Looking to find a path to a rocky creek? Boy, does Nissan have news for you.
Americans today buy more SUVs than cars and trucks combined. That has had a huge impact on the design of SUVs. What were once off-road-worthy machines built on a pickup truck chassis are now more often soft-roaders and crossovers loaded with family-friendly options.
Rugged Heritage
There may be no vehicle that illustrates this better than the Nissan Pathfinder. The first Pathfinder, in 1985, was a rugged truck-based off-roader available with a manual transmission and a suspension better suited to rock crawling than commuting.
By 2022, the Pathfinder is a unibody crossover so suited to family life that reviewers invariably praise how easy it is to access a child safety seat from the driver’s position.
Nissan would like to reclaim some of the Pathfinder’s rugged history. Enter the Pathfinder Rock Creek.
Off-Road Enhancements
New for the 2023 model year, the Pathfinder Rock Creek is more rugged and better suited to finding paths than any other modern Pathfinder model. Offered in 4-wheel-drive only, it adds a nice set of off-road options, including:
- Off-road tuned suspension with 5/8-inch lift
- 18-inch “beadlock-style” wheels mounted with all-terrain tires
- Tubular roof rack with up to 220-pound load capacity
- Exclusive front fascia with dark V-motion grille and mesh insert
- Rock Creek badging
- Exclusive leatherette + fabric seats with Rock Creek embroidery
- Orange contrast stitching on the seats, steering wheel, instrument panel, center console, and door panels
- Standard Intelligent Around View Monitor with Off-Road Mode
We should point out that “beadlock-style” wheels look like beadlock wheels, a type of wheel used in some dedicated off-road machines. But they aren’t actually mounted like beadlocks. That’s important because beadlock wheels aren’t road legal in many states.
If you’re pulled over in your Pathfinder Rock Creek for having beadlocks, though, have fun convincing a police officer they’re just cosmetic.
Added Power
Nissan hasn’t revealed pricing. The Pathfinder Rock Creek goes on sale in “late summer,” the company says. For 2022, the Pathfinder started at $33,880 and could reach nearly $50,000 for a loaded model.
The new Rock Creek Pathfinder uses the same 3.5-liter V6 as other Pathfinders but, thanks to revised engine mapping, gets 11 more horsepower for a total of 295.
The additions won’t be enough to make today’s unibody Pathfinder a threat to true off-road-focused SUVs like the Pathfinders of old. But they should make it significantly more capable on the trail than other Pathfinders. And they’re a nice salute to the model’s origins.
