Another car question - Nissan Pathfinder?

John_P

sorroy for a another car discussion but I'm looking for a bigger vehicle and don't want another van or estate so looking at 4x4's.    Most don't have a lot of practical space for gear - but the Pathfinder looks pretty big inside.    
Has anyone owned one and have an opinion?

boogieman

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/nissan/pathfinder-2005/

The site review sounds ok but read the user reviews, a couple of the 1 star make quite scary reading. Not sure I'd want one. 

John_P

Scary indeed.  But I guess there are some horror stories about every car - whether they are outliers or more common place would be interesting.   
Ibe not owned a Nissan before and thought they had a good rep for reliability.

randella

I had a Nissan with an earlier incarnation of the Renault-derived 2.2 diesel - they had a reputation for lunching turbo bearings, at which point the turbo would suck the contents of the oil sump into the inlet manifold, causing the engine to effectively run in its own oil and eventually seize. Mine was making a telltale whistling noise on boost with the attendant black smoke from the exhaust so I got rid to be on the safe side. Was probably being over-cautious though. It was a great, punchy engine even in the lower power guise that I had, I just didn't want the headache. 

This particular flaw has probably been well eradicated in the interim revisions, but do a bit of research on the owner forums and wotnot, if there are any common problems that's as a good a place as any to find them. 

Nitefly

I had one of the early Primeras with that 2.2 diesel engine - I had 2 replacement turbos in it in the 3 years II had it.

randella

Nitefly said:

I had one of the early Primeras with that 2.2 diesel engine - I had 2 replacement turbos in it in the 3 years II had it.

Yeah mine was a Primera too. I gather they used the same engine, unaltered, in the X-Trail. 

From the sounds if it, it's been beefed up for the Pathfinder - probably got sick of the warranty claims.