Final time Nissan redesigned the Armada it was a giant deal, and never only for the Nissan sellers who desperately wanted one thing that wasn’t greater than a decade outdated within the lineup. You see, for the 2017 mannequin 12 months, Nissan introduced over the SUV recognized in worldwide markets because the Patrol and gave it the Armada badge. Whereas the Patrol title may not imply a lot right here, in different markets and amongst fanatics, it’s a legendary off-roader that offers the Toyota Land Cruiser an actual run for its cash.
Besides the 2017 Nissan Armada didn’t include a lot of the off-road goodies that made the Patrol right into a Land Cruiser rival. You may at all times modify it and add these issues when you actually needed to, however the Armada was far more targeted on getting a pile of children round city than bashing sand dunes and crawling up rock faces.
For the brand new third-generation Armada, nevertheless, Nissan listened to the complaints, and now you can get an Armada Professional-4X that comes with an air suspension, steel skid plates and a locking rear differential similar to the remainder of the world will get with the Patrol. Clearly, Nissan isn’t messing round right here. In the event you don’t plan to go off-roading in Moab anytime quickly, although, does the newest redesign supply sufficient of an incentive for consumers to decide on the 2025 Armada over extra established rivals such because the Ford Expedition and Chevrolet Tahoe? And simply how good is that this factor off-road?
Full Disclosure: Nissan needed me to drive the brand new Armada so badly, it supplied to fly me to Nashville so I might drive it on the launch. I as a substitute elected to drive myself to avoid wasting time. Sadly, Nissan didn’t have a Z within the Atlanta fleet that I might use. Nissan additionally put me up in a really good room at a elaborate lodge in Franklin that grows its personal greens, purchased my meals and supplied loads of drinks.
From the skin, the 2025 Nissan Armada is what I’d name generically good-looking. It seems good, however there additionally aren’t a number of design components that actually stood out to me as significantly distinctive or enticing. I even see slightly Kia EV9 within the rear three-quarter view. All of it comes collectively in a reasonably cohesive design that, once more, I do like, not less than so far as three-row body-on-frame SUVs go. Moreover, whereas exterior design is vital, the cabin and the way the designers used the accessible area is much extra vital.
In that regard, I’m comfortable to say Nissan undoubtedly succeeded. You don’t must take my phrase for it, both. Simply have a look at the images. To borrow a automotive author cliché, that cabin simply seems like a pleasant place to spend a while, and after spending a while behind the wheel I can verify the Armada workforce didn’t pull some form of bait-and-switch on us with inside supplies. It is good in there, particularly when you spring for the highest trim ranges. Many of the surfaces are coated in high quality supplies that each feel and look way more premium than you’d count on from an Expedition/Tahoe competitor. Plus, Nissan isn’t mendacity when it talks about how comfy its so-called Zero Gravity seats are. These issues are implausible.
That stated, the brand new Armada doesn’t precisely make its Infiniti QX80 sibling irrelevant. Some consumers could have a look at a loaded Armada and resolve that it’s good sufficient, however whether or not we’re speaking concerning the quilted leather-based seats or the supplies on the doorways and the sprint, you may inform Nissan didn’t go all-out on luxurious. If that feels like a backhanded praise, it’s not presupposed to be. I’d argue it was an acceptable alternative not solely to separate the Infiniti from the Nissan but additionally as a result of the Armada is more likely to tug household obligation, and youngsters destroy the whole lot they contact. Whereas a lot good, the leather-based and different supplies really feel like they strike a pleasant steadiness of being sturdy and simple to scrub whereas additionally nonetheless feeling nicer than you most likely want.
Except you don’t like piano black. There’s a superb little bit of piano black within the heart console, and after I talked to one in every of Nissan’s staff about why that’s, they informed me designers find it irresistible, clients find it irresistible and because the fingerprints are comparatively simple to scrub off, the individuals who really don’t prefer it are a small minority. Personally, I feel all piano black plastic seems low-cost, however possibly that’s a part of why I failed at turning into a automotive designer, and the individuals who receives a commission to decide on inside supplies didn’t.
Fortunately, the Armada didn’t actually develop a lot between generations. It was already an enormous automobile and didn’t must get any larger, if solely from the angle of the pedestrians who would take pleasure in not getting splattered all around the entrance finish like six-foot-tall grasshoppers. That stated, there actually is sufficient area to suit six adults, and the third row is large sufficient that three adults might sit considerably comfortably in the event that they actually wanted to. After I piled into the Armada with a gaggle of different auto journalists, we match a 6-foot-4 journalist within the driver’s seat, my 5-foot-10 self within the second row, and a 6-foot journalist within the third row with out anybody’s knees banging towards the seat in entrance of them. The third-row man’s head brushed the ceiling, nevertheless it was positive. He stated it was positive.
