SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
This isn’t really news; the new monocoque model was shown as a concept at the 2012 North American International Auto Show, with production scheduled to begin this past September as a 2013 model. It is based on Nissan’s D floor pan shared by Infiniti, Murano and some others.
Unibody SUVs aren't very popular with diehard offroaders, so if you want a pukka integral chassis device with decent clearances and attack angles, get in quickly before they’re all gone. Don't get the idea that Pathfinders are from the “leaky tent and chipped enamel” class of camping, either; they are unashamedly well equipped and by Nissan’s own admission, priced accordingly.
Basically, the Pathfinder is a seven-seater that can be configured by folding, tumbling and flattening chairs in various ways, as a multipurpose family transporter. Want to load a couple of boards inside, make a sleeping area for a pair of passengers or simply turn it into an air-conditioned moving van? Just do it. Want to go serious boony-bashing to find that Shangri-La of fishing holes old Willem told you about when you were a cub? Just do it, because that’s what the Pathfinder was designed for.
Apart from the reversing camera and satnav with upgraded music centre including DVD player, iPod connector and hard drive storage that adds R35 000 to the base price, the car is fitted with a pretty comprehensive list of safety equipment and powered toys. There is the usual ABS with EBD, vehicle dynamic control, an electronic limited slip differential function, cruise control with speed limiter, six airbags, fog lamps in front and a sunroof. Bluetooth, intelligent key, seven-inch VGA touch screen, satellite controls on the steering wheel, dual zone automated climate control with vents and separate controls for those in the back and an onboard computer are all there too.
We drove a 3.0-litre V6 version of this car almost two years ago. We were impressed back then and hoped the 2.5-litre we drove recently would be just the same, but with a bit less power. Unfortunately, rather like hoping the younger sibling of your first true love will be just as gorgeous years later, one is almost guaranteed disappointment. Perhaps we have been exposed to better in the meantime, have become hardened to its charms or the formula wasn’t applied properly. Whatever the reason, this one just didn’t work as well as the V9X.
Briefly, it goes OK, but not athletically and the five-speed torque converter gearbox was lethargic, even in manual override mode. It’s possibly just a case of the box being taken straight out of another application without being reprogrammed to fit the output characteristics of the engine. That’s a pity, because the car is well equipped and capable. Factor in the rather optimistic selling price that has curtailed sales and one starts nit-picking in disappointment.
We drove another seven-seater recently. It had a bigger engine, drove better and could accommodate fully grown passengers in the third row. They could get in and out more easily. The front doors didn’t open as uncomfortably wide. It was also about R80 000 cheaper, adjusted for features, and just as well equipped.
If you want one of the last “real” Nissan SUVs, get it now. The unibody version will probably be more comfortable but won’t have the dirt cred of this one. And if Nissan SA can convince its parent to be more marketing-oriented with its pricing, the new Pathfinder will probably be a winner.
Test vehicle supplied by Nissan SA press fleet
The numbers
Price: R581 150
Engine: 2488 cc, four-cylinder, commonrail turbodiesel
Power: 140 kW at 4000 rpm
Torque: 450 Nm at 2000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 186 km/h
Fuel Index: 10,7 l/100 km
Tank: 80 litres
Luggage capacity: 190/515/2091 litres
Braked towing capacity: 3000 kg
Ground clearance: 232 mm
Approach/departure/breakover angles: 30/26/24 degrees
Wading depth: 450 mm
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with roadside assistance
Service plan: 3 years/90 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals
To see the launch report on the less expensive SE version, click here
This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8