4 Perks of the 2017 Nissan Pathfinder

Nissan declared 2016 “The Year of the Truck” thanks to all the new changes they’ve made to the company’s heaviest vehicles. The Titan XD came out in 2015, the smaller Titan got a redesign in 2016, and Nissan’s full-size SUV, the Armada, got the same benefits since it uses the same frame as the Titan. Not only that, but the 2017 Nissan Pathfinder is also all new, and most of the changes took place under the hood.

A New Exterior

The exterior of the 2017 Pathfinder isn’t a dramatic shift away from the last generation’s design, but the differences are obvious enough once you give them both a close look. In the first place, the new Pathfinder bears the company’s new “V-Motion Grille,” the fat “V” that surrounds the grille on three sides. The front lights have slimmed down in the process, although the rear lights have bulked up and now stick out slightly from the corners of the vehicle.

A New Engine

The new Pathfinder engine comes with six cylinders, the same as last year’s model, but thanks to a few improvements, the new engine offers 24 more horsepower and 19 more pound-feet of torque. Not only does this improve the SUV’s acceleration, but it also improves the towing power from 5,000 to 6,000 pounds. The new Pathfinder also gets the same gas mileage as last year’s, with 20 city and 27 highway mpg, but thanks to the newer, stricter standards recently introduced by the EPA for measuring fuel efficiency, no change between 2016 and 2017 actually means the 2017 Pathfinder is more efficient.

New Technology

On every trim of the 2017 Pathfinder, drivers get a color display in the instrument cluster and an eight-inch infotainment touchscreen, the largest screen offered on any Nissan and an inch bigger than the one in the 2016 models. Also standard on every model is NissanConnect, the company’s unique operating system, a trial subscription to SiriusXM Radio and Travel Link, HD Radio, speed-sensitive volume control, and two USB ports you can use to connect compatible devices.

Safety Features

Redesigning a car from the ground up gives engineers the opportunity to place wires and sensors where they couldn’t before, and so the new 2017 Pathfinder offers driver assistance features that weren’t available on any 2016 model. Specifically, the Pathfinder lacked the front sensors that allowed the use of features like adaptive cruise control, a forward collision warning, and the increasingly important automatic emergency braking, which starts your slowing down your car if it detects that you might be about to run into something.

Nissan’s Year of the Truck is over, but its products will be with us for many years to come. The Pathfinder is closer to a large crossover than a small SUV, but between all the upgrades, the new safety features, the more powerful and efficient engine, and the bold new exterior, it’s fair to say that the car buyers interested in a midsize SUV should give the new Pathfinder a look.

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