In the event you do resolve to take 5 of your closest pals on a highway journey in your new Armada, although, they’re most likely going to want to pack mild. With the third row up, there’s actually solely room for 2 carryon luggage and some smaller objects. Then once more, that’s not a problem that’s distinctive to the Armada, and I don’t know if I wish to drive an SUV that’s sufficiently big not just for six adults but additionally all of their baggage for a whole weekend. That’s what cargo bins are for.
Then once more, Nissan says the 20.4 cubic toes that you simply do get behind the third row is about 25 p.c greater than you bought within the outgoing Armada, and with all three rows down, there’s a stable 97.1 cubic toes of area on your stuff. The Tahoe and Expedition do nonetheless have the sting on complete cargo quantity, though it’s price stating that the Armada has the Expedition beat with the third row in place. You may also decrease each the second and third row seats from the rear of the Armada, though solely the third row is power-operated, so that you’ll must manually raise the second-row seats again into place while you want them.
Beneath the hood you not get a V8, which will probably be disappointing for individuals whose total character is constructed round proudly owning a automobile with a V8, nevertheless it’s laborious to think about many different individuals will care. The dual-turbo 3.5-liter V6 makes 425 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, and the engine is form of associated to the V6 used within the venerable GT-R. It’s been up to date for truck obligation, so it’s not such as you’re getting the GT-R’s actual engine in your loved ones hauler, but when anybody provides you a tough time about driving a six-cylinder SUV, you don’t have to inform them that. Simply say it’s the GT-R engine and power them to determine how a lot of an exaggeration that’s.
In each on- and off-road driving, in addition to whereas towing, the engine and the nine-speed transmission it’s paired with make loads of energy. I wouldn’t name the Armada fast, nevertheless it will get out of its personal manner with ease, and whereas it doesn’t sound fairly nearly as good because it most likely would with a V8, it ought to get higher fuel mileage. The outgoing Armada acquired 15 mpg mixed, which formally Isn’t Nice even when you’re the sort of upper-middle-class household that may afford to drop $70,000 on a household automobile. The brakes, alternatively, get the job completed however have the lengthy journey within the pedal that you simply get in a number of vans and SUVs, so that you’ll have to regulate your type when you’re used to efficiency automotive brakes that seize laborious as quickly as you contact the brake pedal.
Talking of towing, each 2025 Armada comes with a tow ranking of 8,500 kilos and may have the ability to deal with boat and journey trailer obligation with ease. With a shiny and scarily dear Airstream hooked as much as the again, we weren’t precisely testing the bounds of what the Armada might tow, nevertheless it was nonetheless a superb demonstration of how the SUV would behave whereas towing. I can even verify that whereas no quantity of know-how makes it so you may’t really feel a trailer behind you, even dummies with restricted expertise ought to have the ability to tow safely. Whether or not that must be allowed with out further driver coaching is a completely completely different query, nevertheless it’s not like Nissan wrote the legal guidelines that enable anybody who efficiently parallel parked a decade-old Toyota Corolla once they had been 16 to haul a ship or a journey trailer 20 years later.
Know-how is, after all, a giant deal nowadays, and Nissan has no plans to repeat the identical mistake Infiniti made when it launched the QX50 with an outdated infotainment system and no help for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. If you need tech options, the brand new Armada has them in spades. For instance, along with extra normal options — like help for wi-fi CarPlay and Android Auto, a surround-view digicam system that helps make parking simpler, and heated, cooled and massaging entrance seats— the Armada additionally gives one thing that Nissan calls Biometric Cooling that makes use of infrared cameras to detect which passengers might have slightly further air con once they get in. Supposedly, it will assist your youngsters calm down once they get in after soccer follow, which is a neat concept, however I additionally drove the Armada on my own, so I do not know if it really works.
One notable function that I used to be capable of check was Nissan’s newest suite of superior driver-assistance applied sciences that it calls ProPilot Help 2.1. Solely supplied on SL, Platinum and Platinum Reserve trims, it permits for hands-free driving on mapped highways, and whereas I’d wish to do extra in depth testing earlier than I say an excessive amount of, nevertheless it not less than dealt with to restricted freeway driving nicely sufficient that I wasn’t utterly freaked out after I took my fingers off the wheel, and I get the sensation Tesla stans may have a tough time believing {that a} legacy automaker is even able to providing one thing like this. On Armadas with out ProPilot Help 2.1 or on roads that haven’t been mapped, you continue to get extra conventional ADAS options however must preserve your fingers on the wheel whilst you’re driving.
I’m additionally a giant fan of the non-compulsory head-up show you could get on the brand new Armada. It’s vivid, simple to learn and most significantly, it shows turn-by-turn instructions even when you’re utilizing Apple CarPlay or Android Auto for navigation. You may most likely reside with out the HUD, however you’re already spending some huge cash on a giant SUV, so why would you? It should make your life higher and in addition preserve you slightly safer.
