OK, I've had some more time to ponder the recent rental we had a brand new with 11 miles on it 2018 Nissan Armada Platinum SUV.
The initial impressions were very positive. It has a very luxurious feel to it and wowed all four adults in our vacation party. We had ample room for luggage for the 9 day trip we took to New Hampshire and Maine.
It's big, but not as big as the offerings from Ford and GM. Can't tell you anything about the 3rd row seats as we didn't use them. However, everyone was comfortable in the first two rows. Individual climate control for each front row passenger, not to mention the heated and cooled seats. The back has it's own settings as well. The HVAC had no issues keeping our dark blue SUV cool in the unseasonably warm spell experienced.
So in the positive column, the vehicle easily carried us and our luggage in quiet comfort, and apparently gets decent fuel economy for a vehicle of its size. I believe we averaged about 16 MPG over the course of 9 days and about 1400-1500 miles of driving. This seems to compare favorably with other vehicles in this class.
We drove it to the top of Mt Washington and no issues with either climbing or descending. The size of the vehicle made some portions of the drive nerve wracking. But nothing unmanageable.
There were a few negatives as well. First, I never enjoyed the camera based rear view mirror. While it eliminates the traditional blind spots back there, it also hides the true distance of vehicles behind you. Perhaps there is a way to turn it off and use a traditional mirror, but I didn't figure that out.
Second, the head unit was not intuitive at all. We fought with it on more than one occasion. Also, during the first day, it seemed to forget our settings. The HVAC would change temps after we shut off the car and the SAT radio would revert back to the demo station even though we paid for the service during our rental. After the first day, this problem did not return, so perhaps it was something to do with the newness of the vehicle or a low battery that eventually got a full charge after being driven. After the first day, the HVAC would remain at the temps set when the vehicle was shut down as did the SAT radio.
The final complaint I had was with the power delivery. The engine seemed to hunt for the right output during a steady cruise. There was certainly a sensation like someone was moving the throttle even though it was being held steady. I'm sure it's drive by wire, so either it's really sensitive to the throttle pedal where imperceptible to human movement of the pedal is detected by the PCM or it's making noticeable changes to the throttle plate.
Certainly not a deal breaker, but it was out of character with the otherwise smooth luxury experience.
I'm not sure I'd shell out $62k for one of these. But it was nice to get as a vacation rental and especially nice that our host was able to get it with points earned by renting. So our out of pocket costs were just the taxes and the SAT radio charges for the duration, and about $250 in gas give or take.
Apparently, these have a really good tow capacity, so I could think of worse ways to tow a trailer.
The initial impressions were very positive. It has a very luxurious feel to it and wowed all four adults in our vacation party. We had ample room for luggage for the 9 day trip we took to New Hampshire and Maine.
It's big, but not as big as the offerings from Ford and GM. Can't tell you anything about the 3rd row seats as we didn't use them. However, everyone was comfortable in the first two rows. Individual climate control for each front row passenger, not to mention the heated and cooled seats. The back has it's own settings as well. The HVAC had no issues keeping our dark blue SUV cool in the unseasonably warm spell experienced.
So in the positive column, the vehicle easily carried us and our luggage in quiet comfort, and apparently gets decent fuel economy for a vehicle of its size. I believe we averaged about 16 MPG over the course of 9 days and about 1400-1500 miles of driving. This seems to compare favorably with other vehicles in this class.
We drove it to the top of Mt Washington and no issues with either climbing or descending. The size of the vehicle made some portions of the drive nerve wracking. But nothing unmanageable.
There were a few negatives as well. First, I never enjoyed the camera based rear view mirror. While it eliminates the traditional blind spots back there, it also hides the true distance of vehicles behind you. Perhaps there is a way to turn it off and use a traditional mirror, but I didn't figure that out.
Second, the head unit was not intuitive at all. We fought with it on more than one occasion. Also, during the first day, it seemed to forget our settings. The HVAC would change temps after we shut off the car and the SAT radio would revert back to the demo station even though we paid for the service during our rental. After the first day, this problem did not return, so perhaps it was something to do with the newness of the vehicle or a low battery that eventually got a full charge after being driven. After the first day, the HVAC would remain at the temps set when the vehicle was shut down as did the SAT radio.
The final complaint I had was with the power delivery. The engine seemed to hunt for the right output during a steady cruise. There was certainly a sensation like someone was moving the throttle even though it was being held steady. I'm sure it's drive by wire, so either it's really sensitive to the throttle pedal where imperceptible to human movement of the pedal is detected by the PCM or it's making noticeable changes to the throttle plate.
Certainly not a deal breaker, but it was out of character with the otherwise smooth luxury experience.
I'm not sure I'd shell out $62k for one of these. But it was nice to get as a vacation rental and especially nice that our host was able to get it with points earned by renting. So our out of pocket costs were just the taxes and the SAT radio charges for the duration, and about $250 in gas give or take.
Apparently, these have a really good tow capacity, so I could think of worse ways to tow a trailer.
