2026 Nissan Pathfinder -- A New Way To Find Your Path
The 2026 Nissan Pathfinder is wearing some fresh new clothes.
The front and rear fascias are updated, there's new badging, and the dashboard is redesigned.
Now standard is a 12.3-inch touchscreen, and also now standard is wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto. A smarter 360-degree camera with an invisible hood feature is now available, and the available wireless cell-phone charger has more power and a cooling system.
Platinum trims get a new seat quilting pattern, new wood-patterned interior trim, and new 20-inch wheels.
Trim levels will be S, SV, Rock Creek, SL, and Platinum.
Yeah, this is a mild refresh, not a redesign -- the powertrain will remain the same. That means that the 3.5-liter V6 (284 horsepower and 259 lb-ft of torque) carries forward along with the nine-speed automatic.
Four-wheel drive will be available on all trims and standard on the Rock Creek.
Nissan will be showing the 2026 Pathfinder at the 2025 Los Angeles Auto Show, although it doesn't appear that the brand has a media-day press conference planned.
Looking at pics, the Pathy's new grille does look a little bolder, and the new cabin looks cleaner -- and there still are plenty of knobs and buttons, it appears.
But the overall look doesn't change much -- only trained eyes will notice the difference between the 2026 and 2025 models.
That's fine -- and quite normal across the industry, really. Lots of mid-cycle updates end up blending in. I am just saying that if you were hoping for a major redesign, that is likely a couple of years off for the Pathfinder.
The 2026 Nissan Pathfinder goes on sale early next year.
[Images: Nissan]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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I like most of the new Pathfinder, but if I were to buy one, the first thing I would improve upon would be to remove the four-foot wide P A T H F I N D E R logo emblazoned on the rear hatch. Way too big.
Some of these mid-cycle updates manufacturers are making lately are getting pretty weak on changes that I'm wondering why they even bother. I mean the changes still cost money. The fascia molds and lighting assemblies are still new units. There is no more or less cost involved by changing their appearence even more. Yes I understand they need to keep the attatchment points intact, those are the expensive changes. But thats very easy to do in this computer assisted design age. But unless you see refreshed products side by side with their predessors, most people cant tell. So you have essentially spent money to make a lateral move? I don't get it. If I were the manufacturer I would spen that money on quality items. Things like NVH improvements or a materials upgrade at critical touchpoints of the interior.