magicmerlin's Full Review: 2004 Nissan Pathfinder Armada
We considered a two year old Hummer H2, a new Toyota Sequoia, and a new Nissan Armada. We borrowed a Hummer H2 and an Armada for a day from the dealer before buying, the Toyota dealer didn't allow this. After weighing all the factors, the Armada was the clear winner and we couldn't be happier.
The strong points of the Armada were:
- More interior space than the others all around, including a true three-passenger rear seat. The Sequoia's rear seat was only comfortable for two adults. The Hummer had a single rear seat that sits level with the bed, allowing no real leg space--fine for a child but not an adult.
- More features and luxury for the money. The Armada LE with standard leather, three automatic climate zones, tow package, a GPS Navigation System (awesome), sunroof, power tailgate, color rear camera, DVD entertainment system, Bose 10 speaker system w/six disk changer, and two key-fobbed driver seat/mirror/pedal memory settings, cost less than the Sequoia with leather and CD. The Hummer was a bit more comparable, but only at two years old with 25,000-35,000 miles, though it had standard 4WD with tremendous off road and water crossing ability.
- More passing power than the other two. A lot more than the Hummer, which seemed to work hard most of the time. The Sequoia was a bit quicker off the line but wheezed some at on-ramp through passing speeds.
- Nicer looking than the plain jane Sequoia in our opinion. The Hummer has a great look too.
- Nicer interior, the Nissan is plush and luxurious, the Sequoia felt a bit narrower and looks a like a Camry-type interior. The Hummer's seats were very comfortable and the interior was as wide but plasticy for the money.
- The H2 got about 11 MPG in our combined driving test, a bit low for a six passenger vehicle with limited storage. The Sequoia and Armada are rated the same in city/highway driving. We've been getting 12/18 MPG with the Armada, which is better than a loaded-down, struggling hybrid vehicle gets per passenger, especially after you consider how many trips you need to transport eight people and their luggage. The Armada transports eight adults in true comfort, with copious arm and leg room in the first five seats, adequate adult-room in the back three seats, and still has lots of room for luggage. There is also the capacity to pull 9100 lbs of additional cargo.
- View of the road. All give the driver an advantageously high vantage point, the Toyota and the Nissan feel open and spacious to the driver. The Hummer's roof line felt a bit low to my 6 foot eyes, possibly inhibiting one's view of traffic signals and resulting in a slightly restricted feeling--minor. The Armada's side mirrors are outstanding. The center mirror isn't as useful--offset superbly by the color rear camera and it's superimposed vehicle guidelines, plus the audible obstacle warning.
- Safety. Airbags with side curtain air bags all the way back, including the third row seats. Front passenger airbag automatically turns off when there is too little weight in the seat. Child seat friendly seat belts in all positions that ratchet down without slack after being fully extended, then reeled in tightly. The 5500 lb curb weight is hard to argue with.
- About $10,000 less than the Infinity version which, as far as we could tell, is identical in every respect to a loaded LE minus the front grill treatment and chrome side trim.
The weak points of the Armada are:
- Ride quality over bumpy roads was not as good as the Hummer (best) or Sequoia (close second). The Armada LE's better suspension was an unexpected slight improvement over bumps as compared to our Armada SE loaner vehicle, which formed our first impression. Cruising on good roads, all were similarly quiet, comfortable, and easy to point and relax. All three had good resistance to cross winds, and none leaned or rolled during quick turn-ins, which was a surprise to me. All were a pleasure to drive, a lot easier than you might think. My wife prefers driving our Armada over our V6 sport sedan, which incidently gets about 17.5 MPG in combined driving, only about 2 more than the big Nissan.
- The Armada and the Hummer sit higher than the Sequoia, requiring a clear step up or down to enter and exit. The Armada's running boards provide the needed stepping surface, but the placement seems a little awkward.
- No option for power retracting side mirrors. Standard on the Hummer and optional on the Sequoia. The Armada's can be folded manually. Note that most stats list width dimensions that don't count mirrors. Single car garage openings are bound to be a tight fit without pulling in at least one mirror.
- Rear seat doesn't split when folding. The good part is that it collapses into the floor so you don't have to remove rear seat(s) like the Sequoia and the Hummer.
- The upgraded navigation screen-based interior controls are poorly implemented and tedious to operate. You can set the car up to default to your climate control control settings, or to show your radio/6CD/DVD system information, but you can never see both at the same time. Additionally, the control knobs themselves require reading the manual to operate, a first for me. Ironically, the cheaper, simpler system controls (no Nav package) work very well, all the settings stay visually discernable and the control methods make sense.
Our final consideration was reliability. We're upgrading from a Nissan Pathfinder which has become too small for our growing family. After 93,000 miles of ticking like a clock, the Pathfinder asked only for gas, oil, and tires, not a dime or minute spent on repairs. We have no experience with GM/AM Hummer, if the engine didn't sound quite as strained we'd feel more confident. Toyota has a sparkling reputation for quality that we would have been happy to honor. We've owned two Toyotas, while they were certainly very reliable cars, neither achieved a perfect track record. Here's hoping the Armada lives up to our high expectations.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 39,077
Condition: New Model Year: 2005 Model and Options: LE, Nav System, rear camera, sunroof (tech pkg), DVD, pwr rear gate
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.