GWM Tank 500 vs Nissan Pathfinder

What's the difference?

The Tank 500 is an impressive seven-seat 4WD wagon. It’s reasonably nice to drive, comfortable and it’s a capable 4WD.

There are glaring issues with some of its driver-assist tech and its hybrid set-up doesn’t offer the fuel economy you’d hope for. But it is packed with features and represents decent value-for-money when cross-shopped against the likes of Prado and Everest.

There’s a lot to like about the Nissan Pathfinder. The current model not only looks a lot better than its predecessor but in ST-L trim — and with an even cheaper front-wheel drive model — it offers the kind of value Australian families are chasing. 

For all its practicalities, towing capacity and refined driving experience, the Pathfinder’s fatal flaw is its limited engine choice. A thirsty petrol V6 with no engine start-stop tech stunts its appeal for those who live in suburban areas where a Kluger hybrid just works better.

The ST-L is a worthy consideration for your next purchase if you’re less bothered about fuel use, and it's the pick of the line-up, offering just about every creature comfort and safety feature you'd want in a good-value package.

In terms of dimensions, it’s 5078mm long (with a 2850mm wheelbase), 1934mm wide and 1905mm high.

The Tank 500 has a kind of throwback retro style. Not quite as much as its smaller stablemate, the Tank 300, but obvious nonetheless.

There are plenty of old-school 4WD design cues. It’s more than a bit blocky and straight up and down in places, yet it still manages a somewhat contemporary look. Although, there’s a lot of chrome everywhere if that's your cup of tea. 

It's clear to see where the GWM Tank 500 takes its cues from – most of the current crop of popular 4WD wagons, such as the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series.

The Tank 500 is a large vehicle and it straddles that line between large and extra-large 4WD wagons. It is longer than any 300 Series, but it’s narrower and shorter.

It has a sunroof, roof rails and big side steps, befitting a 4WD wagon, and 18-inch alloy wheels.

The interior is well laid-out and functional. Depending on the variant, the interior will either have synthetic leather seating (Lux), or genuine Nappa leather seating (Ultra) and beyond ample soft-touch surfaces there's much to like about the GWM Tank 500's practical and comfortable interior.

The Pathfinder has a lot going for it in the looks department. Lead designer Ken Lee leaned into the nameplate’s past, incorporating the three horizontal strips between the broad bonnet and 'V-Motion' grille which is encircled in chrome. 

There’s real presence to this SUV (partially down to the Pathfinder's sheer size) with chunky wheel arches and plenty of vertical surfaces. The most eye catching colour is 'Scarlet Ember' red ($750) but the pearlescent 'Deep Ocean Blue' seen here is a classy look. 

Every manufacturer is doing the spaced out nameplates on the boot lid now, but the Pathfinder was an early adopter and it is particularly well executed on this car. There's also the massive (in proportion to the vehicle) Nissan badges. 

Inside, the Pathfinder focuses more on practicality and usability than wow-factor. There are no tacky design flourishes and the three-row SUV manages to stay on the right side of Americana, a trick the Toyota Kluger could learn.

The GWM Tank 500 Lux has seven seats. Bucket-style seats up front for the driver and front passenger (fine in terms of support and comfort), a three-seat second row in a 60/40 split configuration and a third row in a 50/50 split. 

The seats in the Lux are synthetic leather, the Ultra gets Nappa leather and the Lux driver gets an eight-way power-adjustable seat plus four-way adjustable lumbar support; the front passenger gets four-way electric adjustment.

Trading up to the Ultra gets driver and front passenger seats that offer a variety of massage modes. Hmmmm, massage…

In the grand tradition of 4WD wagon second-row seats everywhere, they are fine but not fantastic – reasonably comfortable and supportive. The second and third rows fold flat to expand the rear storage capacity. 

Cargo space is a listed 98 litres when all seats are in use, 795 litres when the third row is stowed away, and 1459L when the second and third rows are lowered.

In the rear cargo area there are tie-down points and a cargo slide cover to conceal whatever you have in the back from prying eyes.

Up front, the 14.6-inch touchscreen multimedia system, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, dominates the dash and is easy enough to use, although the cabin set-up is a bit confusing and counter-intuitive in its operation.

Case in point: while the aircon’s fan-speed can be controlled using physical buttons or on-screen buttons, the temperature controls can only be adjusted via the screen which poses a problem if the screen itself freezes on the start-up graphics and you’re unable to adjust the temp via the screen – as it did on this test.

There's also wireless charging, front and rear USB ports, as well as 12V and 220V power outlets.

The audio system has eight speakers in the Lux and 12 in the Ultra’s Infinity system.

The Lux has ‘follow me home’ lights but it doesn’t get the Ultra's 64-colour ambient lighting system.

The Pathfinder is a thoughtfully packaged and practical vehicle, trading on more than just size with plenty of clever storage solutions. 

