2018 Mazda CX-9 vs Nissan Pathfinder

What's the difference?

The CX-9 is big – too big for my little family. Yep, a CX-5 SUV would be better suited to us. But, nobody’s ever complained about too much room, and our Touring fit all of our gear and performed well during its holiday week with us - easy to pilot through the city despite its size and effortless on the highway with excellent fuel economy over the whole trip. Sure, the ride became a bit ‘jiggly’ on the backroads and this grade doesn’t have adaptive cruise control, but the great points far outweigh those few drawbacks.

The Pathfinder’s recent raft of changes must have surely helped to push it closer to front of mind for some buyers seeking a solid, comfortable and safe seven-seater SUV for their families. 

Problem is, it’s a busy, highly competitive segment with numerous other appealing options on offer. 

The Pathfinder doesn’t so much set itself apart from the others, as it does its own thing really well – and Nissan is hoping more people will notice that. It’s not a serious off-roader by any means – neither are many of the current generation of city-biased SUVs – and it does cost a lot, but as a comfortable, family friendly work-and-weekend vehicle stacked with gear and safety tech, it’s difficult to totally disregard as a viable proposition.

What do you think of the 2018 Pathfinder – is it a decent Adventure mobile, or another same-samey SUV for the city? Tell us what you reckon in the comments below.

Could that be the world’s largest grille? Even by Mazda standards it’s big, but it suits the brand’s flagship SUV perfectly. Sure, the headlights seem a little too small for its face and the same can be said for the taillights and the rear of the car, but this is a stunning-looking SUV that has plenty of presence without going over the top.

Stepping up to the Touring grade gives that grille shiny teeth, too – chrome-look blades, while the Sport grade has black-coloured horizontal elements which look pretty ordinary. The Touring also has LED fog-lights.

How big is the CX-9? Seriously big – look at the dimensions: 5075mm end to end, 1969mm across and 1747mm tall. That’s longer than a Toyota LandCruiser Prado. Will it fit into your garage/parking space?

The Toyota Kluger is 210mm shorter at 4865mm long, a bit narrower at 1925mm wide and almost the same height at 1730mm tall.

Something smaller? Well the Kia Sorento is a 4780mm in length, 1890mm wide and 1690 high. Hyundai’s Santa Fe is 4700mm bumper to bumper and the Skoda Kodiaq is just a hair’s width less.

The Touring’s cabin is premium feeling with its leather upholstery and big display. This is a well-finished cockpit with a higher quality feel than all of its rivals except the Kodiaq.

You’d be forgiven for finding it difficult to tell any of the modern seven-seater SUVs apart, looks-wise, because their main purpose – moving families around – dictates their design. They have to be big, comfortable, roomy and functional, so their bulky looks perfectly reflect that.

Don’t get me wrong; the Pathie certainly has a real presence and it looks – and feels – big and commanding, but there’s nothing about its design – or any seven-seater’s for that matter – that will truly set hearts racing.

Still, it looks good to me. You might love it or you might not rate it; take a look at the accompanying shots and make up your own mind.

The CX-9 is a seven-seat SUV, and while its third row is one of the very few that even I (at 191cm tall) can sit almost comfortably in, those back two seats really are for kids or small adults.

Climbing into those third-row seats is easier now, with the second row able to tilt further forward and the seat itself is easier to slide and tilt, too. That's part of the 2018 update.

Legroom in the second row is excellent. I can sit behind my driving position with about 10cm to spare between my knees and the seat-back.

Storage throughout the cabin is well considered. The centre console storage bin with its double-door lid is big and the Touring has a fold down rear armrest with storage and USB ports - that'll keep the kids happy. There’s also six cupholders (two up front, two in the middle and another pair in the back) and bottle holders in all the doors.

The CX-9’s boot has an 810 litre (VDA) cargo capacity with the third row folded flat. The Kluger can only manage a luggage capacity of 529 litres.

I had thought that with only three of us the CX-9 was going to be way too big but - as you can see from my bad photos - we could have done with more boot space.

