Nissan's Upcoming Body-On-Frame Pathfinder Apparently Won't Replace The Current One

Hey, everyone! Great news! Nissan's new CEO Ivan Espinosa forced the Japanese automaker to stop being dumb and bring back some of those body-on-frame off-roaders that make all its competitors so much money. Nissan plans to start with the long-rumored Xterra revival in 2028, but it isn't stopping there, either, as it's going to add a body-on-frame Pathfinder to the lineup in 2029. Goodbye glorified minivan with less-convenient doors, hello... wait, what's that? Automotive News reports the unibody Pathfinder isn't going anywhere, and Nissan plans to sell two wildly different models under the same name? Again?

And yet, there it is in print: "According to a person with knowledge of the plan, Nissan will continue selling an updated version of the unibody Pathfinder alongside a new body-on-frame model as soon as mid-2029." Automotive News typically has good sourcing, so we're inclined to believe the report, but Nissan has yet to officially confirm anything, with spokesperson Brian Brockman telling the outlet that Nissan "continually assesses its product strategy ... guided by evolving consumer trends and market opportunities." 

Allegedly, the goal is "to broaden [the Pathfinder's] appeal in the competitive, family-oriented segment" by offering the old unibody Pathfinder alongside the new body-on-frame Pathfinder. Those who just want a three-row family hauler can go for the former, while those who want the towing and off-road capability of the truck-based version can go with the latter. Which does sound like a recipe for a lot of stuck Pathfinder rentals when people mistake the unibody version for the body-on-frame version, but that'll be Hertz's problem, not Nissan's.

If that really is Nissan's plan, it certainly wouldn't be the first time an automaker has continued to sell the old version of a car alongside the new one. Heck, it wouldn't even be Nissan's first time. While plenty of people remember Ram's decision to continue selling the old Ram 1500 under the Ram Classic label until the design was 17 years old, don't forget that Nissan also did this with the Rogue back in 2013 when it "introduced" the Rogue Select, and more recently with the Kicks Play.

Those examples are a little different, though, since we're still talking about generally similar vehicles with the same layouts. The second-generation Rogue and fifth-generation Ram may have been much better vehicles than the ones they were designed to replace, but a body-on-frame truck is still a truck, and a front-wheel-drive-based crossover is still a crossover. Even though Nissan reportedly plans to update the Pathfinder before turning it into the Pathfinder Select or whatever it's eventually called, I can't think of any automaker ever trying something like this. 

It's entirely possible this whole "two different Pathfinders" thing will work out for Nissan, but I'm not going to pretend it won't make the entire lineup more confusing. In addition to selling two wildly different Pathfinders, if the new Pathfinder is a three-row body-on-frame SUV, where does the Armada fit into the lineup? Is the Armada going away or getting even bigger? And if the new Pathfinder will be significantly smaller than the Armada, how's that going to work with the new Xterra? Could they have not just called the new Pathfinder the Xterra XL or something like that? 

Heck, does the Pathfinder name even carry much weight anymore? From the sound of it, we'll find out in a few years.