If bold is your middle name and have a taste for creature comforts, and a love of SUVs, then boy do we have a car for you. The 2023 Nissan Pathfinder Ti has been redesigned from the ground up and is ready for your next adventure.
Big, luxurious, and feeling very much like a proper 4WD again, its ready for road or trail. Featuring a strong front end, it sports distinct LED headlights that blend into the body and a gloss black grille that’s bordered in chrome. The bumper houses LED fog lights.
But it’s side on where you can take in the magnitude of this gentle giant. Huge wheel arches both front and rear house a great set of 18-inch machine finished alloy wheels, which look great on road, and are practical off it.
Silver roof rails feature, with black moulding providing protection around those arches, and beneath the doors. The rear is how we like it, wide and proud, with a stylish spoiler. You get a real sense of the flared guards from this angle too.
An electric tailgate provides easy access to the boot and is a nice touch. With a 2,700kg braked towing capacity, the big Pathfinder (5.0m long, 1.97m wide and 1.8m tall) means business.
It’s inside though where Nissan’s latest large SUV offering shines (the Patrol is extra large). Luxurious, comfortable and packed with tech, the theme is leather, on the seats, steering wheel and door trims. The third row misses out though, those are synthetic.
On that back seat front (see what we did there), the rear row folds down with ease, thanks to conveniently located straps. You’ll fit eight comfortably too, as that space is wide. The sacrifice is overall cargo space though, with just 205-litres with everything up.
Fold the second and third row, and there’s just 782-litres of space. Now back to the front of the Pathfinder, where you’ll find a traditional speedo and tacho, as well as the usual information display in the driver’s instrument cluster.
In the middle of the dash rests a 9.0-inch infotainment system, with wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto. There’s a wireless charging bay too, along with USB-A and USB-C ports in the front and middle rows, and a single USB-A port for the rear row.
A Bose 13-speaker premium audio system, including dual subwoofers, delivers the beats. Treble and bass are on point in a setup that’s truly music to your ears. Other notable features include generous sized coffee cup holders, and tri-zone climate control.
Rear door window shades are also on hand, as is a head-up display for the driver, but you won’t find a sunroof in the Ti variant. On the safety and driver assistance front though, there’s plenty on offer in the 2023 Nissan Pathfinder Ti.
You’ll find one of the best intelligent cruise control systems we’ve seen. Pairing vehicle and traction control, it even works on unsealed roads. Lane intervention, departure warning and traffic sign recognition keep you on the straight and narrow on the blacktop.
Trailer sway control rounds out some neat technology, while there’s also two ISOFIX and three tether anchor points for the kidlets in the second row (and a single anchor point in the third row). It makes the Pathfinder great for large families.
Under the hood is a 3.5-litre DOHC 24-valve direct injection V6 petrol engine, mated to a 9-speed automatic gearbox. It generates up to 202kW of power, and 340Nm of torque, which is not bad, given its just over 2-tonne kerb weight.
The fuel economy isn’t as bad as you might think either, with Nissan claiming 10.5-litres/100km. We actually managed better than that, with 10.1-litres over our week long series of tests, which included a trip from Sydney to Kangaroo Valley.
The highway driving experience is remarkable, thanks to intelligent cruise control, and plenty of shiny new highway roads. You can see where the fuel goes though when the transmission gears down to climb hills.
Winding roads down the sides of mountains were a breeze, although you do need to remember it’s a hefty beast. Sharp corners are more truck like than SUV at speed, but if you drive it sensibly, you’ll never notice.
Adaptation from sealed to unsealed or even dirt roads was seamless and the Pathfinder handles and compensates at the wheels when required. All-in-all though, the big Nissan is hard to fault, even if it did leave us wondering what it’d be like as a diesel, fuel use wise.
Priced from a little over $78,000 drive away, the 2023 Nissan Pathfinder Ti is available in Glacier White, Ivory Pearl (black roof option), Brilliant Silver, Gun Metallic (black roof option), Super Black, Deep Ocean Pearl, Scarlet Ember (black roof option), or Boulder Grey with black roof.
It has a 5-star ANCAP safety rating and comes with a 5-year unlimited kilometre warranty and roadside assist. You can find out more on the Nissan Australia website. If you’re keen on one and need finance, talk to CreditOne.
Our test vehicle was provided by Nissan Australia. To find out more about the 2023 Nissan Pathfinder Ti, contact your local Nissan dealer.