As for the precise screens, you get a 12.3-inch driver show and a 12.3-inch infotainment display screen normal, however when you improve to the PRO-4X, Platinum or Platinum Reserve trims, these screens each develop to 14.3 inches. Perhaps that’s extra display screen than you need in your loved ones SUV, however Nissan skipped the development of tossing a mega-screen into the middle, and I respect that. In consequence, you additionally get precise bodily controls, which makes me, a loyal knob-turner, very comfortable. If solely Nissan had additionally taken my love of column shifters and distaste for push-button shifters into consideration when deciding how you must put the transmission into gear.
Finally, it was time for my favourite a part of any press journey — the off-road course. As a automotive blogger, I’m robotically an out-of-touch coastal elite, however as somebody who grew up within the South all I actually wish to do with any automotive I’m given is take it mudding. If solely it had been heat sufficient for me to put on my Budweiser tank high and American flag shorts. The frustration continued when Nissan’s workforce informed us it had rained an excessive amount of to do a lot of the course they’d initially deliberate. Contemplating how slick the bottom was within the sections we had been nonetheless capable of drive, they had been most likely proper to name off the extra severe stuff, however that doesn’t imply I used to be comfortable about it. I assume I’ll simply must plan an overlanding journey for when an Armada Professional-4X hits the Atlanta press fleet.
Whereas I wasn’t allowed to drive up the massive hill that also regarded completely climbable, we had been not less than capable of do a number of issues that demonstrated simply how succesful the Professional-4X actually is. We’re speaking a couple of 6,000-pound, three-row SUV right here, so physics isn’t precisely your pal, however locking the rear diff made simple work of what seemed to be a couple of 45-degree incline, and the front-facing digicam made it simple to position the wheels even after I couldn’t see over the hood. In actual fact, you may even activate an invisible hood mode that reveals the bottom beneath your automotive overlayed on a show that’s additionally sharp sufficient to essentially see the place you’re going and what obstacles to keep away from.
One other part of the course concerned getting two wheels off the bottom, and even with all of the mud, the Armada barely even blinked. The air suspension additionally did a powerful job of smoothing out impacts and serving to the Armada really feel beneath management. I’m nicely conscious we had been in a reasonably managed atmosphere driving over man-made obstacles that had been particularly designed with the Armada’s capabilities in thoughts, so it’s not like we had been pushing the bounds of what it might do at any level, however I’m not less than comfy saying the Armada will go far additional off-road than the overwhelming majority of Professional-4X consumers will ever want it to. Will it have the ability to deal with Hell’s Revenge with the identical sense of ease? I don’t know, however possibly Nissan ought to help me to find out.
If I needed to guess, although, the largest difficulty with off-roading the brand new Armada — except for most homeowners not wanting so as to add desert pinstripes to their paint — is solely going to be its measurement. This factor is huge, and whereas I didn’t hit something, a part of the path included a tree that I got here uncomfortably near scraping. Different drivers additionally got here inside a number of inches of that tree, too, so it wasn’t simply me. It is a lengthy, large SUV, and whereas that is probably not an issue within the desert, different trails are going to be a problem.
If solely Nissan had a smaller, narrower body-on-frame SUV in its lineup, maybe primarily based on the Frontier. , like a brand new Xterra. Since I couldn’t actually get a straight reply to why there’s no new Xterra, it most likely has to do with cash and inside politics, however come on, Nissan. A brand new Xterra would print cash, and I imply that severely, not tongue-in-cheek like my earlier plans for a Miata However Larger and the truck-like Challenger Rampage. Perhaps if sufficient individuals purchase Armadas, Nissan will lastly have the funds for to offer us the Xterra we’ve been clamoring for. Both that, or it’s popping out quickly, and everybody who informed me they wished that was within the playing cards is only a rattling good liar has one heck of a poker face.
Contemplating how a lot nicer the brand new Armada is, you’d most likely count on it to be a superb bit costlier than the outgoing mannequin, however the base SV mannequin truly has the identical beginning worth no matter whether or not you get rear ($56,520) or four-wheel drive ($59,520). Nonetheless, Nissan says it expects the SL model to be the quantity vendor, and that one begins at $62,970 plus an additional $3,000 in order for you 4WD. The Professional-4X, alternatively, begins at $73,740, whereas a 4WD Platinum Reserve will set you again $79,900.
These costs actually aren’t precisely low, however they’re additionally consistent with what you’d count on on this phase. A base Tahoe is a number of thousand {dollars} extra, whereas the Expedition begins about $1,000 beneath the Armada. And finally, I get the sensation Nissan goes to have a more durable time getting individuals to check drive the brand new Armada than it can convincing those that do to tug the set off. The advertising line about it being a extra reasonably priced Infiniti QX80 could have come straight from Nissan, however I purchase it. The 2025 Nissan Armada simply feels nicer than its rivals, and that can most likely promote extra of them than the locking rear differential, underbody safety or the truth that it’s now only a Patrol with a unique title.
