It just happened by chance that I tested the new Nissan Pathfinder Armada. I was waiting to drive the new Nissan 350Z Convertible, and my partner Milt Brown drew my attention to the biggest Nissan I have ever seen. There in the parking lot towered a massive black vehicle, with a big mean grille and a roofline as high as my head. It appeared poised to run over anything in its path, at just the touch of a pedal. Forget path-finder, this vehicle looks ready to plow through the jungle in whatever direction you point it.

            First impressions were certainly upheld in terms of the Armada’s power, strength and ruggedness. But as we became better acquainted with Nissan’s civil giant, we were to find that it was built to behave in a far more sophisticated manner than your average truck or SUV – especially a full sized SUV. Nissan has succeeded in utilizing modern technology to make the Armada do more than just plow through everything in its path. The Pathfinder Armada will take you and your seven other passengers and their luggage and your boat wherever you want to go, comfortably, while behaving like the well-engineered Level-1 Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle it is.

On this quick drive, we took the new Nissan for a jaunt through the urban jungle. That was certainly not a true test of its ability, but something tells me that not many Armadas are destined for true jungle use. And we do not have a boat to tow into the mountains, so we’ll take Nissan’s word for the 9100 pound towing capacity possible on the properly equipped Armada. Thus, this test was for the average in-city driver. For this purpose, we’ll call the streets of Walnut Creek, California an accurate model environment.

305 Horsepower and 385 pound feet of torque...Photo courtesy Nissan

            Turn the key in the Armada, and a surprisingly luscious rumble greets you. Give the throttle pedal a swift kick and you get a beautiful-mean roar. That’s the Armada’s “Endurance” 5.6 liter V8 (the same one as used in the 2004 Nissan Titan half-ton pickup), which sounds more like a 6.5 liter V8. Following this 32-valve, dual overhead cam beast is a sport-tuned exhaust, so straight off the lot the Armada sounds at least as good as a Suburban with Flowmasters. The Armada’s V-8 is fed by direct injection, and controlled by a drive-by-wire throttle – very cool. It features an aluminum block with cast-iron cylinder liners and a forged steel crankshaft. And, my favorite part, the Endurance V8 sports molybdenum-coated pistons (anybody want to take a guess at the chemical formula for that molecule?).

            Drop the 5-speed automatic into drive and roll out of the lot, and you can immediately tell (if you had closed your eyes and ears and paid no attention to any other feature of this new Pathfinder) that this is not your average Nissan. The feel of the Armada on the road seems to magnify its size, as it rolls and bumps solidly over driveways and potholes. This SUV has a big presence, a characteristic not displayed by any previous Nissan.

Beautiful aluminum surrounds cast-iron cylinder liners. Four valves per cylinder make this unique truck engine a high revver: horsepower peaks at 4,900 rpm, and redline is at 6,000. Photo courtesy Nissan

Similarly, the power at your right foot magnifies the size of the engine. Get on the gas and the Armada responds in full force. It is as if all the sails of the entire 300-plus ship Spanish Armada of 1584 have been mounted on one boat, and you are sailing in a very fierce storm.

Overall ride and handling feel is good. Multi-link double wishbone suspension up front helps make this car feel rather pleasurable in turns, even when tapping into much of that 385 pound-feet of torque under your foot. Speed-sensitive rack and pinion power steering helps keep the steering from being too stiff or flimsy at any speed. The ride does have a solid truck-feel, although excessive bumpiness seems to have been nearly erased due to the absence of a live rear axle. That’s right; Nissan furnished its biggest boy with independent rear suspension. So it feels like a well-engineered truck: solid, but not punishing. Plus, with the towing package, there’s auto-leveling rear suspension, so you don’t lose ground clearance with a heavy rear load.

Photo courtesy Nissan

            There is a hidden story of stiffness to be found in the Pathfinder Armada’s body and frame that you can’t uncover just by looking underneath this SUV. The Armada features a fully boxed frame, but Nissan evolved that into a body-on frame, which includes structural bonding. This further elevates the Armada above normal truck status. The Armada really feels like one big, solid, cohesive unit, not a big gooey one.

