Don't Mention The Discovery
by David Finlay (12 Sep 05)

Nissan plays a bold game when it attempts to portray the Pathfinder as a rival to the Land Rover Discovery. I could be wrong here - it would not be for the first time - but I find it difficult to imagine any potential buyer seriously contemplating the merits of one over the other. If you're tempted by the Discovery's brand kudos and its luxury-car interior, you're likely to be seriously disappointed by what the Pathfinder offers in both areas.

Remove the Discovery from your consideration, though, and the Pathfinder emerges as a very appealing, if slightly old-school, recent entry to the SUV market. Right from the start of this test the Nissan was already making a strong case for itself, and by the time I handed it back I was feeling exceptionally well-disposed towards it.

That distinctly non-luxury interior may not be Nissan's best effort, but it's comfortable and spacious. Practical, too. All Pathfinders other than the entry-level S model have seven seats arranged in three rows, and as long as you're no more than six feet tall you'll have no problem sitting even in the hindmost.

Access to the third row is impressively easy once you've found the lever which makes the second-row seats fold in half and then hinge forwards. In fact, the seating arrangement can be altered with very little trouble. After converting the Pathfinder into a two-seat load carrier (in which mode it has a 2091-litre capacity with a completely flat floor) and transporting an enormous amount of luggage in it, two of us then spent little over a minute turning it back into a seven-seater with minimal effort.

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