The CX-9 does have an elevated ride height – it’s ground clearance is 222mm, which is higher than most SUVs. My toddler is at the age where he wants to get in and out of a car on his own, but that height proved a challenge for him and we did have one spill where he took the quick way down.

The Ti’s interior has heaps of space and plenty of great tech and easy functionality for day-to-day life; from supportive and comfortable seating for front and second-row folks (the third-row is on the wrong side of hard and flat) to that tri-zone entertainment system, with head-rest screens and wireless headphones, as well as rear air vents.

The 8.0-inch touch-screen colour display up front is not the best in this segment but it works well enough.

There are storage spaces all-round, including glove box, sunglass case, large door recesses, 10 cup-holders, 12V power outlets (three in the front and one in the rear cargo area), as well as four cargo tie-down points and four luggage hooks.

The third row, with 50/50 split-fold reclining seats, is simple enough to access once you’ve slid the second-row 60/40 split-fold seats forward and out of the way on floor rails (using Nissan’s nifty 'EZ Flex' seating system).

As for cargo capacity, there is 453 litres (with second and third rows upright); 1354 litres (with second row upright and third row folded); and 2260 litres with the second and third rows folded flat.

The Ti has a motion-activated tailgate with position memory, handy for when you’re doing a Ninja parent move (i.e. carrying a baby, and sporting equipment, and leading a dog on a leash, while trying to get six bags of groceries in the boot, all without dropping anything).

We drove the Ti spec, which tops the three-model line-up above ST and ST-L. Price as tested for our vehicle was $72,923. 

The Ti comes with a lot of standard gear, including LED headlights with daytime running lights, heated and cooled front seats, heated door mirrors, black leather-accented seats and door trim, black leather-accented steering wheel and shift knob, 8.0-inch touchscreen colour display, tri-zone climate control, sunroofs, roof rails, 20-inch alloy wheels, a tri-zone entertainment system with wireless headphones, remote control, rear HDMI and USB ports for video playback, as well as a motion-activated tailgate with position memory and more. 

There is no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

There’s only one engine in the range – it’s a 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol and even though that’s small and the all-wheel drive CX-9 is pretty heavy at almost two tonnes its output of 170kW and 420Nm is more than enough grunt.

No manual gearboxes here – just a six-speed automatic transmission, but it’s a smooth shifter that is keen to be playful and responsive in Sport mode.

This Pathfinder has the line-up’s new 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine, which Nissan reckons produces more power (up from 190kW to 202kW at 6400rpm), more torque (up from 325Nm to 340Nm at 4800rpm) and reduced fuel consumption (down 0.2L/100km to 10.1L/100km) than the previous Pathfinder.

Its transmission is what Nissan calls an 'Xtronic Continuously Variable Transmission with D-step Logic Control'. It has seven programmed ratios and, in layman’s terms, this CVT is an improvement over previous versions.

This Ti is badged '4WD', and is described in Nissan’s official specs as having 'Intelligent 4x4 with Hill Descent Control'. It has also been described as an 'AWD'. Basically, the engine drives all four wheels through the CVT and the driver is also able to switch between drive modes – 2WD, Auto and a rear-diff Lock mode for low-speed (under 40km/h) off-road driving.

Mazda says the fuel consumption of the CX-9 all-wheel drive is 8.8L/100km after a mix of open and urban roads. On our little family holiday from inner Sydney to Jervis Bay and back we covered 600km and the trip metre was telling me it was using an average of 9.7L/100km. That’s within a litre of the serving suggestion which is excellent (especially for me).

We were 40 kilometres from Wollongong on the way home but the trip computer was telling me had 35km of fuel left in the tank. I made the mistake of announcing to everybody that we were going to see if we could make it, but then chickened out with five kilometres left in the tank and 10kms to go and ducked in to grab fuel. I didn’t want the family holiday to end on the side of the road.