In the front there are generous door bins, twin cupholders and a deep central cubby. But there’s more, with a thin rubberised storage shelf above the glove box perfect for phones or sunglasses and a pass-through space below the centre console for larger items. 

A storage space for a smartphone is found in close proximity to USB-A, a USC-C and 12-volt sockets. All of thus is beneath a physical switch panel for the dual-zone climate control. 

The 9.0-inch multimedia touchscreen is the only letdown, feeling quite small in the Pathfinder's vast cabin. It is still responsive and features wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, though. The Pathfinder’s sound system is passable after tweaking the bass and treble balance. 

The analogue speedometer and tachometer sits either side of a 7.0-inch media screen that gives driving information along with settings for safety systems. There are switches on the steering wheel to control major functions, including cruise control, media and the screen operation. 

Among its competitive set, the US-built Pathfinder’s build quality is excellent. There are cleverly positioned soft-touch plastics and we didn’t notice any rattles over our week of testing, unlike Palisades and Klugers. The steering wheel, especially, is appointed in a high quality, smooth-grained leather.

While the ST-L may only get cloth upholstery, which is admittedly harder to clean than leather, the high-quality material is more temperature stable than the imitation cow hide often seen at this price. It’s also combined with heated front seats. 

Adding to the comfort factor is power adjustment for the driver’s seat including in/out and up/down lumbar control. The passenger seat is manually adjustable but with a lever for height and the driving position is pleasingly low-set. 

The low front seats open up a world of excellence for the second row’s stadium seating which gives passengers a fantastic view out. Not only is this just nice, it also helps kill travel sickness for kids (and grown-ups). 

The second row is on front/back sliding rails with fine backrest adjustment to dial in a comfortable position. There’s ample room even for adults over 185cm with plenty of head, leg and toe-room. 

Amenities include a third climate zone, USB-A and USB-C charge points, a total of six beverage holders and a fold-out armrest.

The Nissan Pathfinder has ISOFIX tabs in the two outboard rear seat positions. The anchors are not hidden behind a cover so there is nothing to lose and the three top tether points are big and meaty for easy access. 

Nissan deserves praise for its wide opening doors, the Pathfinder’s go almost perpendicular to the body with a large square aperture making loading dogs, children or shopping extremely easy.

But there’s one crucial flaw — the back windows don’t go all the way down leaving around a third of the glass sticking up. 

The Pathfinder’s three-wide third row is vast in the third row, with enough space for adults in a pinch — at least two across the three-wide bench — and up to four beverages.

The power-actuated second row gets out of the way quickly (perhaps a little too fast!) and slides back into place easily. The rear bench is split 60/40 with the long portion on the Australian kerbside.

There are no ISOFIX or top tether points in the third row of the Pathfinder ST-L which does hurt its practicality. The Ti-L features ISOFIX and top tether for one third row seat.

Aside from that, the Pathfinder is about as good as an SUV gets for practicality, though a Kia Carnival people mover has the edge for outright human carrying ability. 

Behind the shapely power tailgate, the Pathfinder offers either 205L, 554L or 782L of cargo space depending on how many seats are in use. And while the smallest figure sounds compact, the space is tall and square making it quite practical. Four school bags would fit easily or five at a pinch. 

With the third row stored elegantly in the floor, the space is generous although interrupted by the roof-mounted middle third-row seat belt which is a faff to unbuckle.

Amenities include two shopping bag hooks, a 12-volt socket, four tie-down points and a spacious wet storage area below the boot floor.

The spare tyre is hung beneath the Pathfinder however it is a temporary space saver, rather than a full-size item. 

Despite no diesel powerplant, the Pathfinder’s towing capacity is best in class, beating both Palisade and Kluger with its 2700kg braked limit (750kg unbraked).

Though still shy of the ladder frame Ford Everest and Isuzu MU-X (3500kg), the monocoque Pathfinder’s high limit is impressive.

The ST-L is not lacking for features, with 18-inch alloy wheels, a 360-degree camera view system, tri-zone climate control, a head-up display, built-in navigation, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, front and rear parking sensors, cloth upholstery and heated seats. 

The front-wheel drive ST-L starts at an impressive $59,670, undercutting the Hyundai Palisade Elite ($66,800) and more spartan Toyota Kluger GX hybrid ($60,920). The all-wheel drive ST-L seen here costs $64,170, with all prices before on-road costs.

As for other Pathfinder trims, the Ti adds a more powerful stereo, leather-accented upholstery and different wheel designs for $67,990 (in front-wheel drive) and the full-fat Ti brings a digital driver’s display, 20-inch alloy wheels and second row captain’s chairs — dropping seat capacity to seven — for $82,490, all before on-road costs.

Every Tank 500 Hybrid has a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine, a 1.76kWh battery and an electric motor. That combination produces 255kW and 648Nm.

