Take a close look at the 1990 Nis-san Pathfinder SE V6 4-Door 4X4. Is there a car lurking underneath that truck exterior?
You'd swear there is once you've driven this well-designed sport utility vehicle. It's no wonder the Pathfinder beat out six competitors in Car and Driver magazine's comparison of sport utilities.The vehicle offered for a test drive came with Nissan's $2,000 sport option package and was surprisingly carlike in its handling and ride. Watch the tight turns, however, since sport utility trucks have a higher center of gravity and thus more body sway.
The Pathfinder is especially versatile considering all the demands it is built to meet. It's smooth on pavement, handles rocks with a minimum of bucking and rocking, and takes grassy fields and occasional potholes with commendable ease.
Much of the credit goes to the five-link, coil-spring rear suspension, a system pioneered by Nissan when it introduced Pathfinder as a 2-door model for 1987. It's designed to help each wheel work independently and suck up the bumps.
Toyota has come up with a four-link suspension, but many other sport utilities still have leaf springs, the type more common to pickup trucks.
Several of my passengers also were pleased by the relative quiet inside. The V-6 engine teamed with a five-speed manual transmission was not bad for a sport utility even when we rode with the stereo turned off.
The engine delivers 153 horsepower, sufficient to power the Pathfinder through the muck and snow admirably. But don't look for sports-car acceleration. In Car and Driver's comparison test, the Pathfinder did 0-60 mph in 12 seconds and ranked behind the Jeep Cherokee Laredo and Ford Explorer in acceleration. EPA fuel economy with the automatic transmission is 15 mpg city, 18 highway, about average for 4-door sport utilities. With the five-speed transmission, it's 15 mpg city, 19 highway.
Getting into a Pathfinder gracefully without running boards takes practice, though the test vehicle did have optional step rails, in the form of rounded black bars running along the bottom of the doors outside. Women will find them OK with flat shoes, tricky with heels.
Getting in and out can also be messy after driving through mud, because it tends to collect on the step rails, around the wheel wells and at the bottom of the doors outside.
The Pathfinder's front seats were spacious and comfortable, though I had to lean forward to tune the radio because the scan button was small and needed a precise touch.
The rear bench seat is comfortable, roomy enough for three adults and can be folded down - completely or one side at a time - for extra cargo space. To do that, you have to remove the rear-seat headrests so the seat back will fit flat behind the front seats. And be sure to pull the seat-belt connectors back up after you unfold the rear seat. Otherwise, they tend to fall below and can't be reached.
The 31.4-cubic-foot, carpeted cargo area is reached by a single rear door, which opens left to right.
Nissan hopes to sell about 30,000 Pathfinders this year and expects 85 percent of those to be the new 4-doors. The company only sold 17,253 last year, after raising prices $1,500 to compensate for a new U.S. tariff.
In 1988, Nissan sold 30,344 units, and 34,600 the year before that.
The company is pitching the truck at drivers 28 years and older with above-average incomes. Buyers will need the money: The 4-door Pathfinder test vehicle had a base price of $20,149 and topped out at more than $22,000. The two-wheel-drive version starts at $15,720.
Main competitors include the Toyota 4Runner 4-Door, which starts at more than $16,200 for a model with a V-6 engine and manual transmission, and the Isuzu Trooper 4-door, LS model with a 2.8-liter, V-6 engine that starts at more than $16,800.
Consumer Reports ranks 1987-88 Pathfinders as much better than average in owner reports of trouble.