The Pathfinder has a claimed fuel consumption of 10.1L/100km (combined). We recorded 12.8L/100km (city and highway driving); and 14.2L/100km (country back roads, gravel tracks and dirt roads).

It has a 73-litre fuel tank.

Adaptive cruise control is a brilliant thing, and once you’ve been let into the World of Tomorrow it’s a pain going back to regular cruise control – like on the Touring. Only the top spec Azami has adaptive cruise. First world problemos, as they say.

The CX-9's steering is excellent - light but with good feel even at low speeds in car parks. There’s a lot of good feels going on actually – the brakes and the pedals under your feet are placed well, the seats are comfortable as is every touch point – elbows, head rest, shifter.

There are also some not-so good feels – the ride was too often too ‘jiggly’, almost as though the car was oversprung. There were times on the trip where not-so-perfect roads equalled a ride that wasn’t composed with more bounce and roll than I’d expect – that type of thing works against you when you’re trying to get your toddler to sleep.

That engine also feels as though it has to work hard when it’s carrying a packed CX-9 up a steep hill – there’s plenty of power and it tore up every ‘mountain’ we encountered, but a new V6 or V8 would have done it without sounding like it was giving it everything.

Do you need all-wheel drive? It’s not vital, but the traction it provides is excellent. Front-wheel drive SUVs often struggle to get the power to the road in the wet, especially when climbing a hill. If I could afford the all-wheel drive I’d always get it – plus the mileage for both is almost the same in the CX-9 (0.4L/100km difference).

The CX-9 is happiest on the highway where it cruises effortlessly (with a comfy ride) and higher above mostly everybody else. The window sills were low enough for my toddler to see out, although the glass on the Touring grade doesn’t have a dark tint to shield against the sun.

A quiet, well insulated cabin made the trip down a fairly peaceful journey – apart from when everybody was screaming at each other, that is.

The Pathfinder is a big vehicle – 5042mm long (with a 2900mm wheelbase), 1960mm wide, 1768mm high – and it has a turning circle of 11.8m and a listed tare weight of 2070kg. 

Even though its steering is evenly weighted, the Nissan feels every bit of that bulk when you’re trying to manoeuvre it around town, through traffic or into a tight parking space. 

It is exactly during those urban-based driving scenarios that a driver aid such as Nissan’s 'Intelligent Around View Monitor with Moving Object Detection' comes in very handy. This system gives you a bird’s eye view of your vehicle’s position relative to everything else around it. Top stuff.

The Pathfinder has never been a lively drive – it’s adequate in every sense – but its new engine is a growling goer and at least this CVT doesn’t hold you back as other units tend to. 

For the driver, it is supremely comfortable with, among other things, power tilt/telescopic-adjustable steering column and seating adjustment and heating or cooling options. Head and legroom seems spacious enough, too.

Vision to the front, side or rear is clear and generous; the instrument panels are bright and easy to read.

Clearly this is a machine built for comfort not for speed, nor for spirited driving, so the Pathie’s suspension is more suited to open-road cruising than dirt-road tracks and fast, tight corners.

The Ti has front, front-side and side curtain SRS airbags, vehicle dynamic control with traction control system, tyre-pressure-monitoring system, two ISOFIX points (right and left) in second row, three top-tether points in the second row, a tether point in the third row, rear cross traffic alert, forward-collision warning, AEB, blind-spot warning, rear parking sensors, rear-view camera and that Around View monitor system.

The Pathfinder line-up has a maximum five-star ANCAP rating as a result of testing in October 2013.

The warranty for the CX-9 is a three-year, unlimited kilometre agreement. Servicing is recommended every 10,000km or 12 months and costs the same regardless of whether the CX-9 is an all-wheel drive or front wheel drive. Services are capped and alternate from $329 for the first service to $371 for the second all the way up to the fifth service.

The Pathfinder has a three year/100,000km warranty with roadside assist and capped-price servicing with scheduled visits every 12 months or 10,000km. Ti servicing will cost $991 for the first three years (or 30,000km) of ownership.