The Tank 500 has a nine-speed automatic transmission, low- and high-range 4WD gearing, as well as a rear diff lock.

The Nissan Pathfinder is only available with a petrol engine. It is an all-aluminium dual overhead cam direct and multi-point injection 3.5-litre V6. It's part of Nissan’s ‘VQ’ engine family that has been around since 1994. 

The V6 develops 202kW at 6400rpm and 340Nm at 4800rpm which are respectable outputs. The torque builds steadily from around 3000rpm and starts to really move the Pathfinder above 4000rpm. 

The lusty engine note is a nice touch in a world dominated by down-sized turbo-petrols and hybrids. There’s something refreshing about the natural response of a large capacity naturally aspirated engine, too, interfacing slickly with the nine-speed automatic transmission.

Official fuel consumption is 8.5L/100km on a combined cycle on regular unleaded fuel. On this test I recorded 12.8L/100km. 

The Tank 500 has a 80-litre fuel tank, so, going by those fuel figures, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 625km from a full tank.

Note: Drop 30-50km off any driving-range figure for a better idea of your vehicle’s safe touring range.

Also, remember that numerous other factors affect your fuel consumption and so impact your touring range, including how much extra weight you have onboard (passengers, camping gear, etc), whether your vehicle is fitted with any aftermarket equipment (bullbar, spare-wheel carrier, etc), whether you are towing (a camper-trailer, caravan, or boat, etc), your vehicle's tyre pressures and the conditions.

For all the benefits of that large capacity V6 it has a fatal flaw and that is fuel efficiency — particularly around the suburbs. 

The Pathfinder’s rated fuel consumption is 10.5L/100km in the ADR combined (urban/extra urban) cycle with 245g/km CO2 outputs, however it is much thirstier around town. 

After 100km of suburban driving in Sydney, the Pathfinder’s trip computer read 15.3L/100km. It lacks an engine start-stop system to save precious millilitres when sitting at traffic lights. 

Other large V6 vehicles will be similar, or probably slightly higher in the case of the multi-point injected Palisade, but the gold standard in this segment is the Toyota Kluger hybrid which easily returns figures of 6.0L/100km or less in pretty much all driving. 

A longer 200km loop taking in motorways and country roads saw the Pathfinder consume fuel at 11.4L/100km which is an improvement but still very high.

Our observed fuel consumption gives the Pathfinder, with its 71L tank, a theoretical driving range of 602km. It will happily take standard 91 RON unleaded at the pump.

The Tank 500 has a fancy-schmancy start-up screen replete with Tron-style graphics and an accompanying soundtrack that are rather impressive, if you’re into that sort of thing. But I’ll let you know a few paragraphs deeper into this yarn why I think GWM should do away with that whole sequence.

This wagon has a kerb weight of 2605kg and a turning circle of 11.2m, so it’s not insubstantial, but it rarely feels too clumsy or cumbersome to drive anywhere.

It’s reasonably nice on-road during general driving duties but there are a few things to watch out for. 

Ride and handling is a bit firm and jittery on irregular surfaces such as rough country roads, but it's okay otherwise. It's reasonably quiet, somewhat refined and it's comfortable without being too plush. 

The engine, electric motor and auto transmission generally work together pretty smoothly, but there were times on this test, mostly on road, where there was a jarring change when the electric motor switches to the petrol engine. Not atrocious, but certainly noticeable.

Acceleration is sometimes unpredictable with a sequence of events thus: I put my right foot down to get enough speed for a quick merge from standstill into oncoming traffic, no reaction from vehicle at all… then, with a flaring throttle, it will suddenly lurched into motion. Inconvenient at best, dangerous at worst.

The brakes are also very spongy and often slow to bite until really stomped.

The Tank 500’s driver-assist tech is too clunky and intrusive. I drive a lot of country roads and because those surfaces sometimes don’t have road markings at the side or a centreline, the Tank 500 was constantly sounding alerts or jerking the steering wheel to get me back into what it thought was the correct driving line on those country roads.

The adaptive cruise control is inconsistent. You’ll cruise along nicely until the system applies immediate heavy braking due to a speed sign that’s not applicable, or a car that’s not that close (to the side or in front).

Also, the driver monitor is annoying. It was forever telling me to have a break, or to keep my eyes on the road, or to focus on the road, or – and this is a direct quote from the system itself – “Beware of the road”.

I reckon GWM should ditch the Tank 500’s fancy start-up screen graphics and soundtrack and spend that money on sorting out the driver-assist tech so it operates more seamlessly and effectively.

However, the good news is the Tank 500 feels right at home when four-wheel driving.

On paper, it seems like it should be capable off-road. It has a Borg Warner dual-range transfer case, off-road driving modes and a rear lock. 