The interior is comfortable and accommodating. The seats are not overly plush, but are certainly comfortable enough to support you on that long drive to the lake, while you easily tow your boat  - of up to 9100 pounds! (on the SE model) - with the Armada’s full-sized, light-duty SUV-class-leading 305 normally-aspirated horsepower and 385 pound-feet of torque. It has a few more horsepower and a fistful more torque than the Escalade or the Navigator, though the comparison isn’t fair there because both of those vehicles start more than ten grand above the Armada’s base $33,000 MSRP. In the thirty thousand dollar range, the Armada is less expensive and way more powerful than the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban, Toyota Sequoia and Ford Expedition and Excursion. This new kid on the block is mighty strong.

The Endurance V8's common rail direct injection system can be seen to the left of the intake manifold. Photo courtesy Nissan

            Open the large doors and be prepared to enter the biggest thing next to a motor home. The Armada offers three-row seating, with ample legroom for all passengers, and with well over a foot between row three and the rear hatch for the eight occupants’ luggage. This is all made possible by the longest wheelbase (123.2 inches, with a 206.9-inch overall length) available in a full-sized light-duty SUV. There is a substantial layer of atmosphere between your head and the ceiling (unless you’re near seven feet tall), and side-, shoulder- and general body-room abounds everywhere. Open the large sunroof and it seems that Nissan has managed to incorporate most of the outside world into the new Armada.

            The dashboard is very clean, sturdy, and functional. The design fits the theme of the rest of the car in its upscale size and its sturdiness. The center console and controls therein are more attractive than the completely smooth dash, and all the knobs are well sized (as in big enough to easily handle while driving) and placed. The interior aesthetics are pleasing, which is notable considering the interior was obviously drawn to have a highly functional, big-truck feel to it. And the interior is certainly more professionally designed than its full-sized SUV competition.

            Inside the Armada, we discovered that Nissan is keeping up with modern society, and 7-Eleven, as its beverage holders are able to accommodate vats of liquid (formerly known as cups) of up to 64 ounces in size. Next year, I wonder if soda-bucket holders will be optional…

Aft of the Armada's Hold (ship-speak for cargo storage)

Plenty of goodies are available, including a navigation system and a DVD player with drop-down screen for the rear passengers. A ten-speaker BOSE audio system entertains passengers when you run out of DVD’s. What’s really cool is that you can listen to both the radio and a CD at the same time – the user of the second audio source just has to plug in a set of headphones. So the driver can choose his or her CD of choice, the front passenger may tune the radio at their discretion, and that leaves only the six rear passengers to fight over which DVD to watch. Personally, I’d prefer to sit in the back and listen to the exhaust note all day.

Capable four-wheel drive coupled with computer smarts makes the Armada at home on or off-road. The Armada is equipped with a super-low crawl ratio, so mountain climbing off-road is no problem. But steer your course back onto the paved road, and the four-wheel drive goes into a more fuel-efficient mode.

            Nissan offers a good driving stability aid with its Vehicle Dynamic Control. VDC can manage engine power and apply individual brakes to keep your Armada pointed in the right direction, preventing slides and moderating under- and over-steer.

            And, to put the cherry on top of this mountainous full-sized-light-duty-SUV sundae, the Pathfinder is made right here in the good-ole U.S of A. Nissan has just opened a $1.43 billion manufacturing facility in Canton Mississippi, so our boys will be assembling these solid pieces of machinery.

            A 5.6-liter V8, beautiful in its bright and shining aluminum appearance, beautiful in its technological prowess, and beautiful in its massive power output is a great way to start any vehicle. Fully independent suspension at all four corners is an excellent mark of a high-performance vehicle. A fully boxed body-on frame with structural bonding is a proper engineering solution to the problem of how to bring it all together, solidly. Then add a well-designed, spacious, comfortable interior, useful technology aids such as smart all wheel drive and a good navigation system, plus a bumpin’ stereo and the serious capability to haul 9100 pounds of cargo, and you have one helluva SUV. Slap on a base sticker price of $33,300 and you have one helluva bargain.

            What a pleasant surprise. You turn your focus from the Z, and find that perhaps the best thing to happen to the SUV world has arrived.