taught over 40yeras ago, time sells motor cars.
The more time you spend with a customer, the more information you provide them and the more you’re there for them Even AFTER they take delivery of their new car, the more repeat and referral business you’ll get.
Typically second and subsequent sales only provide 10% of a car salespersons business. Referral business, where an existing customer refers a friend, relation or work colleague back tot eh selling salesperson as someone to trust and buy a car from is even less – probably 5%
So, if you’re a young salesperson reading this article, let me tell you that you should be getting 40-50% of your business from repeat and referral business.
And how do you get that much? Well, that’s a story for another article or an opportunity to join me in a training course.
Disclaimer
For your interest, my motoring reviews are my opinion of the vehicle I’m testing. The manufacturer or distributor, in this case, Kia Australia, doesn’t tell me what to write or ask for a ‘nice’ review. Nor am I paid for these reviews – I simply call it as I see it.
I often wonder about the ‘truth’ that I see from other motoring journalists. And I’m particularly referring to newspapers, online forums, and magazines where the company that owns the publication receives substantial advertising support from the various manufacturers.
Do the owners or editors tell their journalists to go easy on the review? I’m not sure, never having been in that position. Would I turn to softer reviews if my company was being paid for good reviews? Not likely. My independence as a writer is not for sale. I’d rather say no than be bought.
In any case, If that ever happens, rest assured that I’ll be telling that story with interest.