It checks out in terms of off-road measurements with approach, departure and rampover angles of 30, 24 and 22.5 degrees, respectively, 224mm ground clearance and a wading depth of 800mm.

And it mostly is rather capable, but there are a few issues here and there. 

The Tank 500 is built on a traditional platform, a body on ladder-frame chassis, and that's pretty much 4WD wagon personified right there.

It has all the mechanicals to go with that, as well as the added bonus of an electric motor which punches a bit more power and torque into this vehicle. 

There is plenty of torque across a decent spread of revs and, when off-roading, that transition between the electric motor and the petrol engine is generally pretty smooth. 

Driving modes and other off-road driver-assist tech on board the Tank 500 work pretty well, but the off-road traction control system could do with a bit of a recalibration as it’s not quite as precise as it is in some of the Tank 500’s natural rivals. 

Low-range gearing is good, engine braking is solid and the drive modes – adjusting engine outputs, transmission settings and more – all seem to work seamlessly well. 

There is plenty of other tech on-board, including a 360-degree camera, and an off-road set-up on the screen that shows you the vehicle’s pitch and roll, tyre pressures and other information.

In the past I have written off features such as the Tank 500’s transparent chassis function. I'd rather stick my head out the window and have a look, or stop the vehicle, get out and have a good look at the track ahead.

But the transparent chassis function is of some value, although you shouldn’t rely on it or any of the other tech. You still want to have a real-time, real-world view of the track heading to the sides. And the Tank 500 offers plenty of visibility.

There are a few other trade-offs in this 4WD’s make-up, though. The side steps look like they could easily be susceptible to damage while off-roading, although I managed to avoid grinding them on any rocks, and the standard tyres are on-road SUV tyres (made for reduced noise) and are less than satisfactory for 4WDing.

If you're planning to use the Tank 500 as your tow vehicle of choice, then it's handy to know that unbraked towing capacity is 750kg and braked towing capacity is 3000kg, which is under the 3500kg norm for this market segment.

The Nissan Pathfinder is a remarkably pleasant drive. It is smooth and quiet on the motorway, comfortable around town and talented on testing Australian country roads. 

Nissan has managed to nail the fundamentals including a well-weighted electronic power steering system, good ride comfort at high and low speeds and impressive body control for a high-set 2052kg vehicle that rides on passive dampers. 

The 18-inch alloys are wrapped in 255/60 Kumho Crugen HP71 tyres which are notably cushier than the Ti-L’s bigger 20-inch alloy wheels shod with 255/50 rubber. 

Being a car-based SUV, the Nissan Pathfinder is more comfortable and a sportier drive than more off-road focused vehicles such as the Ford Everest and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. It is not as dynamic as smaller seven seaters such as the Kia Sorento but is still secure and stable. 

There are seven drive modes in total, with three ('Sand', 'Mud' and 'Snow') dedicated to off-roading, a further trio ('Auto', 'Eco', 'Sport') for the tarmac and a dedicated 'Tow' mode. 

Along with adjusting steering weight and shift logic, the all-wheel drive Pathfinder adjusts the torque split settings. It can be a little slow to shift torque to the front wheels leading to chirping on fast getaways but it is mostly solid and a worthy $4500 investment over the new front-wheel drive only model. 

Visibility is not great with a high belt line and low-set driving position. With the third row's large headrests up it's hard to see out the rear window, too, so it can be difficult to judge kerbs and walls while parking. A standard 360-degree camera system helps in low-speed manoeuvring.

The Nissan Pathfinder received a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2022. 

It has a total of nine airbags including dual front, a front centre, side chest for first and second rows and curtain airbags covering all three rows, unlike some smaller rivals.

Active driver assistance systems include autonomous emergency braking (AEB) that can detect cars, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycles.

The AEB system functions front and rear and includes junction cross-traffic detection. Lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring and speed sign detection are also standard. Stability control and ABS systems intervene early and smoothly.

Going further than just having the systems, the Pathfinder’s integration is very good. The adaptive cruise control is smooth, the lane-trace assist is mostly good. They can all be easily disabled if you like, too.

The Tank 500 is covered by a seven-year/unlimited km warranty, and seven years capped price servicing. 

The Tank 500’s 1.76kWh battery has an eight year/unlimited km warranty.

Service intervals are scheduled for every 12 months/15,000km. Prices were not available at time of writing.

Nissan recommends the Pathfinder is serviced every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

You can pay-as-you-go ($2592) or up front ($2333) which saves $259 over five years ($518.40/$466.60 average per workshop visit).

Those service price options are closely aligned with the Hyundai Palisade ($2345) but Toyota’s $1325 Kluger offer remains unbeaten. 

A five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty covers all Nissan vehicles in Australia. It is now the standard with other marques, including Kia, MG and Mitsubishi pushing boundaries with longer seven and 10-year offers.